Among those delightful German words that have no direct translation to English, but should, is schadenfreude. Schaden: to harm or hurt, freude: joy or pleasure. In other words, to delight at someone else's misfortune. Go ahead, pretend you're horrified that such a word exists. I'll wait.
I take it by now that, unless you're in line to be the next Mother Teresa, you've realized that you partake in schadenfreude just as much as the next person. But there's no shame in it; we all do it. I'll bet it's even healthy to some degree. It was made famous in America a few years ago by a musical that, among other things, extolls the virtues of racism and porn (and is very NSFW). But I'd never heard it in common conversation, until today.
Driving home from school, my host mother and I chit-chatted about the usual: the weather, the school day, the weekend, her trip to the vet with her pet turtles (don't ask). Then, during a pause in the conversation, I chuckled darkly. "I heard something funny yesterday," I said. I proceeded to tell her about someone I'm not particularly fond of, someone who had something, not terrible, but not exactly ideal, happen to them. (For the sake of reputations, I'll leave the person and the story itself out of it.)
"It seems fitting," I said, and laughed. My host mother laughed even harder than I did. "Du bist schadenfroh," she said.
"Is that like Schadenfreude?" I asked, delighted. Indeed it was--just the adjective form. That made my day.
You can deny that you're schadenfroh from time to time; it's not exactly the nicest emotion in the world. But I'm here to argue that it's not the worst either, especially if you're only a spectator and not the perpetrator. After all, how many times do we say, karma's a bitch, or, they had that coming to them? Same concept. If someone has wronged you, you feel just a little bit lighter when he or she in turn is wronged.
Also, schadenfreude is just a fantastic word. Go forth, and practice Schadenfreude without guilt--but, quietly.
I take it by now that, unless you're in line to be the next Mother Teresa, you've realized that you partake in schadenfreude just as much as the next person. But there's no shame in it; we all do it. I'll bet it's even healthy to some degree. It was made famous in America a few years ago by a musical that, among other things, extolls the virtues of racism and porn (and is very NSFW). But I'd never heard it in common conversation, until today.
Driving home from school, my host mother and I chit-chatted about the usual: the weather, the school day, the weekend, her trip to the vet with her pet turtles (don't ask). Then, during a pause in the conversation, I chuckled darkly. "I heard something funny yesterday," I said. I proceeded to tell her about someone I'm not particularly fond of, someone who had something, not terrible, but not exactly ideal, happen to them. (For the sake of reputations, I'll leave the person and the story itself out of it.)
"It seems fitting," I said, and laughed. My host mother laughed even harder than I did. "Du bist schadenfroh," she said.
"Is that like Schadenfreude?" I asked, delighted. Indeed it was--just the adjective form. That made my day.
You can deny that you're schadenfroh from time to time; it's not exactly the nicest emotion in the world. But I'm here to argue that it's not the worst either, especially if you're only a spectator and not the perpetrator. After all, how many times do we say, karma's a bitch, or, they had that coming to them? Same concept. If someone has wronged you, you feel just a little bit lighter when he or she in turn is wronged.
Also, schadenfreude is just a fantastic word. Go forth, and practice Schadenfreude without guilt--but, quietly.
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