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It's a fine line between living for the moment and being a sociopath.

Patricia B McConnell: For The Love Of A Dog.

Pema Chodron: The Places That Scare You

Daniel Wallace: Mr Sebastian & the Negro Magician



All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. --Pablo Neruda

Monday, January 14, 2008

Putting the "doing it" in "to do"

As a resident of China during its long road to internationalisation, I adore this story. Courtesy of Lawrence Wilkinson.

As the 2008 Olympics approach, the Chinese government has dispatched teams of linguists to clean up "Chinglish" signs all over Beijing... It seems that the f-word has cropped up in many signs in a way that has government officials as baffled as expats are amused.

Victor Mair, a professor of Chinese at Penn believes that he's discovered the culprit: a translation program that (mis)translates the Chinese "gan," (meaning "dry" or "to do") as that most notorious word in the English language.




For a full explanation -- and some hilarious, but decidedly M-rated photo examples of the mistranslations -- see Dr. Mair's post at: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/005195.html (scroll down for most of the photos).

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