As the French say, that certain "I don't know what."

I keep on noticing the prevalence of Schadenfreude among my children. Yeah, they were not familiar with the term either. It's a German word referring to taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune. They love to see each other get in trouble or have bad things happen to them, but that's a post on depravity we'll save for another day.

But, for your learning pleasure, I share some other neat terms from the Fatherland, terms that tend to express an idea better than English might.

• An sich - in itself
• Backpfeifengesicht - German compound word for a face that should be hit
• Besserwisser - "better knower," somebody who knows better or best and who does not hesitate to inform the others about it; akin to a "know-it-all"
• Dasein - existence or being there, an entity's potentiality¹
• Doppelgänger - "double goer" - a ghostly double, look-alike, or clone of a person
• Dummkopf - "dummy head"
• Fahrvergnügen - enjoyment derived from driving
• Freispiel - free play or free game
• Gemütlichkeit - connotes the notion of belonging, social acceptance, cheerfulness, the absence of anything hectic and the opportunity to spend quality time
• Gesundheit - health
  
• Heilsgeschichte - salvation history, God's positive saving actions throughout history
• Hinterland - remote area, back country
  
• Kaputt - out of order
• Kitsch - cheap, sentimental, gaudy items of popular culture, trinkets
  
• Schadenfreude - pleasure in someone else's misfortune
• Schweinehund - "pig dog," common term of insult
  
• Sitz im Leben - setting in life, context
• Spielzeug - play thing, toy
  
• Übermensch - overman or superman²
• Verboten - forbidden
  
• Verstehen - understanding
• Wanderlust - a strong need or desire to travel
  
• Weltanschauung - world view
• Wunderbar - wonderful
• Wunderkind - wonder kid, miracle child
• Zeitgeist - spirit of the time

See also nunchi, a Korean word for the innate ability to sense what would be the wrong thing to say in a situation (and presumably the ability to then not say it).

¹ - Dasein was famously examined by Martin Heidegger in Being and Time. It is derived from da-sein, which literally means "being-there/here," though Heidegger was not fond of this translation. Heidegger chose this term as a synonym for "human entity" in order to emphasize the critical importance "being" has for our understanding and interpretation of the world.

² - Übermensch was made famous as a concept by Friedrich Nietzsche, who declared the Übermensch as a goal for humanity, overcoming the herd, in his book Also Sprach Zarathustra.