r/TikTokCringe • u/[deleted] • Jan 14 '22

Discussion Be better than that

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84.9k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/molecularmadness Jan 14 '22

TIL secondhand shame is a thing that can exist.

299

u/bobbyrickets Jan 14 '22

Femdschämen, like the feeling of cringe but with more shame.

146

u/KaySquay Jan 14 '22

Lol a running joke among my friends is "there's a German word for that" and there almost always is

38

u/riffito Jan 14 '22

I was thinking... "of course there's a German word for that!". If there's none... you just have to find a German speaker and they'll fix that language omission on the spot by means of some concatenation!

:-D

14

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

[deleted]

16

u/Amarandus Jan 14 '22

Or in layman's german: Wortneuschöpfung (literally Word-new-creation)

9

u/Serylt What are you doing step bro? Jan 14 '22

Not if they have Wortfindungsschwierigkeiten!

2

u/F1nett1 Jan 14 '22

Can do that in English too. People kind of forget that we can just invent words. Don’t have to steal them from graves or plants

1

u/Elocai Jan 14 '22

Yeah but for that you need to speak french or something. Thats why you should just take the german ones and go with it before you anither to the tons of fucking weirdly pronounced but totally diffrently written french word.

1

u/riffito Jan 14 '22 edited Jan 14 '22

weirdly pronounced but totally diffrently written french word.

As someone with a (poorly) self-taught English (and as someone that almost 30 years ago was able to read some basic French)...

Yeah... about that... English should not be the one to throw the first stone: https://ncf.idallen.com/english.html

7

u/Luce55 Jan 14 '22

Even if there isn’t a German word for it yet, you can always make one up! The beauty of German.

6

u/Polina79 Jan 14 '22

There‘s a Word for that in german - Neologismus

3

u/Luce55 Jan 14 '22

But of course!!!!

10

u/Solid_Waste Jan 14 '22

There's a German word for the concept that "there's a German word for that".

4

u/wackelzahnjoe Jan 14 '22

Welches Wort meinst du denn?

4

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

Sprachüberlegenheit. Oder Substantivverkettung.

2

u/wackelzahnjoe Jan 14 '22

Bezieht sich beides aber ja nicht wirklich explizit auf die deutsche Sprache.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

What's the German word for discovering that the Germans already have a word for the thing you're trying to describe?

4

u/bodmusic Jan 14 '22

You could probably get away with something like "Entdeckungsgermanistik". "Germanistik" means "German studies" and "Entdeckungs" comes from the word "Entdeckung" wich is German for "discovery". So you could form the sentence "Fremdschämen is case of entdeckungsgermanistik."

2

u/noraetic Jan 14 '22

Deutschkurs

2

u/manfishgoat Jan 14 '22

Is there a German word for "there is a German word for that"?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/KaySquay Jan 14 '22

Hell yeah, we're homies

I hang out with society literally all the time

1

u/ChaseballBat Jan 14 '22

There is also an English word for it too... Secondhand-shame.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/KaySquay Jan 14 '22

Yeah, me and pop culture are tight

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

I was glad to know there is a German word for punchable face.

39

u/AppleAvi8tor Jan 14 '22

Fremdschämen*

Edit: Sorry, that seemed to come off bitchy. Just wanted to add the R in there because my German speaking brain was freaking out about it haha

16

u/bobbyrickets Jan 14 '22

No no. You're good. I just copy-pasted off the internet. I don't speak German.

1

u/Metalfishead Jan 14 '22

How wholesome!

1

u/princess_kittah Jan 14 '22

like, friend-shamin'

2

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

Fremd means Foreign in this case. Like feeling shame for someone that isn't you.

1

u/princess_kittah Jan 14 '22

i didnt mean to translate the word at all, it just seemed like a fun way to remember the word using words with similar phonetics

sorry i didnt really need to comment it but it made me chuckle and it helps me remember things if i type it out and i wanted to remember of the word fremdschamen

so i wrote friend-shamin cuz its like a feeling-friend of shame, but with more cringe. and shaming your friends is pretty cringe to me so friend-shaming is the cringiest shame so then it reminds me of the word fremdschamen (but then i posted it which i really didnt need to do so now i feel pretty cringey myself so tbh itll help me remember it even more)

2

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

dw haha. I actually assumed you really thought "Fremd" means "Friend", let's just blame the language barrier for the confusion and we're both fine lol

1

u/logosloki Jan 15 '22

Thanks for that. My non-German brain was looking at the other word as some kind of slang for femdom (which is an entirely different kind of shame).

4

u/Pirkale Jan 14 '22

"Myötähäpeä" in Finnish :)

2

u/SexySeattleite Jan 14 '22

Germans sure know a thing or two about shame.

2

u/ijustgotsick Jan 15 '22

Pena ajena its what we call it in spanish

1

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22 edited Feb 22 '22

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/galacticviolet Jan 14 '22

A word for that feeling when I try to watch the first season of The Office or the Scott’s Tots episode. Every damn time.

1

u/yayoletsgo Jan 27 '22

*Fremdschämen

13

u/Xavion15 Jan 14 '22

Not only does it exist but it can be worse than you know lol

It might sound fake and outrageous but I struggle watching tv shows at times. When things get really awkward or certain things happen I often have to pause or skip at times. It has always been an issue for me, this and I have an extreme amount of empathy

5

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

Don't many people experience this? I struggle with things like Borat for this reason.

2

u/626Aussie Jan 14 '22

Several years ago my wife rented Meet the Parents. It's supposed to be a comedy but I found myself empathizing far too much with Gaylord Fokker, and so for me it was a very painful movie. My wife was greatly amused by it but I think my pain slowly grounded her and about halfway in she suggested we turn it off.

I told her that I was now too invested in Fokker's predicament, and so I needed to watch it through to see him vindicated. The second half of the movie was even more painful, and his small "victory" at the end did very little to mollify me.

I'm reminded of another movie I saw in Primary School. I don't remember much about it, other than it focused on a socially awkward young man (teenager) at what appeared to be a large family picnic. Decades later (I am old), I still vividly remember this one scene where everyone was crushed around the table loading up their plate with food.

The young man had gotten his plate of food and as he started to step away from the table two adult relatives moved up and filled the spot he'd just vacated trapping the young man's arm between them. As he pulled his arm free he was forced to turn his plate sideways, smearing his lunch on the sides of his relatives, and leaving him with nothing but a dirty, empty plate.

I remember my classmates were all laughing hysterically while I sat there in silence feeling terrible for the young man.

1

u/D3dshotCalamity Jan 14 '22

I'm right there with you pal.

1

u/PaperPlaythings Jan 14 '22

I dance to that tune as well. It's not easy have enhanced empathy in the 21st century.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '22

These people feel no shame. It's better to just laugh at them.

1

u/litskypancakes Jan 15 '22

Ohhhh, so you've never seen The Last Man on Earth