FIFA-related. What's a German word or expression for...

May 28, 2015 11:08 AM

FIFA-related. What's a German word or expression for... Sticking your head in the sand? Denial? Refusing to acknowledge events by discussing other things? Danke.
posted by wensink to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

Try here and here.
posted by gorcha at 11:36 AM on May 28, 2015

Thanks very much. Those are cool tools but perhaps a bit literal. Any Swiss MeFites out there who can helfen mich?
posted by wensink at 11:41 AM on May 28, 2015

Sticking your head in the sand is an expression we also use in (Austrian) German: den Kopf in den Sand stecken. You might want to also post your question here and ask for a specific Swiss German expression.
posted by 15L06 at 12:18 PM on May 28, 2015

This article calls Blatter a "Grossmeister der Verdrängung" - a Grand Master of Denial.

Another attests him "Realitätsverlust" - literally loss of the sense of reality
posted by 15L06 at 12:24 PM on May 28, 2015

Thanks! Despite the sexy umlauts, I may go with Wirklichkeitsverweigerung (denial of reality) mostly because I dig the Deutscher compound nouns.
posted by wensink at 12:29 PM on May 28, 2015

Verweigerung is more typically something like 'categorical refusal.'

Assuming that you want to strew in some German in an otherwise English text for spice? Maybe post the sample so we can breathe down your grammatical neck. I say this cuz "helfen mich" ought to be "mir helfen."
posted by Namlit at 1:35 PM on May 28, 2015

Wirklichkeitsverleugnung?

Used in this article about the European Central Bank hiding behind their economic dogmas and refusing to face economic reality. Begins:

Wirklichkeitsverleugnung der Europäischen Zentralbank wird offensichtlich

Bei der allmonatlichen Pressekonferenz des Präsidenten der Europäischen Zentralbank, Jean-Claude Trichet, in Frankfurt wurde offensichtlich, wie sehr sich die Banker der EZB hinter ihren starren, monetaristischen Glaubenssätzen verbarrikadieren und jeglichen Bezug zur Realitätdes kollabierenden Finanz- und Wirtschaftssystems verloren haben.

( = something like: The European Central Bank's denial of reality becomes evident. At the monthly press conference of the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, in Frankfurt it became evident how very much the bankers of the ECB barricade themselves behind their rigid monetaristic articles of faith and have lost every relation to the reality of the collaborative economic and financial system.)
posted by bertran at 1:51 PM on May 28, 2015

All of those that have to do with ostriches in gorcha's first link are pretty good. "Vogel-Strauß-Politik" (or with no hyphens, Vogelstraußpolitik) -- "Ostrich policy" -- is used fairly often.
posted by dhens at 3:53 PM on May 28, 2015

Linguee works by comparing text on pages available in multiple languages, so it's normally pretty good (and non-literal).
posted by gorcha at 1:40 AM on May 29, 2015