I've never actually heard "Fremdscham" but as a verb, "fremdschämen", it's been about for .. 5 to 10 years or so? I don't think I remember it being used before that. The interesting thing is that "schämen" seems to be gone, I haven't heard "ich hab mich geschämt" or "du solltest dich schämen" in ages. The concept seems to ge gone, nobody's ashamed of themselves anymore, for having violated rules or moral concepts, and to tell another adult or even child off in such a fashion is probably considered too (openly) humiliating for the accused. But cringeing in the presence of somebody behaving badly apparently isn't considered being smug, just superior. Actually, come to think of it "cringeing" might actually be quite a good translation for fremdschämen.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2012-10-25 07:05 am (UTC)The interesting thing is that "schämen" seems to be gone, I haven't heard "ich hab mich geschämt" or "du solltest dich schämen" in ages. The concept seems to ge gone, nobody's ashamed of themselves anymore, for having violated rules or moral concepts, and to tell another adult or even child off in such a fashion is probably considered too (openly) humiliating for the accused. But cringeing in the presence of somebody behaving badly apparently isn't considered being smug, just superior. Actually, come to think of it "cringeing" might actually be quite a good translation for fremdschämen.