Schadenfreude

Schadefreude. Of course it would be the Germans that came up with a word that describes that moment when we feel a certainly glee at someone else's misfortunes. German's seem to enjoy creating new words for practically everything. I once spoke to an acquaintance who happens to be from Germany and she said they sit around coming up with the longest words. I never study German so I truly am in the dark but apparently new words are created by combining a word with another word.

You don't see people in the United States of America playing with words. I mean, when was the last time you had a friend say, "Come on by so we can think up new words." We don't view language building as a recreational activity.

Of course there are those out there who are avid Scrabble players or even Boggle. But these games don't invite us to make new words up. Otherwise I would have won many Scrabble games in the past. I often had definitions for those words I made up but no one in the cut throat games of Scrabble supported my attempts at language building.

While I was in college I sort of minored in linguistics. It was in these classes that I learned that we are at risk of our language dying. Everytime we utter a cliche, it is another nail in the coffin of English. Okay. I admit that I haven't studied linguistics in quite sometime but I remember hearing that. I thought, "How in the world could the language I speak die?" It was an awesome thought. But this morning while talking with a co-worker we discussed just how much the language has changed. I mean he didn't even know that pimping has totally different conotations than when he was younger. What about the thongs we use to wear? Folks, they went on the feet not the derriere.

So, when, where will it all end? I don't know but how I've been feeling lately, I just pray that I'm dead and gone before it comes.