Bizarre - or how to find a job in Germany?

[Alan]

Hi,

Some years ago using the word bizarre to describe something would have raised eyebrows because either people didn't know what it meant or if they did, they were surprised that you knew how to use it. Now it's broken out like a rash in the UK. A day doesn't go past without bizarre this and bizarre that cropping up all over the place. Funny how words are like a fashion accessory - here today and gone tomorrow. Bizarre or what?

Alan
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[Jamie (K)]

In the US, bizarre came into frequent use at the time of the hippies in the late 1960s, I think. It's been a very common word here ever since.

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi trendsetters,

Alan, i think you ought to involve the word "bizarre" into your range of language as a common word. I?m going to prepare my own dictionary for that. I only wonder when it is going to appear in Germany. Or did it already? I?ll keep my ears open next time.

greetings

Michael

[Jamie (K)]

[Conchita]

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi Jamie!

Yes, you?re right if you write that there is a German word "bizarr". So it?s not a word that had to be new created or imported. My understanding of "bizarr" is that it discribes things or situations which you cannot compare to normal criteria.
I lift up my hut (like Germans say) that you have taken the labour and looked especially into dict.leo.org. But I have understood Alan in that way that he meant people use the word "bizarre" like "cool" or "geil" as a fashion word. And to be honest I?ve understood your post the same way.

And please let me explain with this post, i like your critic as well as every else other that will come. I also like hilarious discussions and i won?t say no to impressions from abroad.
Let us all get brothers and sisters in spite of any differences so that there won?t ever be a war. Let us take our power to more important problems we have in the world.

greetings

Michael

[Torsten]

Hi, interesting dicussion. I remember there was that song my Harpo - Movie Star in which the word bizarre appears:

You feel like Steve McQueen
when you're driving in your car
and you think you look like James Bond
when you're smoking your cigar
it's so bizarre you think you are
a new kind of James Dean
but the only thing I've ever seen of you
was a commercial spot on the screen

Michael, thanks for joining our community. You have brought up an interesting point - the connection between language and the situation in the world. We could discuss the question as to what extend language influences world politics or how words can change the way a person thinks.
What is your opinion on this?

Regards
Torsten

PS: Yes, the word bizarr(e) exists in the German language but in the area where I live many people might pronounce it the same way like 'pizza' which could cause a lot of confusion so they'd rather avoid it .
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[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi conchita! Hi Torsten!

Nice to meet you here. Sorry for the late answer. In the afternoon i worked with my horse and later in the evening my wife and i went to a party.
Conchita, i think you found the best short description for the word bizarr(e)(o) with very strange. Please could you explain the meaning of "i.e." to me?
Torsten, i believe the refrain is : Movie star....movie star, you think you are a movie staaaar. A very nice song that had been famous when i was 12 or 13 years old! And not you have to thank me, i have to thank you for this wonderful site. It might be easy to jump onto a running train, harder is to create it and to keep it on the run.
Sorry, it?s half past two in the morning and i?m really tired now. I would enjoy to meet you later again.

greetings

Michael

[Torsten]

Hi Michael,

Your analogy with the train is very good, getting a train is always harder than keeping it running. I guess the same holds true for any activity that requires regular input. What about your hobbyhorse (that's supposed to be a pun - how and when did you start it?

Enjoy your Sunday.

Regards
Torsten
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[Conchita]

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi Torsten!

Have you got up yet! You seem to be a nightfighter!

Regarding the analogy with the train: "Mostly hard it must be if you use "to get" in getting a train like you do in getting a cold"
About the hobbyhorse: it?s really a hobby only, i?m not a profi! Eight years ago shortly after we have got able to rent a house in the country of the M?nsterland some friends of my wife infected us with this virus. That is like to be gotten by a train Either you step away from the railway or the train catches you. Now, we hadn?t been fast enough! So we we have a lot of work and salery with them, but it is a very good feeling when you have worked with your horse and the horse follows you after work satisfied and relaxed without been binded! That is what the Red Indian Ga-Wa-Ni Ponyboy means in his book "Horse, follow closely".
And it is like the English language, you will never come to an end.
Since i ?m infected i have experienced so much things and situations that i would be able to write a book about the bizarre ones only. By the way, perhaps a comic like Broesel?s "Werner or what" or "MAD" might be successful at a group of insiders
But now i have gossipped enough! Perhaps you can tell me what bizzare situations or things you have experienced?

greetings

Michael

[Torsten]

Hi Michael, thank you for sharing your stories with us, I'm sure other community members will relate their experiences too. In the meantime, could you please tell us how much time you spend with your horse? I suppose you keep her close by your house? What has changed for you since January 2006? You mentioned that you are a mechanical technician who worked as a constructor. I could imagine that you will be able to find a new job if you use all your potential. What do you think?

Regards
Torsten
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[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi Torsten!

Regarding the first sentence in your latest reply: because you ask me i hope you don?t think about me as a babbler! In this sense i thank you for requesting me! It helped me a lot at increasing my range of English.
But now i?ll go to answer your questions. You asked me a lot.
About my horse i?ll give you only short answers because in this reply i would prefer to write about my jobsearch.
The horse stands close to our house. So i have to do plenty of jobs around the horse and it takes me some time to carry through them daily. All in all, including the work with the horse, you can imagine that it takes nearly one and a half to two hours a day (minimum).
What about the jobsearch? It isn?t as easy as many people think! In opposition to earlier times there are 5 milions of unemployed people in Germany but not approximately so much jobs. That turns us into a bizarre situation:
Many of the employers are looking for an employee who matches exactly to the vacancy! But when anybody is beginning a new job he must get trained up on the new demands more or less everytime. For that mostly the employers won?t or cann?t spend time or money. So it seems like they are looking for a needle in a hayrick.
For me it means that i have to be that needle. So i have to look for jobofferings that match on my experiences nearly exact. That reduces the pool of jobofferings enormous but there are some kept left. Due to each of them i write an application, some of them i added one in English. I?m in connection with personal sharing firms and job dealing agencys too but how i told, it isn?t easy to find a new job nowadays.
There are so many demands which must match: for example to be approved in a special CAD-applikation out of a pool of i don?t know how much there are, or to be approved in English, often the age does matter and so on.
From a big row of applications i have had four interviews.
-at the first my days feeling was not well so i failed
-after two other interviews i have got the job but the firms didn?t know when they will need a new collaborator (not until now yet)
-actually i have had an interview last wednesday at an engineering office. It lasted about one and a half hour and had been very interesting. But i have been only one of four appliers, exactly the second. They promised to contact me this week on the phone and to share their decision to me.
I?m very excited to the reactions of some other applications which are not answered till now, parts of them are about 2 month old.
And now i?ll go on looking onto the jobb?rse of the workagency!
Please let me know if you have some ideas what i could be doing better! What do you think? Should i better not have applied in English?

Thanks for giving the chance to write about this trouble!

Michael

P.S.: Conchita, i forgot to thank you for your explanation regarding i.e. I do that with this reply and hope you read this!

[Torsten]

Hi Michael,

Thanks again for taking the time to share your situation with us. When you write down your ideas, your thinking becomes clearer and you allow others to put themselves into your shoes. As you said, the official number of unemployed people in Germany is around 5 million and if more of them started to exchange their experiences we could create additional jobs.

So, you are actively engaged in the job hunting process and there are a few things in the pipeline. In addition to your current job applications we can start our own little training course. The purpose is to come up with possible solutions for your situation. As you said, although the unemployment rate might be high, there is a job out there that fits exactly our profile. The challenge is to find that job - or even better: to change your thinking process in such a way that actually will trigger the job 'to find you'.

Let's take a look at what we need. First, it might a good idea for you to tell us what exactly you are missing in your current situation or rather: what exactly do you want? This might sound silly but it's not. Take some time to find out what you really want. Why are you writing all those applications? Why do you want a new job? Again, you might think that the answer to that question should obviously be 'because I have to earn a living'.

However, you probably have other reasons too. So, please share them with us and I'll tell you what the next step in our job hunting training program is.

Regards
Torsten
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[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi Torsten!

Sorry Torsten, but i think this is the moment to have a short cut. Like i wrote, i loved your provocations and in the sense to improve my range of English i accepted and answered to your questions and requests but now i reached my limits for the moment. Far away from the imagination that anybody would follow this topic i have the feeling to become inquisited. You ?ve never been ready to tell me or us which bizarre story you?ve experienced and now you change the headline of this topic?
Sorry again, i?m in the age of 47 and yes, i asked you for an idea how to make my jobsearch more effectiv but i didn?t calculate that you could try to give me lessons in how to life. And i?m not ready to hear advices from people who are as strange ( i?m sorry to say bizarre..remembering Conchitas explanation) as you are at this moment to me.
Yes, i think it might be an interesting theme for a new topic if people from Germany would be involved. I also think that people from other countrys will have different problems.
Thank you, in spite of this latest reply from me, it was nice till this moment and i would like to discuss with you again!

greetings

Michael