I admire people who can speak and write in more than one language. It's a skill I have never mastered, although I am told that my maternal grandfather spoke six languages, and several of my paternal cousins and an uncle are bi-lingual. Additionally, my father was bi-lingual, and my mother spoke two languages fluently and had some knowledge of a third. My mother in law was also bi-lingual.
I took Spanish in junior high (now called middle school) and one year in high school but it never stuck.
Something that has always fascinated me are instructions for a product manufactured in another country. Often enough, the English instructions have obviously been translated from another language, and enough times, something was lost in translation.
Here's one recent example.
I wanted to purchase a couple of collapsible bottles to take on trips. Amazon was having a lightning deal on a two pack of collapsible silicone water bottles. Perfect! But I didn't read many of the reviews, and I should have. A lot of them complained about the smell.
I ordered them and they came the next day. I took them out of the packaging, opened one up, and was almost knocked over by the smell.
It was....not pleasant.
The manufacturer was obviously aware of this, because the above smell removal instructions were enclosed. I wasn't able to get a good picture but it reads as follows:
"Due to our bottle is made of platinum silicone, its normal That there may exsit slight natural silicone smell. We suggest below method to improve if you don't like it:
1. Boil the bottle in hot water for 5 minutes, dry it and then smell removes.
2. Fill the bottle with 2 gram or more red or green tea and at least 80% of 90degrees C or higher hot water.
3. Close the cap and seal the bottle for 2 hours, discard tea and water try it naturally. Then smell is basically removed."
Leaving the translation issues to one side, I can either boil the bottle (I was a bit leary to do that, although the website description says it will take temperatures up to 200C (392F) ) or use the tea method. I had green tea in the house. Red tea, I assume, is roobios, and I do not have it in the house.
We in the United States aren't metric, unlike almost all of the world. So, at the risk of losing all of my readers, some math: a cup of water is 240 grams, which is also 240 milliliters. (Why can't our system be logical like this?). I am supposed to put two milliliters of liquid, which is about .40 teaspoon, into this bottle. A 20 oz bottle can hold about 120 teaspoons. I'm terrible in math, but I have a feeling I'll need a lot more green tea than .40 of a teaspoon to remove the odor.
So what am I doing now? I went online and saw a recommendation for filling the bottle with half white vinegar and half water for "a while". Some reviewers used this method with varying results.
If that doesn't work maybe I'll try filling it with hot green tea.
It's interesting, too, that the instructions suggest green tea and the product is made in China. But I also feel like something was lost in translations.
The instructions made some kind of sense after several readings and translations of metric to our outdated system. I think.
Wish me luck.
