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You Say “Recession,” I Say “Spad”
In American English, we have a handful of words for the recession: downturn, slump, bust, economic collapse, financial crisis. We talk about “hard times” and “tough times.” Here at Recessionwire, we’ve used all those synonyms to death. So we decided to look beyond our borders at how our friends around the world refer to the recession. (And not so we can look smart at cocktail parties.) (Okay, maybe a little bit.) We think they sound best thrown randomly into the middle of an English sentence, using a thick, “authentic” accent.
Chinese: Quan Qiu Jing Ji Shuai Tui (全球经济衰退 ) or in simplified Chinese, Jing Ji Shuai Tui. Literally this means global – economy – recession.
ADDENDUM: A very worldy friend had this to say: “Btw in China it us called the financial tsunami (hai xiao) which is translated as the ocean screaming at u and sounds like ocean laughing. Appropriate.”
Dutch: crisis
England: global financial crisis or GFT (You mean this isn’t just about America?)
France: la crise
Germany: Krise or Weltwirtschaftskrise (economic crisis)
Japanese: fukyo or fukyou (seriously!)
Can mean both recession or depression. It also means “displeasure.”
Russian: retsessiya
In late 2008, Russia’s deputy economy minister, Andrei Klepach, got in trouble with Putin for using this word. (“I’m afraid it will not be over in the next two quarters,” he said.) He quickly backpedaled, and said that he’d really meant a “spad,” or a slump, not an American-style downturn.
Got more to add? Put your additions in comments below.
We’ve also been tracking new words for this new era, from “brokavore” to “propportunity.” For more, check out our whole Recession Lexicon.
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2 comments for “You Say “Recession,” I Say “Spad””
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Great post! The Japanese one made me laugh out loud. This recessionista thanks you for that addition to my vocab repertoire.
I forgot to add one from a friend. In China it’s also called the “financial tsunami.” See above!