Stinkefinger!

April 19th, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

Because ordering a beer in Germany is an extremely hard task, the British Foreign Office has launched an “Avoiding Penalties” campaign to help the tens of thousands of its citizens that are traveling to the World Cup. With a credit card-sized instructional guide that includes German translations of popular phrases like”Can I have a beer please?” and “May I pitch my tent in your back garden?,” it is difficult to imagine anyony getting into trouble during their visit. If you visit the special website set up by the Foreign Office just for the World Cup, you can learn other critical phrases like: Randalierer (hooligan), krawalle (rioting), schlagstock (truncheon), randalieren (go on the rampage), schlaegerei (brawl), raedelsfuehrer (ring-leader), polizeibekannt (known to police) and our personal favorite, stinkefinger (middle-finger salute).

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http://ecuador.worldcupblog.org/ Trent

Um, yeah. I might suggest that “May I pitch my tent in your back garden?” may not be the cross-cultural panecea it seems. At any rate, don’t ask that in any neighborhood I’ve ever lived in.
Kapcro

First saw a “stinkefinger” image like that on hockey T-shirts being pedaled on a world-wide auction site. Certainly, mamas don’t let your babies grow up to to hooligans applies here. (apologies to Willie and Waylon) Such a cute young lad too. Some of those foreign office terms are somewhat uber-scary. You certainly don’t want to get whacked with a “shlagstock” or be corned by a “raedelsfuehrer” in some riot. Whew, I’m going to be unnerved the whole rest of the day.
http://germany.worldcupblog.org Harvey

Isn’t that a picture of Stefan Effenberg as a child?