Make Your Point > Archived Issues > WELTANSCHAUUNG

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"WELTANSCHAUUNG" Meaning: Your Weltanschauung is your specific view of the world (or your particular understanding of life). (It's German for "world perception.") Pronunciation: velt an SHOU oong Part of speech: Countable noun. (Countable nouns, like “bottle,” “piece,” and “decision,” are words for things that can be broken into exact units. You talk about “a bottle,” “three pieces,” and “many decisions.” Likewise, talk about one Weltanschauung or multiple Weltanschauungen.) Other forms: The plural is "Weltanschauungen." How to use it: We always capitalize this word even though it's a common noun. Why? In German, you capitalize all nouns, and "Weltanschauung" hasn't seen quite enough use in English to undergo the same relaxation of that rule as other German terms have. (That explains why we also still follow the German grammar and pluralize the word as "Weltanschauungen" instead of just "Weltanschauungs.") If you suspect your audience might not know this word, and if you doubt your context will make it clear, consider choosing instead the word "worldview" or a phrase like "philosophy of life." But if you're sure that the situation is appropriate for a somewhat fancy foreign term like this, then talk about a person's Weltanschauung or a group's Weltanschauung: "Ted's optimistic Weltanschauung," "her Weltanschauung is vastly different from mine," "he has a Weltanschauung that boggles me," "the Australian Weltanschauung," "the Weltanschauung of professional chess players," etc. You can speak more abstractly about the Weltanschauung of a place or time, also. And you can talk about endorsing, adopting, developing, seeking, opposing, invalidating, and rejecting a Weltanschauung. I admit to having a somewhat scientific (or, you might say, cold) Weltanschauung. If there's no compelling reason to believe something, then I don't. A dystopian novel like Divergent shows us what would happen if we narrow down our Weltanschauungen too much, placing ourselves in isolated categories like "Erudite" and "Dauntless." Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "Weltanschauung" means when you can explain it without saying "concept of the world" or "view of life." Think of someone who had a strong impact on your way of thinking, and fill in the blanks: "(Person's) (particular kind of) Weltanschauung made me rethink _____, and now I _____." Example: "Mom's self-determining Weltanschauung made me rethink a traditional teaching career, and now I teach students privately." Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game and quote below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Playing With Words: This month, we're playing New Word Order! It's a card game that I recently created; it involves figuring out the order in which certain words and phrases entered our language. I'll give you several words and/or phrases, and you'll use your knowledge of history, slang, technology, popular culture, fashion, psychology, etc. to put them into chronological order. I'll post the right answer to each question on the following day. If you like this game, you can download and print it to play with your family and friends. (It's free.) When you play New Word Order on hard mode with a group of friends, you make one big timeline together, which can get pretty long—and that makes it challenging to place new terms on it! For about the final third of this month, we’re building one big timeline. (And we’ll finish out the month—the 28th through the 30th— with three unique and highly challenging questions.) Yesterday's task was to add "Smokey Bear" to this timeline: Brainwashing, 1950 Inner child, 1955 Parallel parking, 1962 Pimped-out, 1988 Fauxhawk, 2000 Answer: Brainwashing, 1950 Inner child, 1955 Parallel parking, 1962 Smokey Bear, 1969 Pimped-out, 1988 Fauxhawk, 2000 Today, add this term to the timeline above: "body art." Special preview of next month's game: In December, we'll be sampling questions from Orijinz, an awesome series of games about the origins of words, phrases, and quotes. Click here or on the logo below if you want to go ahead and check them out! A Point Well Made: Laozi: “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” 1. The closest opposite of WELTANSCHAUUNG is A. IGNOMINY B. IGNORANCE C. IGNITION 2. I'm only calling your _____ into question, not your entire Weltanschauung. A. latest political statement B. mathematical prowess C. age Answers are below. To be a sponsor and send your own message to readers of this list, please contact Liesl at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each day for free by Mrs. Liesl Johnson, M.Ed., a word lover, learning enthusiast, and private tutor of reading and writing in the verdant little town of Hilo, Hawaii. For writing tips, online learning, essay guidance, and more, please visit www.HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: Word meanings presented here are expressed in plain language and are limited to common, useful applications only. Readers interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words are encouraged to check a dictionary. Likewise, word meanings, usage, and pronunciations are limited to American English; these elements may vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. A Exploring the archives: Today we're checking our our third word borrowed from German. Could you recall the other two? One starts with "z" and means "the spirit of the times," and the other starts with "w" and means "a strong desire to travel or explore." Those, and today's word, "Weltanschauung," came into English to satisfy our need to describe ideas precisely in a single word. Yes, you could just say "a particular understanding of the world" instead of "Weltanschauung," but the German adds flavor and concision.