Learn English – A possibly modern derogatory term for housewife

I grew up in the northeastern U.S., and spent 20 years in the military, moving several times along the way.

In the northern states, the term is seldom used, and it's not considered derogatory. If anything, it's borderline patriotic, as in the song I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. In the south, though, it's a different matter.

I once had a colleague tell me, "For a Yankee, you're alright." Yes, the term was being used in a derogatory way, and I got the impression he was only half joking.

In Mississippi, I was told more than once, "You Yankees just don't understand this!" It was intended as playful, but you could still detect a trace of genuine resentment.

The only exception to it being considered used in a derogatory way in the north is in the Boston area, and that's when it's referring to the New York baseball team.

Piece of junk refers to something that is cheap, shoddy, or worthless. It can be used as an oject as in "This piece of junk won't boot." or a modiying adjective as in "This piece-of-junk computer won't boot" (with or without hyphens).

Related adjectives can be used with the name of the device. These include:

"Junky", "shoddy", "trashy", "lousy", "worthless", "crappy" (oh, and, of course, "shitty").

Boat Anchor which merely means the device is only suitable for that purpose. "This computer has become a boat anchor" (Urban Dictionary, definitions 2 and 3, Ham.net shows the term used in practice.)

Doorstop similar to "boat anchor". "This computer only works as a door stop now."

Junk Box No longer suitable for anything except to be cannibalized for spare parts. (See wikipedia.) Usually this refers to just the parts themselves, already disassembled and collected into a box. But it parallels your German reference, so I thought it was worth adding.

We also refer to some things as "hangar queens", which is alludes to aircraft that spend more time in repair than they do in service. Any products that can't get through the production process may be relegated to being hangar queens, with hopes that someone will eventually figure out how to repair them.