Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Troubleshooter

Around the central train station here in Zürich, there are usually a couple of vans around with the word "Troubleshooter" painted on the side. I have always wondered what kind of trouble they are shooting. People trouble? Drug trouble? Traffic trouble? Any sort of trouble? What amazes me is that the word troubleshooter is in English. Otherwise ze Swiss take a pretty vehement position on translating everything into German. One day I'll ask them what type of trouble they shoot...unless one of my readers know??

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

'troubleshooter'
They're the public transport trouble shooters I think, for when there's mechanical problems with trams, buses... hence always being around the tram station at HB. if you look a bit closer at the van you'll see VBZ written on them.

I'm surprised you're amazed by the use of 'troubleshooter'. In my experience the swiss have a love of using English words (often incorrectly) like think-tank, management, handy, marketing, out-source......

Witchbitch said...

Suspected as much.

Yes, I know the Swiss like to call a mobile (cell) phone for handy. Which doesn't ring a bell (pun intended) with an English-speaking person...just like you say, using English incorrectly.

What would those words be in German?