I asked my colleague if the cake he brought is self-made.
He answered "No, my girlfriend made it".
Me: "So it's self-made!"
He: "No, it's home-made!"
If I asked the same question in German (my native language) with selbstgemacht (=self-made), everybody would have answered either just "Yes" or "Yes, my girlfriend did it." What we actually want to know when somebody asks person A if something is selbstgemacht is if A or somebody A knows well (friend, relative, but not the baker where he would have to pay for it) did it himself. Even though there is the word hausgemacht (=home-made) it is used much less often. It is not even in my active vocabulary.
How is the situation in English? Do you really distinguish accurately like that between the two words? I'm asking because my colleague is not a native English speaker, either.
Best Answer
The phrase self-made is not entirely interchangeable with home-made.
Home-made means something that was created in the manner of being 'at home' i.e. possibly but not necessarily in the person's own house. This implies that it was created in an amateur fashion or without the use of commercial equipment, often by hand instead of using tools.
For example, baking goods in your home oven, weaving a basket by hand, etc.
Self-made is used to describe a person that has made their fortune, usually starting from nothing, by themselves without external input (e.g. an inheritance, a windfall), usually by building a business or empire and expanding it with hard work.
For example, Sir Richard Branson who began by selling records from a church and steadily moved on to become a famous billionaire entrepreneur.