Schadenfreude, from German for “damage-joy,” means “delight in the misfortune of others.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Schadenfreude”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Camille from Dallas. How’s everybody doing?
We’re great, Camille.
How you doing?
I’m good, thank you.
What would you like to talk with us about?
So I teach at Seagullville Middle School in Dallas.
All right.
Oh, one of our people.
And we are looking at the word student Friday.
Okay. Do they want to say hi to everyone?
Say hello.
Hi!
Hi back!
That sounds like eighth graders to me.
Well, what do they want to know?
What task have they given you to talk to us about?
Well, I heard the word at an AP institute, and the word means taking pleasure in others’ misfortune.
Oh, that word.
Okay, okay.
So we’re reading Divergence, and, you know, they like it, and so we’re just looking at that word.
Okay.
Yeah, the word that you want there is schadenfreude.
The word is pronounced schadenfreude.
Say it again?
Schadenfreude.
Tell them to write this down.
It’s S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E.
Schadenfreude.
Okay, so we wrote the word, but it’s schaden.
Yeah, schaden.
It retains something of the German pronunciation.
And that E on the end is pronounced as a U.
So it’s a German word, and the E on the end is pronounced like U.
U.
Yeah, schadenfreude.
Freude.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I think that’s funny.
I agree with everything you want to say.
It’s actually kind of fun to say.
It’s got a nice dud-a-da about it.
It’s got a nice rhythm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And as you probably know, it means taking joy in the pain of others or something like that.
Literally, in German, it means something like damage joy or harm joy.
And the way you can remember…
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
It’s related to English words like the schaden part is related to the English word scathe, like a scathing review is really harsh.
-huh.
And the freude is like the English word frolic.
They come from the same root.
So schadenfreude is like scathing frolic almost.
You’re laughing at somebody or you’re taking joy in their pain.
Wow.
That’s a lot to teach in that word.
That’s the whole point of this show.
Yeah, and the point of your work, I guess.
Camille, best of luck with your teaching.
Say hello to the students for us, and thank you so much for calling.
Awesome. Thank you guys so very much.
Awesome program.
All right, take care. Bye-bye.
Keep up the good work, Camille.
Bye, class.
Bye-bye. That’s nice.
