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Wörter-boarding!! xD
I wonder if other countries take separating garbage so seriously. It seems like kind of a lot of work, but I guess it makes sense.
This is not my first time coming across humour based on German seriousness about garbage separating. It seems to be a cultural trope. Another country for which I have seen such references is Korea. I have never been there, but I used to watch a lot of Kdramas. (I am too busy with German for them now.)
Ohhhh, it’s not a lot of work, if you have the “infrastructure” for it. So two bins in the apartment plus extra room for glass and cardboard.
And then, in front of the house, separate containers.
It’s mainly a matter of getting used to it. I have trained myself to do it, because I find it’s very low effort and not doing it is just lazy.
Especially organic waste would be a “waste” to not separate because you can compost it, and I have a lot of organic waste because I cook a lot.
Now, when I am abroad in AirBnbs, I do feel bad when I don’t separate.
Once you’re used to it, it’s really no effort at all, and it actually makes you feel good, so it’s a net win, even just for you.
(I’m proving my Germanness here big time :D)
I have two Airbnbs and I ask my guest to recycle but hardly any do. I end up sorting out their garbage which becomes sehr intressant to see what is thrown out. Verbrecher some food that is thrown out: whole jars of peanut butter, jelly, perfectly good eggs, butter, loaves of bread, etc…..what waste!
I do feel bad about the kitchen scraps going to waste. Even the recycling, I’m not too sure if it actually gets recycled. There’s just one bin for everything and I’ve heard some not too small chunk of it ends up getting burned or whatever happens to regular garbage. I guess if there’s no recycling facility nearby that can handle it. Such a waste….
That’s a typical argument of people who don’t want to separate their trash though (not saying it’s you). They say “It’s all going to the same bin anyway.”
And yes, maybe some of it goes to the same bin some of the time and gets burned. But why would a country like Germany set up a system or recycling and separating trash, with different days for different trashvans to come, JUST to deceive the population into separating their trash? It makes ZERO sense.
I think there’s genuine effort to recycle on the part of communities and municipalities, so yeah… they “it goes to the same landfill” arguement… I get it, but I don’t think it’s generally valid.
BTW… I HATE it when I see people throwing plastic into the organic waste bin. Like… how dumb do you have to be. Throw it in the mix bin then.
And the people who don’t rip apart cardboard boxes… but that’s another story.
I think I’ve read rants on reddit about those exact things. Throw it in the wrong bin….jail. Don’t break down the boxes….believe it or not, jail. Anzeige ist raus!!!!!111!!
Ha, people can rant all they want. On the boxes, we all know what’s right and what’s not right. The only problem here is people’s laziness and egotism. Right now, I am storing three bags or paper waste in my apartment because some people in the building don’t bother breaking up their amazon packages. The bins are full and I cannot dispose of my waste, thanks to other people’s ignorance. Is that right? No! Sure, we could get an additional bin, pay for it. But we could also just at least fold the boxes :)
Oh and to add a bit more of trivia…
The trash containers and their emptying comes with fees that the house has to pay. And a serviced organic waste bin can be 5 times cheaper the price of a “mixed trash”, and guess what… the recycling bin (yellow) for plastic and metals is FREE.
Here’s the overview of pricing in Berlin from a couple of years ago:
So recycling actually saves you money.
Capitalism can be a beautiful thing.
Huh. That’s really interesting. The more I think about it, the more I wish the U.S. had something similar.
Rants about everyday things like this are one of my favorite things to read. Good source of vocabulary, usually amusing, and I learn something to boot (cultural or just general knowledge, whatever you want to call it).
Having stuff stacked up in the apartment bugs me too. I got hurt earlier this year and it was hard to take out the trash for a couple months, so it would pile up. I’m so happy to be able to take it out whenever I want again.
Great video – and the production is very well done. This sprach Fehler area is where I think “Dein Sprachcoach” totally excels. Ihre YouTube-Shorts sind wirklich toll und witzig – und man (naja, ich!) lernt daraus.
I haven’t checked her shorts, but her “long form” videos are grain of salt material. Sometimes, she just gives wrong usage advise or suggests synonyms that no one really uses. She’s not as bad as “Learn German Fast” but sometimes her not being a native speaker does show.
Great illustrations btw
I actually bought a couple of sets off of small artists from etsy this time that I am now puzzling together :)
cool – look forward to seeing some more.. : )
I thought the shortening of “Entschuldigung ” would be the reason the guy in the Supermarket got got. ‘Schuldigung is standard colloquial german then?
In Berlin, the lazy version is “schulljung”, but generally, I think the “t” is still there. “tschuldigung”. I never say the “en(t)”.
Well it doesn’t seem to warrant the Grammarpolizei nabbing him so i guess you are safe….
Actually the guys pronuciation of hier threw me – it sounded more like her to me. But it is hier right??
Also if i haven’t said it before an article on knall / knallen etc would be cool : )
edit, yeah i watched the video again with subtitles and it was ‘tschuldigung and hier. Sounded really like her to me though and i was puzzling if that could ctually make sense..
Ich schreie! Danke!
Ich liebe das! Sehr lustig und sehr deutsch :D
Grammar vs. Spelling is that like the new Alien vs. Predator? Police vs. Thieves?
Wait, what do you mean? They’re more like a tag team.
Die Beste! (Der, das??? Oh noooo)
Das :)
Ruf die Polizei an!
Hallo,
Thanks, this made me laugh… :)))
And left me with a question: can als wie be used in this type of sentence:
“Ich spreche besser als wie Kind” – maybe this is just wrong, but I seem to recall seeing something like this somewhere…
Bis Morgen!
The way you phrased it, it sounds a bit like immigrant German dialect because you skipped the article.
– Ich spreche besser als wie ein Kind.
This is “correct”, but do not use “als wie”. It sounds pretty shitty :D
It sounds shitty, but what I wanted to say was that I speak better than when I myself was a child, not then an actual child…
*than ;)
Oh, I see… that would be the following (get ready)
– Ich spreche besser als als Kind.
Yes, we do say that.
Ha ha ha ha. The warning was the perfect set up!