Happiness -- What does it Mean to You?

It's time for WGT to come out of hibernation! A couple of brain waves kept me awake last night and I'm all excited about two new projects. Here's the first:

I want to explore what makes you guys happy, dear readers from different countries. All you talented scribes from all over the world, give us your views on HAPPINESS! (apart from book sales...:) But I can't do it without you!

How do you define HAPPINESS? Can you decide to be HAPPY?

You surely heard of the World Happiness Report conducted annually by CNN? According to that statistic, in 2017, the happiest countries were:
Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Iceland. 

Do you think your country comes into the equation? Let's hear YOU speak, not statistics.

Fellow-writers, bloggers, philosophers, psychologists...and fellow human beings who are going through this school of life, tell us about your impressions and beliefs on happiness. Tell us what makes you happy.

Why does this topic mesmerize me?  When we first moved to Ireland, Irish people asked us whether we were happy in our new home, the old farmhouse. For a German of my generation, it was absolutely unheard of to ask strangers whether they were happy. It felt intrusive, inconsiderate, prying to say the least. And for me, this question came at a time when I had just been "emigrated" to a country against my will and I found it hard to adjust.

Ever since then, I've been checking back in with my happiness barometer where I am on the scale of 1-10.

Is happiness too personal a matter/question for you too or will people know when you are you bubbling over with joy and happiness?

Let us know!  

How far will your English get you?

        A trip across continents lets you experience firsthand how the world keeps moving closer             together language wise --or how far your English will get with you!

The attempt at creating a universal language, Esperanto, that can easily be learned by all the people of the world failed decades ago. English established itself as the communication medium of the world.  

Whenever I visit my home country I see more and more English expressions creeping into my native language. (French has the Academie Francaise who actively works to prevent Anglicanism/Americanisms gaining too much leverage in French).

In German, food related English expressions (burgers, fast food) and IT related terms (computer) were the first to make their way into the language many years ago. (The poor French still have to deal with an ordinateur; no computer for them)!

One of the first technical terms adopted into German was the word Handy; its origin is uncertain. Obviously you always have it with you, in your hand and it’s handy. What is it? It’s a cell or mobile phone. Why was that descriptive term not transferred into the English language?

American culture has long influenced the world. The music scene gave us Germans loan words that are firmly established in our native tongue now: e.g.: pop stars, love parade, pop festival.  World globalization did the rest to anglicize my native language.

 

When traveling in Germany you'll find that most people speak English to some degree. Since my childhood days learning English has been compulsory for school children as of 10 years of age. Recently that law was changed so that you now have the choice of starting at six. Therefore most people have the basics or a solid grounding even if they lack practice.

Although there are German equivalents, Germans speak of something being cool, a loser, junkies, car rental, and even more complex word combinations like Offshore wind parks or MMA :Mixed martial arts fighting challenge.

What if it was the other way round? You're safe! Only few German words made it into English:

Wunderkind, Kindergarten, Sitzbad(th), Realpolitik, Gestalt, maybe Hausfrau? I came across Kaffeeklatsch when I lived in Dublin. Then there are some tainted ones like Lebensraum or Blitz that hang around. And then there is  Zeitgeist.

Several years back, under a previous administration I felt the time was right to introduce another word into the English domain: Volksverdummung. It means “deliberate deception of the public.” (See my Ezinearticle).

Alas, it never took off.

You native English speakers were lucky: Long before I ever came to the US, I heard the story of how, a long, long time ago, the US voted on an official language. In events packed with drama, opinions were split between English and German. It all came down to the final vote: English won- by a single vote, because one German-favoring guy was sitting on the toilet.

 
Gripping as this story may be, it is not exactly true. The Legendary English-Only Vote of 1795 in which German almost became the official language of the US is an Urban Legend.

I consider myself lucky that the Chinese language hasn’t taken over world domination in spite of China having many more speakers than all English speakers on the planet combined and that I can still happily struggle trying to master my English!

Siggy Buckley 
www.Intrepidhomeswappers.blogspot.com

Happy Labor Day! Still traveling in Germany & technically challenged in the hills of the  Black Forest. I'll try to run the site from here during the remainder of my stay though the Internet connection via data stick here in the sticks in southern Germany is a hilly challenge.
I want to take this opportunity to give a big public thank you to my Internet friend and  fellow writer Scott Bury. Not only did he jump to my rescue but outdid me by far with his exceptional skills editing, tweeting and revamping the site. That plus his own contacts thrown in made WGT go from strength to strength.For me it has been an inspiring experience.
So feel free, all you readers and writers to keep up the momentum. We need you! Happy writing and good luck on your new endeavors, Scott! Don't be a stranger!

Are we forever dreaming of Utopia?

 

To be honest, all things considered, I would say that the last three or four decades in western and northern European countries, in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and a few other territories were as close to old dreams of "Utopia" as any place could possibly be. Same was true for most folks in the US between the 60s and nineties. Unfortunately the improvement does not continue forever, certainly not when it requires perpetual economic growth. Complex systems feature overshoot and downfall. Resonance catastrophe and collapse. That's, quite simply, a fact. And ignoring "Late lessons form Early warnings (the title of an enlightening EU Report) is, well, silly. Warnings come before visions. And as Michio Kaku informed me (not that it was new to me) when I once interviewed him: "Humans only move under the impression of great shock. That's our nature." In other words: we are stupid. We just love to hold on to the cozy status quo. Lack of visions? There seem to be plenty of them. But how realistic are they? How realistic can a single vision be for a complex world of 7+ billion that has entered the anthropocene? Marx attempted one such vision and it already collapses because it seemingly applies to another planet with another dominating species - certainly NOT for really existing humans of our time. Freeman Dyson warned that any system that is to work has to assume that all humans are crooks. I'd say potential crooks. Only 5 or 10% really are crooks (5% fully fledged psychopaths). The remainder are merely lazy, a bit greedy, mainly concerned about feeling good and having things and impressing their neighbors and a hell of a lot of people devoutly believe in things and ideas that, quite simply don't exist (and some of them get so infuriated about those non-existing things that they even go about and KILL each other!). Any uniting vision for this bunch please? Many attempts were made. Some of them resulted in wide spread belief in things that don't exist...and the aforementioned related fighting and killing.                      

Stefan Thiesen is a Germany, UK and USA educated earth and space scientist and science writer. He is an expert in marine science, climatology and planetary sciences, author of several popular science books in German and English as well as a novel. (See the current Pick Six).
Published before on 11 Jan, 2013 on http://worldblues.blogspot.co.uk/