Update in Words

It occurred to me this morning that I stopped including my "Word of the Day" feature on these blog entries. Don't worry--I'm not going to bore you here with all of the missed words, but I thought I'd just list a few to get started again. So:

sich vergewissern (fer'-geh-viss'-ern) - to assure oneself (sich = oneself); My contact teacher at the school where I'm teaching always wants to make sure that I'm "doing okay", i.e. not inundated with frantic teachers, nor twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do. I'm usually doing just fine, but she wants to make sure.

leiwand (lie'-vahnd) - top-notch; the Austrian equivalent of the German "geil"; used when something is "really super". The teachers at one of my fellow Fulbrighters' schools have forbid her to use the word "geil" around them. (She taught last year in Germany.) Instead, they insist she use the word leiwand at least once a day! What were we saying about Austrians believing they have better German than the Germans ...?

das Sprunggelenk (Shprung'-geh-lenk) - ankle - A friend of mine who used to run track recently sprained her ankle while doing (what else?) running. "No worries," she assured me, "I've sprained that ankle so many times and have torn all the ligaments that I can't possibly injure anything else." Sheesh! Crazy athletes.

eine Sicherung durchbrennen - to blow an electrical fuse; Yes, I've blown a fuse in the apartment already, but at least I know where the circuit breaker is now.

das Bemessungsbetriebskurzschlussausschaltvermögen - the capacity at which a circuit is rated. Oh, how I love German spelling ;-)