There are
words we need to borrow from other languages.
From German, that word of the day is “Fremdschämen”. “Fremdschämen” is the antonym of “Schadenfreude”. “Fremdschämen” is derived from “fremd”,
meaning “foreign, external”; and “schämen”, meaning “to be ashamed”. This is an idiomatic phrase meaning to be embarrassed
or feel awkward on behalf of someone, who has embarrassed themselves, and
should be ashamed, but are oblivious to it.
Table topics, as practiced by Toastmasters International, are the topics to be discussed as written on pieces of paper, and chosen by members. Speeches given by the persons are extemporaneous. The purpose is to develop the speaking skills and thinking processes of a person. The time allotted to a person is two minutes. There will be a table topic master for each meeting, who will prepare questions beforehand.
There are words we need to borrow from other languages. From German, the word of the day is “Schadenfreude”. “Schadenfreude” is a compound of “Schaden”, meaning “damage, harm”, and “Freude”, meaning “joy”. These words are capitalised following the German convention. When used in English, although we do not capitalise common nouns, some capitalise them following this German convention.
“Schadenfreude” literally means “harm joy”, or “joy at harm”. “Schadenfreude” is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction at the misfortune of another person, we feel deserves it. “Schadenfreude” was first mentioned in English texts in 1852 and 1867. It was first used in English running text in 1895. In German itself, it was first used in the 1740s.
“Schadenfreude”
does have equivalent terms or words in many other languages, but no commonly
used precise English single-word equivalent. There are other ways to express the concept in
English. One of those is the word “epicaricacy”.
“Epicaricacy” is derived from Greek “epichairekakia”
(ἐπιχαιρεκακία), a compound word, from “epi” (ἐπί) meaning “upon”, “chara”
(χαρά) meaning “joy”, and “kakon” (κακόν) meaning “evil”. “Epichairekakia”, “joy upon evil”, was
first coined by Aristotle.
The following is my answer to a Quora
question: “Why do rich people like to buy luxury yachts?”
By itself, a yacht is always a depreciating asset, with tremendous upkeep, making is a massive cost centre. Beyond being an obvious status symbol, a yacht has a good many uses, which may not be apparent to the masses. It can be used as a means to move some assets between domiciles, bypassing customs and tax authorities, notwithstanding the border controls. This is especially useful for oligarchs and despots who need to flee a country quickly, since a yacht carries much more than a private jet, and does not need to file a flight path. For example, when a certain politician in a neighbouring country was caught in a huge embezzlement scandal, his party lost a general election. In the aftermath, he was seen at the airport with his wife and luggage. His passport was impounded, and he was forbidden from fleeing the country. Crowds and the media gathered there. In the meantime, his ill-gotten gains were loaded on a yacht, and cash, jewellery, and art were moved offshore.
For those not obviously politically exposed ultra-wealthy, a yacht is an ideal place to conduct business away from prying eyes, with minimal risk of surveillance. A lot of business from the procurement of sensitive equipment, to the negotiation of major deals, to outright hustling, happen at sea. Doing a deal on your own private yacht grants you a certain sense of control you will not have in the boardroom. For example, in the region, a great many arms deals are negotiated on these yachts, anchored offshore. These negotiations involve payments to various parties. It would be inconvenient for these people to be seen together onshore.
Finally, a private yacht is a useful means to
entertain guests, and for people to misbehave, away from the public. This shared misbehaviour helps some people
bond.
The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Do all professional public speakers practice their speeches in advance?”
Yes, but not in the same way non-professionals do. A person, new to public speaking, or who does not do it often, would tend to memorise the entire speech. This may be helpful in the beginning, or when you are in a public speaking competition, but it is an impediment to public speaking for a specific purpose, in the real world.
What we do is go over the specific points
we want to convey, and note the tone, the pauses, the body language, the facial
expressions, even the particularities of the word, and rhetorical devices for
maximum impact. As a general rule, it
should not be more than three points, the sentence structure should be smooth,
but short, and the tenses consistent.
When speaking professionally, it is important to consider the proper
pronouns. There is a psychological subtlety
in the use of “I”, “we”, and “us”. This
is used to separate the audience from the speaker persona, and to bring them to
our side, depending on what we want to convey, and the effect we want.
Speaking professionally, with a purpose, is a manipulation of the psychology of the crowd. It is not merely stringing together words into a series of sentences. A master at rhetoric plays the crowd in the same manner a puppet master moves a mannequin. In this case, however, it has to be subtle, and the audience must be utterly convinced they have arrived at the same conclusions independently.
There are two things that are practiced here: the
speech, and the delivery. They are done
independently, and then brought together to see if they make a cohesive
whole. We look into the mirror, and take
note of facial expressions, especially the eyes. Public speaking is a subtle performance.
