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It is two different things. Polterabend is both together, the bachelor thing is each partner and their friends on their own.

Ah, OK! We only have the one word, but typically the party is gendered. Perhaps not as strictly these days as it used to be.

Beth wrote: "If there are any Russian speakers here who can recommend good (and easy) books for language learners or who would be happy to chat about books in Russian (with my limited vocabulary) or Swedish, give me a poke!"

Cat in Hat is pretty easy...

Beth wrote: "Question to spark discussion - what's the best book you know that uses language in creative ways? I'm not thinking poor spellings to reflect dialect, I'm thinking Nadsat, books written entirely in dialect with all the beautiful, unusual words, authors who use language in fascinating ways - anything that explores our wonderful world of words."
A Clockwork Orange
On the Road

Please post your book recs in new thread linked a couple of messages earlier!

It’s Hens Night/do and Stag night/do where I’m from in Australia too. Probably a leftover from our Pommy Penal colony past. Like most things. When I was young you’d go to the local pub (or on a pub crawl) probably meeting up with your significant others group along the way and then going in seperate directions and get blind drunk and then go home. Now my daughter and her friends go to the city 6 hours away and go on harbour party cruises with strippers or whatever else and make a weekend of it.

They call them that in the UK too, Jacqueline. So maybe not a penal colony thing.

Jacqueline wrote: "It’s Hens Night/do and Stag night/do where I’m from in Australia too. Probably a leftover from our Pommy Penal colony past. Like most things. When I was young you’d go to the local pub (or on a pub..."

Interestingly, I'm initially from WA in Australia, and it's a 'Bucks' Party' and 'Hens' Night/Party' over there.

Yeah sometimes it’s Bucks night Leonie. Buck/Stag. Depends.

Yeah we’re originally an English Penal Colony so we have a lot of English customs.

Oh, lords. This tabloid article from yesterday got me hollering internally. So bizarre on its own right already, on top of which the writer (and folks involved evidently) just seem to have went all out with the absurdity. Gotta share, though a lot of it will get lost in translation.




So, the article opens to a suspectly click-baity headline, including the phrase:

"Dinosaurus paloi poroksi"
lit. "A dinosaur burned to a crisp" ,
but which - as the autotranslation too captures - has the hilarity of being translatable also to "...burned into a reindeer" (=poro), if one avoided most common reason.

The tagline under informs, the dinosaur appeared to a park next to kindergarden, is a 'competition winner' (???) and 'came with eggs' (more on that later).

And is apparently made of straw. Though, speculation was had as to which animal it actually was on fire.

The hilarity in wording of "pukkiroihut" ("goat blazes"?) when referencing the traditional burning down of the Gävle straw goat. "Pukki" can also be read to mean Santa around these parts (lit. "Joulupukki" = "yule goat" - because of goat like pagan origins).

So, we've now evoked reindeer, and Santa, somehow.

This line in the text just doesn't give a f*ck:
"– Lähtevä mestari sanoi niin lähtiessään"
"– The departing fire marshal said so as they departed" (=left the scene)

"Mestari", which literally translates to "master" or "champion" (like autotranslate too gathers). So, essentially what they're also saying is: "like this champ leaving the scene said".


This hard hitting deduction work from the next fire marshal on the scene:
"ALTHOUGH the dinosaur was in front of the kindergarten, it was not inside the kindergarten's fences, so Rautio thinks that it was not necessarily the kindergarten's dinosaur."


And then:
"- For some reason it had ignited, hardly by itself. Self-ignition would be more possible if it had been a dragon..."

This Rautio guy seems like a character.


The article goes on to point out that fire marshal Rautio, is not in fact a dude of the same name, you might know from radio (?!??), and then reveals where the choice words of 'poro' in the header apparently comes from. From Rautio themself:

Palomestari Markus Rautio on Yleisradion Lastentuntia vetäneen Markus Raution täydellinen nimikaima. – Ei ole sukua, olen itse Kittilästä. Siellä pohjoisessa ei ole dinosauruksia, vaan poroja. ...Poroksi tämä(kin) paloi, Rautio lisää.

Firefighter Markus Rautio is the perfect namesake of Markus Rautio , who hosted Yleisradio's Children's Show. - No relation, I'm from Kittilä myself. There are no dinosaurs there in the north, but reindeer. This (also) burned into a reindeer, Rautio adds.


Then some info about the origins of the dinosaur (an art competition winner, which came with eggs made at community art workshops).

Indeed, at the end of the article "an addendum in regards to the eggs":

What happened to the dinosaur eggs?
- There was no talk of eggs, fire master Rautio says.

They promised to try to find out.
- I think the eggs got also destroyed, Rautio reports soon.

And to shed light why this is such a cheeky addition: in Finnish, the euphemism for 'testicles' isn't 'balls', but 'munat' or 'eggs'.


– Taisivat munatkin tuhoutua. Balls destroyed, indeed.

Lol

Gabi wrote: "To come back to Anna's non grammatical question: yes, in German it's Polterabend from poltern = making a lot of noise. It's called that because cutlery is broken there (I would have to look up the ..."

As an addendum to this: crockery is broken during a Polterabend for luck. We have the saying "Scherben bringen Glück" = shards will bring luck. It's very important not to break glass, though, that's bad luck.
And the bride and groom are supposed to clean up together afterwards (in the really strict interpretation that means both holding the broom at the same time, etc.) to ensure they'll solve problems together in their marriage.

Not really about language, but I think this is the best place.

I know that healthcare in the US is what it is, but one thing I keep running into in books is the concept of sick days. They seem to work in extremely strange ways. I don't expect anyone to explain the whole thing to me, but if you have a link to a good article I can read, please share!

What I'm mainly puzzled about is the "saving of sick days", like how do you save *sick* days and then use them up to take a longer leave?!

I don't know about saving sick days but a relative used to complain about a colleague who would use up his allotted paid sick leave every year like it was bonus vacation days.

Ryan wrote: "I don't know about saving sick days but a relative used to complain about a colleague who would use up his allotted paid sick leave every year like it was bonus vacation days."

Yes a lot of people do that in the USA since you don't get any default sick days like in most western countries. If you start a new job and get sick in the first couple of months your screwed and have to take leave without pay. Vacation and Sick hours are accrued per pay period and, unlike vacation they are not worth anything if you leave the company. Accrued vacation hours have to be paid out but not sick hours. Hence, a lot of people 'get sick' and burn off those hours.

Anna wrote: "...I know that healthcare in the US is what it is, but one thing I keep running into in books is the concept of sick days ..."

YouTube has a lot of videos unraveling the concept of US 'sick days', and a lot of excellently telling videos of folks reacting to the ridiculousness of the system.

I expect that’s universal, cheating or pulling a sickie? What I’m pondering is how you can save sick days, like if you’re not sick at all for two years, then you can be sick or ”sick�� for three times as long?

Jemppu wrote: "YouTube has a lot of videos"

Links please! 😊

Anna wrote: "I expect that’s universal, cheating or pulling a sickie? What I’m pondering is how you can save sick days, like if you’re not sick at all for two years, then you can be sick or ”sick�� for three tim..."

some companies have a policy that they can be "carried over" into the next year. People might do that if they know they have surgery coming up. And some companies have a use or lose policy where if you don't use all your sick days in a year, you lose them and start over the next year. This isn't good as you end up with employees like my friend who, as soon as she earned a sick day,she took it.

and don't forget that in Europe the automatic vacation days per employee are far higher than in the US. US employees often go the first year with no vacation and then have two weeks for around three years. In France with vacation days, RTT (mandatory 35 hour work week, but if you work more you get time off), etc I had over 50 days a year I could take off. I had a hard time takin all my days

Anna wrote: "I expect that’s universal, cheating or pulling a sickie? What I’m pondering is how you can save sick days, like if you’re not sick at all for two years, then you can be sick or ”sick�� for three tim..."

Yup, that's the way it works. Most companies have a cap on the number of days you can accrue, but not all. My current employer doesn't have a cap and I don't abuse the system so I currently have over 1,000 hours of sick time:) i.e. 25 WEEKS!

Yeah the vacation days thing is a whole another thing that boggles the mind, but at least I understand it on a technical level.

I guess what I'm trying to understand is that is a sick day actually a "personal" day? It has nothing at all to do with being sick, it's just when you need time off for whatever personal reason? Because you can't schedule being sick, so how can you carry over sick days?!

Hard to give you links because the rule* is that you need to give PTO if you have people who work 40 hours, but how they're parceled out is dependent on the company.

*Edit to add I'm using "rule" loosely. This is what most states do, but you know...America.

.

Thanks! I will read that.

As a U.S. resident without sick, personal or vacation days: someone please have a serious sit-down with my boss 😶

Anna wrote: "Yeah the vacation days thing is a whole another thing that boggles the mind, but at least I understand it on a technical level.

I guess what I'm trying to understand is that is a sick day actually..."

Ah. The informal rule is to request vacation you need to give at least 2 weeks notice to the company to find you coverage, sick days are day of, and personal days are like "I suddenly need to take my car in, so I'll be out tomorrow/sometime this week unexpectedly"

In practice though, most people will decide ahead of time that they want to save X amount of sick days for if they actually get sick or to "accrue" if your job allows you to, and then you can add that on to vacations etc. in the future. A lot of expectant new parents will bank vacation to use for maternity/paternity leave, for example.

Then you use the thing that will run out first--usually personal days--in your PTO tracker.

Michelle wrote: "As a U.S. resident without sick, personal or vacation days: someone please have a serious sit-down with my boss 😶"

!!!!!

Why?? How?? Why??? The only people I know without that are independent contractors who just don't get paid whenever they want vacay, but also get to take as much as they want and make more money than most of us lol

I can leave a bad review for them on Glassdoor if you want XD

Allison wrote: "A lot of expectant new parents will bank vacation to use for maternity/paternity leave, for example."

This is the exact scenario that initiated my question! I don't understand it!

You're visibly pregnant at work. You're about to give birth. You tell your boss "Gonna take a six month sick leave, byeeee!" :S How?!

it's not uncommon and a lot of companies get around it by only allowing people to work 35 or less hours per week (40 hours and X number of employees, it's required). Walmart was notorious for doing that as it also let them off the hook for providing health insurance

Anna wrote: "Allison wrote: "A lot of expectant new parents will bank vacation to use for maternity/paternity leave, for example."

This is the exact scenario that initiated my question! I don't understand it!
..."

Oh, no, there's usually limits on sick leave. Most of my jobs you could bank up to a week for the next year, and you got the rest paid out.

And, is it true too, that others can 'give' you their unused 'sick days' to use for ie. exactly these unavoidable life occasions?

(Sorry, Anna, I don't have any specific links at hand; they usually come by in a spiral of YouTube recommendations).

Yes. Less than the full forty hours. His theory, and he told me this 18-19 years ago, is that he's not paid if he's not in the office, so why should anyone else be? He's special ;)

Jemppu wrote: "And, is it true too, that others can 'give' you their unused 'sick days' to use for ie. exactly these unavoidable life occasions?

(Sorry, Anna, I don't have any specific links at hand; they usuall..."

Yes, some corporate hellscapes allow you to donate some of your own ability to take time off for people who have either sudden catastrophe or more joy than they bargained for, i.e. a baby when they hadn't saved up additional pto.

Remember, maternity/paternity isn't guaranteed here. So IF you're fortunate to get some time off, it's usually like through disability leave or maaaaybe a couple weeks if you're the one who bore the baby. Any more than that is considered extremely generous.

Michelle wrote: "Yes. Less than the full forty hours. His theory, and he told me this 18-19 years ago, is that he's not paid if he's not in the office, so why should anyone else be? He's special ;)"

I would be gone so fast...lol

In Finland if you're sick, you get one or two days when you can just call in and tell your boss, this depends on your employer. Then you have to go to a doctor, and if they confirm you're sick, you get sick leave for as long as the doctor thinks you need it. Paid sick leave. There is a cap, which depends on your employer, but if you use zero days, you still have the exact same "amount" the next year, which is to say however many days you're actually sick. Of course some people call in saying they're sick and stay home for one or two days without seeing a doctor when they're hung over or just want to pull a sickie, but you can't do that for longer than a couple of days. And you absolutely can't just decide to "use up" all your sick days at your convenience!

Of course we have over a month of paid vacation per year, and paid holidays off, and paid maternity/paternity leave, so we don't have to "save up sick days".

Anna wrote: "In Finland if you're sick, you get one or two days when you can just call in and tell your boss, this depends on your employer. Then you have to go to a doctor, and if they confirm you're sick, you..."

Whoa, your doctor can see you same or next day?? That's impressive. And also seems like it would be quite a burden. What if you were having like an auto-immune response? Really hard to prove your endometriosis or fibromyalgia or something are acting up.

Yeah your employer pays for you to see a doc, and yes you can get an appointment the same day. (Small companies might have different policies, but there are legal minimums.) And you can't just say you have an invisible disease and get six months sick leave, most likely they'd give you a week maybe and have you come back and do tests and see a psychologist or a specialist.

You can't see your doctor on the same day you call? What's the point of private health care if they aren't willing to take your money at the earliest opportunity?

If I wake up ill and call my gp surgery before 9am I'll be seen by someone by 11am. I usually have to race to get dressed and to the office in time. Well that was the way before covid. They arrange a phone call these days and if they deem it necessary will send you to the hospital.

Allison, we might need to move to Finland!

(I'm sorry my US friends <3 I didn't mean to brag!)

I can't believe that the doctor can be seen the same day!! That's terrific! I've been waiting 9.5 months to get into the neurologist. My rheumatologist appointments are always three months out.

This is if you pay the big bucks, which your employer will do. Public health for non-emergencies is not the same day, especially not after 2020.

You can't see a specialist on the same day here. Not unless there's a decent chance of dying that day.

Yeah, I chose my doctor because he's part of a network, so it might take 1-2 weeks to see him specifically, but if I'm truly not doing well and urgently need someone to assist me, he or the other doctors in the network usually can see me same or next day. For actual guaranteed same day care you have to go to urgent care (slightly more expensive, long wait) or emergency care (very expensive, extremely long wait unless you're triaged for imminent risk)

Michelle, when do we leave?? We'll have to hurry, the snow will be closing airports soon!

Ryan wrote: "You can't see a specialist on the same day here. Not unless there's a decent chance of dying that day."

That gave me the giggles!!

Watch out for the reindeer and polar bears! They roam the streets near the airport, and well everywhere really :P

Allison, what about next Tuesday?

Checking flights now! ^^

Anyway, thanks, I now know more about the sick day thing, I still don't understand it logically, but I at least know how it works.

Anna wrote: "In Finland if you're sick, you get one or two days when you can just call in and tell your boss, this depends on your employer. Then you have to go to a doctor, and if they confirm you're sick, you..."

Very similar in Germany. You have to inform your employer of being sick first thing and then bring in a doctor‘s note on the third day of being sick at the latest. Your employer continues to pay your full wage for up to 6 weeks (if you‘re continuously sick; if not, the clock resets once you‘re back at work), after that your healthcare provider will continue paying for up to 72 weeks (though „only�� 90% of your post-tax wage).

And GPs here also see (some) patients on the same day, especially if it‘s for something „acute�� or for a sick note. (I actually did that today cause I‘m sick. Called my doctor�� office in the morning, went to see him at noon.) Afaik, GPs usually reserve a certain number of time slots in their daily schedule for walk-in patients. Specialists often have longer wait times, but a specialist isn‘t someone you‘d go to for a sick note. At least not an initial one. For stuff that needs specialized care, you‘d probably get an initial sick note + a referral to the specialist from your GP and then subsequent sick notes from the specialist if needed.

Couple years ago, I had a sudden swelling of my throat, to the point it was becoming hard to breath. Obviously impeded with my ability to concentrate on work/anything. Through an online appointment I would schedule the usual check with the company contracted health care provider, they would check me out, and after finding no clues as to the source, sent me off to a more specialized doctor (whom they checked was covered by our company plan, too), who then checked me out and determined we'd need MRI. Which *would* be covered, but needed an approval from our parent company. One brief e-mail later, we had the approval, and another online appointment later I had a time for the MRI, within a week. No worries about payments.

I don't recall, if I ever bothered to 'call myself sick' for running on these appointments, but I could have (as that would've fallen into the couple days 'self-notice' period).