Name: Abigail M. Schilling
Make that three languages I suck at
Just in case you weren't sure, I am getting an education. How do I know, you ask? We speak German.
Yesterday in class we kept talking about zeitgeist. Translation: the spirit of the age. Pronunciation: ZITE-guyst. Meaning: whatever the hot philosophical trend is right now.
People were throwing the term around left and right: " blah blah blah ... which is a zeitgeist." "And I mean, that's just a zeitgeist." "What really is the spirit of this age?" "Is the zeitgeist different now than then?"
It's like we don't even need translators anymore because we're so brilliant.
We have name tags because we can't learn each others' names but GERMAN, well German is necessary for our understanding of the text.
Guess what my zeitgeist is? Graduating. Yup, the spirit of my age (and we all know the world revolves around me) is graduating and that means I really don't care if the giant was just an illusion or if he was really striving for the island ... or the idea of the island. I probably should care because APPARENTLY the giant is the embodiment of the zeitgeist. Who knew?
Lauren passed me a note. It said, "you know those days when everything you say makes you think 'Why did I just say that?'" because every time she said something every one kinda looked around glassy-eyed like she was a crazy person.
I, personally, thought her naked jokes were funny.
I told it was because she didn't say zeitgeist.
P.S. The blogger spell check knows how to spell zeitgeist but doesn't know what the word blog is. Is the whole world out to get me?
posted by Abigail at 12:56 PM
12 Comments:
Just so that the internet knows, my naked jokes were funny.
I am SO misunderstood.
I think this is my favorite post of all time on your blog. I feel like it was written in one of your moments of desperation in which you're at home, checking emails and blogs, eating lunch, doing laundry, reading pearceface, and five minutes late for work. And that made it all the more funny.
Okay, so I'm going to sacrifice some pride right now. What is zeitgeist? Will it make my teeth whiter, organize all my papers or make ants go away? If not, maybe I don't want to know the meaning of yet another word I can't spell.
If I use it as the pretext for not writing a paper in my Psych class - after all, the zeitgeist is fleeting why bother exercising my mind in attempt to understand it... do ya think I'll get an "A"?
Oh, and btw, I think we can invent a code using the word verfication vocabulary! fsibeok!
I'm sorry, Heather, did you say doing laundry?
Lauren, you are misunderstood.
Sal, that's a good idea. I think I'll try that too. Oh, and Ckevrdm!
The first time I heard the word "zeitgeist," it was in an article about Madonna on Salon.com. It said something about how she knows better than anyone how to "ride the cultural zeitgeist." At the time I imagined it must look something like a shooting star (with Madonna, donning a cowboy hat waving a lasso overheard, riding atop it).
That's what zeitgeist means to me.
Even Google is out to get you:
Google Zeitgeist
Just so you know, I had the same thought when Heather referred to "doing laundry", but thought it redundant to continue harping on the issue...
And Shepherd - you have provided a visual that pretty much says it all. The tenuous fabric of our society is woven with threads of Madonna like zeitgeists... Lucky for us God is still in control!
nnjpoik (my Russian word verfication_
Okay you guys... I think I deserve a prize... I just used "zeitgeist" in an unrelated class paper on Ethics and Values. ;)
"mjltoau" - Samoan?
She's doing laundry RIGHT NOW. gosh.
(token friends reference: ALL NIGHT LAUNDRY)
Visitors welcome? Hope so, as I wandered upon this blog via a link on a friend’s blog. I had the urge to comment because I have a funny account of telling “naked stories” in class. At some point in a discussion on Dante, the topic drifted to Florence, Renaissance art, etc. etc. Someone was rhapsodizing about the David, and I was all, “Why does everyone make a big deal about the David? It’s just a big naked marble man!” (Well, it is.) I was met, predictably, with glassy stares. Equally predictably, I didn’t know when to shut up. “And it’s false advertising. It doesn’t even actually depict David. He’s not Jewish!” At that point I did stop, having realized (1) where this might lead, and (2) that I didn’t want to have to explain about how you could tell Jew from Greek, so to speak, in statuary. God forbid I should deflower the awareness of some homeschooled denizen of decency.
Obviously, though, there is much to be learned from nakedness.
Visitors are welcome as long as you don't use words like denizen anymore.
And that is a really funny story.
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