Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

Before I moved to Germany, when I was just contemplating the idea and wondering what it would be like to learn German, I went to wikipedia.org to read about the origins of the language. What I found was slightly disheartening…the English language is basically a dumbed down version of the German language.

My aunt, who took German in high school (damn, why didn’t I think of that!) just sent me an email saying that one of the funny things she remembers about German is how they put words together to form one gigantic word that describes an idea. This is something that Nico and I often laugh about, because he will ask me, “What’s the word in English for when you set up an ongoing automatic payment for a bill with your bank.” In German, this is “Einzugsermächtigung.” In a way, it’s fairly efficient. Don’t waste time using lots of words to explain something, just make one word. Okay, it’s a long word, but it’s still shorter than saying it in English.

Of course, this shows me that the German I am learning is pretty basic and probably makes me sound like a child. We have learned only one word (that I can remember) that is quite so long, which is Staatsangehörigkeit, which means nationality. Even though I feel pretty good at the speed with which I am picking up German, I know that I still have a long, long way to go. (I wonder what the German word is for that?)

PS The title is one of the longest words in German and means "Law on delegation of supervision duties for marking of cattle and labeling of beef."