Oops! Really Crappy German Translation

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So my SO’s mother and aunt are visiting from Germany and they were all out at the local Wal-Mart and the aunt wanted magnesium. I get a call:
“What is the word for magnesium in English?”
“Uh…the same. Magnesium.”
“Well she wants to buy some.”
“I donno. I have heard of Milk of Magnesium…”

So I get home. They tell me poor aunt seems to have had some bad salad at lunch as she has been running to the bathroom constantly for the last two hours.

I casually pick up the bottle of Milk of Magnesium on the kitchen table and read the back label. I had no idea. I really didn’t know it was a laxative.

According to the German aunt, it works quite well.

BTW, they also sell magnesium tablets that are not laxatives, and are good for elderly ladies who are low in minerals. We bought that the next day.

2

Crappy! HA!!

[sub]Yes, I’m 5 years old.[/sub]

3

Milk of magnesia actually does both: stops diarrhea and cures constipation, depending on the dosage. But for diarrhea, it’s better if you take a more general magnesium tablet. :smiley:

4

What’s the German word for schadenfreude?

5

Hey, maybe you can help me too. I have a user manual for machinery that manufactures pharmaceuticals (an anti-psychotic and an anti-alcoholosim drug, mainly). I write the SOPs, etc. for the pharm. co. that makes the drugs.

My manual is all in English EXCEPT for the cautions and warnings. Those are in German. Would have been better if it was the other way around. Nice to see the really scary exclamation point and the giant german words with more exclamations. Yikes!

L