"Yes, I like to be mentally challenged"
We just purchased seven new PC-clients and I asked my supervisor to give me a list of seven asset numbers for them. He opened the inventory-sheet in Excel and started to type each of the next new seven asset numbers by hand - I interrupted him:
me: Um, you know you could just type the first two numbers below each other, mark them and pull the bottom-left cross down - so Excel will add the succeding numbers itself?
supervisor: Oh my god, that's awesome - I didn't knew that.
I couldn't believe this, Excel is his one of his most-used office-tools.
me: So I guess, you like to be mentally challenged? (I chuckled)
supervisor: Yes, I do - thank you very much!
A note for the English readers: in German "mentally challenged" is often mixed up with "brain exercises".
Posted Jul 24, 2015, 5:31 AM UTC · edited
I work for an appliance company and we were testing our new ovens that you can hook a water line up to for steam, the German engineer looks at me in front of a room of 4 people (one woman, who was his wife) and says, "STARWIND, you like the soft touch of a woman?"
I nearly shit myself, so did Vic, who was standing next to him and said something to him in German, he then corrected himself, "Do you have nimble fingers?" "Well, I've never heard any complaints."
He needed someone to attach the water line to the oven in a very small space and his big meat hooks couldn't get in there (He was easily 6'2" 350 lbs.), but my hands managed to get in there fine.
He recently went back to Germany to work, I miss that guy. He sometimes gave me bacon wrapped salmon and oven roasted turkey...
Um... how did he mix that up?
English and German are from the same language family, and share a lot of Syntax.
As a result, German Speakers are known for getting confused with English.
His intended statement was probably along the lines of: "STARWIND, your hands are small like those of a woman?" However, he probably got tripped up with our syntax being similar to what he was familiar with, and wound up making the most basic translation error: Substituting native words for foreign ones without adjusting your syntax.