Tuesday
Mlh has just been unpacking some more heavy instruments in the lounge. I should really get to the bottom of what they are and why he needs all seven but a) I don't know whether I can concentrate long enough to listen ( 3 minutes is about my my maximum) and b) mlh is not very good at explaining things unless the person he is explaining to is already conversant with the problem. This of coourse defeats the whole object of the explanation.
Sometimes I simply do not have the vocabulary I ned to understand what he is saying . It is is like when I as doing technical translations from German I lacked the scientific vocabulary in English. The translations were acually \aaccomplished more easily by the scientist who wanted me do them as scientific English and German are similar ) Flushed with this knowledge my husband once made the mistake of telephoning Germany What does 'bitte warten' mean?, he asked me, his discarded translator. Although unable to help him much with his work, I was able to let him know that he had been chatting with the answerphone or 10 minutes.