Word: german
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Under the summer sun that bakes much of the nation these days, new voices are being heard. They speak Japanese and German and Arabic...
...Placement test in French. Ho ho. Didn't get a 560 on your French achievement, did you? Well, if you do okay on this test you don't have to take a year of languages, which is nice. The tests aren't toohard, and they are offered in German, Spanish, Chemistry, Math, Italian, Latin, Modern Hebrew, Greek and Russian. The nonlanguage jobs are for placement only, and they all take place at various times throught the week. An unavoidable necessity, unless you're a non-science type who already placed out of the language requirement. In which case you ought...
...nation with an all but obsessive concern about self-improvement, one institution so far has remained relatively impervious to change: the bureaucracy. Otto von Bismarck inaugurated the German civil service in 1871, an innovation that many of his countrymen now regard as the Iron Chancellor's least admirable accomplishment. There is hardly a German who has not been humiliated at one time or another by the uniquely imperious attitude of public employees-a maddening amalgam of officiousness, condescension and cantankerousness. A recent West German telephone poll, for example, showed that 62% of the callers were "very critical" of their...
...finance ministry of Bavaria recently issued a 24-page booklet to its civil servants titled Behörde und Bürger, (Authorities and Citizens). A kind of Emily Post primer for bureaucrats, it offers the provocative thought that bureaucracy is a public service for the benefit of West German citizens. It suggests that civil servants should try to put themselves in their clients' place. Avoid bawling out citizens for making mistakes on application forms, advises the booklet. Try to understand that they do not know all laws...
Potentially more important, the dollar has become grossly undervalued in terms of its purchasing power vs. that of other currencies, with the possible exception of the Japanese yen. One example: $100, when converted into German marks or Swiss francs, will rent a 'first-class hotel room for a night in Frankfurt or Geneva. In New York City a comparable room in a high-priced hotel costs about $70. In a rational market, the dollar might be expected to rise to reflect its purchasing power more closely...