Categories: words, translation
Date: 22 October 2007 13:31:26
This morning, while finishing proofreading a 12,000-word document about European Standards for locks on fire-resistant doors (yes, a light-hearted start to the week, I know), I bumped into an old friend.
Many years ago, when I first graduated, I worked for a German furniture company in its London office. With a head full of vocabulary employed by such German literary giants such as Goethe, Schiller, Brecht and Kafka, I suddenly found myself confronted with needing to know "drawer insert", "wardrobe backpanel" and "black ash veneer". One day I had this conversation with my boss who used me as a walking dictionary:
Boss: What does "Madenschraube" mean?
Me: Hum, well, literally it means "creepy-crawly screw".
Boss: Ah, grub screw! Great. Thanks.
Today, gentle reader, I was reacquainted with Mr Creepy-Crawly Screw for the first time since then. And amazingly, I didn't have to grub around in my memory or my dictionary for the word. I remembered it because of that conversation. Marvellous. If only I could recall every word as quickly...