Old Europe breaking up again?
Airbus has a Problemchen (little problem). But first I want to talk about Chen and Lein.
No, Chen and Lein aren’t popular Chinese food dishes here in Germany. These are diminutive little diminutive word endings. The suffixes –chen and –lein are placed on nouns to indicate someone or something small or endearing. You know, like how we say munchkin whenever we refer to a small munch. They’re crazy about these diminutives over here, too. Despite the fact the Germans themselves are often quite big and scary-looking, many of them being well over eight feet in height. Maybe that’s why they like diminutives so much.
Anyway, one often hears them referring to their Häuschen (little house) and their Hündchen (little dog) who has a Frauchen (female master) and always gets the rest of her Würschten (little sausage) after she and her husband have had their Käffchen (coffee). Well, at least I’m always hearing conversations like this. And I could have interchanged the –lein with the –chen on most of these, by the way. Nobody would have batted an eye. And if you happen to be from a more “quaint” region of Germany, like someplace called Bavaria for instance, you will often hear the diminutives –l or –erl instead. A Bisschen (a little bit as in a little bite) is actually a Bissl there, for example. And a Mädchen is a Mädl there, too. But only during the week, I think.
So why am I telling you all of this? I’ve completely forgotten. No, now I have it again. Airbus has a Problemchen. Not only are Old Europe bosom buddies France and Germany currently at each other’s throats over EADS’ inability to spit out the miraculous “Power8” Airbus restructuring plan (which it obviously doesn’t have yet), German Airbus stockholders are so pissed off at the moment that they are actually considering the feasibility of breaking up the company’s current structure – or lack of it.
“The money supposed to be saved by Power8 is crucial to the survival of Airbus. With its cash flow languishing (undelivered 380s bring in no cash), and its cost structure inflated by the high value of the euro relative to the dollar, the company urgently needs the savings in order to have the funds necessary to develop the A 350XWB, a next-generation airliner needed to compete with Boeing's wildly successful 787 Dreamliner.”
And being the good bad American that I am, I can’t help but feel a little Schadenfreude when reading these lines. Opps, I mean Schadenfreudchen.
Die Franzosenchen können uns am Hinterchen küsschen!
No, Chen and Lein aren’t popular Chinese food dishes here in Germany. These are diminutive little diminutive word endings. The suffixes –chen and –lein are placed on nouns to indicate someone or something small or endearing. You know, like how we say munchkin whenever we refer to a small munch. They’re crazy about these diminutives over here, too. Despite the fact the Germans themselves are often quite big and scary-looking, many of them being well over eight feet in height. Maybe that’s why they like diminutives so much.
Anyway, one often hears them referring to their Häuschen (little house) and their Hündchen (little dog) who has a Frauchen (female master) and always gets the rest of her Würschten (little sausage) after she and her husband have had their Käffchen (coffee). Well, at least I’m always hearing conversations like this. And I could have interchanged the –lein with the –chen on most of these, by the way. Nobody would have batted an eye. And if you happen to be from a more “quaint” region of Germany, like someplace called Bavaria for instance, you will often hear the diminutives –l or –erl instead. A Bisschen (a little bit as in a little bite) is actually a Bissl there, for example. And a Mädchen is a Mädl there, too. But only during the week, I think.
So why am I telling you all of this? I’ve completely forgotten. No, now I have it again. Airbus has a Problemchen. Not only are Old Europe bosom buddies France and Germany currently at each other’s throats over EADS’ inability to spit out the miraculous “Power8” Airbus restructuring plan (which it obviously doesn’t have yet), German Airbus stockholders are so pissed off at the moment that they are actually considering the feasibility of breaking up the company’s current structure – or lack of it.
“The money supposed to be saved by Power8 is crucial to the survival of Airbus. With its cash flow languishing (undelivered 380s bring in no cash), and its cost structure inflated by the high value of the euro relative to the dollar, the company urgently needs the savings in order to have the funds necessary to develop the A 350XWB, a next-generation airliner needed to compete with Boeing's wildly successful 787 Dreamliner.”
And being the good bad American that I am, I can’t help but feel a little Schadenfreude when reading these lines. Opps, I mean Schadenfreudchen.
Die Franzosenchen können uns am Hinterchen küsschen!
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Selbstverständlich.
PS: Thanks for the links, Kurt.
Das faul Ami b*st*rdchen. (Comment this)
We will see, it's not the first Problemchen in this "marriage".
P.S.: "Frauchen (female master)" LOL (Comment this)
The suffix “chen” is easily explained. Imagine an A-380 and an B-747 side by side.
So the Airbus 380 is a “Flugzeug”– the B-747 a “Flugzeug-chen”
Apart from that: Airbus order-books are full. Expansion of production is needed. On the other hand Power8 is generally needed to match globalization. And there is a lot of savings potential for Airbus. The A-380 is ready for take off. Already tomorrow it will be daily routine on our airports. So you are welcome on board of the 21th century (30% of an A-380 are already composites!) You will like it. Once on board you will smile about all the hipe which is done by american medias today. Enjoying the silence on board you will remember the old days on board of an …B-747chen...
Wasn’t it just a little bit wounded vanity?
(Comment this)
This may not be the first problemchen, but it may be the last. If you know what I mean.
To J.M.
Is this Sarkasmus? If not, then these should warm your heart (this is Sarkasmus):
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/11/business/airbus.php?page=1
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/11/and-so-it-begins.html (Comment this)