goer.org

« I'll Not Be Juggled With! | Main | Outrageous Lies »

Hero of Work

So things at work are kind of a drag recently. Fortunately for my morale, I did a little task (some editing) for one of my German colleagues last week, and he was so pleased, he made a certificate for me: "Held der Arbeit", which means, as best I can translate, "Hero of Work". I think this is one of the coolest things that's happened to me all year.

Now some of you running-dog capitalist lackeys might be wondering, "Hey! What's the deal with the hammer-and sickle?" Well, there's a story behind it, of course.

According to Stefan, my colleague (comrade!), back in East Germany they would award the title, "Held der Arbeit" to anyone who exemplified the socialist ideal. Someone who put in extra hours at the factory, promoted the state philosophy to friends and family, and so on. Now that communism is over, the younger generation still uses the term and passes it on to people who go that extra effort, but it is said "with a twinkle in the eye" as Stefan puts it.

So you see? Germans are just as hip and ironic and funny as we Americans. Maybe even more so. Wouldn't that be awful -- the one thing we pride ourselves in, and maybe the Germans have us beat. Anyone remember that Beck's beer commercial, with the bad German stand-up comedian? "Thank you, I'll be here all the week," he says, in a thick accent. The tagline was "Germans don't do comedy -- we do beer." Well, first of all, Beck's isn't very good beer. And second of all, the "humorless German" stereotype is totally unfair. In my limited travels, none of the Germans I've met have been dour and serious... they all have had great senses of humor.

And it's not just the Germans. All the English I've met -- they're hilarious. They have that dry, self-deprecating wit -- and they have always left us in the dust when it comes to wordplay. Italians -- definitely. An Italian professor I worked with during my ill-fated internship at Lawrence Berkeley kept me in stitches all summer (although our boss was an easy target.) I've even discovered that the Swiss are funny, at least a little bit.

Heck, I would like go so far as to say the entire European subcontinent is funny. Unfortunately I can't. The French? Not funny. Sad but true.

And that's The World According To Evan. Next time: Asia! Thank you, I'll be here all the week.

Posted by Evan Goer on Apr. 10, 2002 at 10:29 PM