Monday, August 16, 2010

Mandarin to English Translations

One of the most entertaining things in China for me so far has been all the translation mistakes. They put the English translation on nearly everything but it is seldom correct. I think that some of the mistakes and very funny and take pictures of all that I can see. Most of these pictures were taken around our apartment in Zhongshan and a couple were taken in Hong Kong. I do not hold them responsible for these mistakes. I started Mandarin lessons today and lets say if English is located on the Earth, Mandarin is in a totally different galaxy. It is tonal and like nothing I have ever heard before. One sound can be five different words simply by the inflection of your voice. It is mayhem. I plan to work hard and maybe I will learn something by December! That is the goal! 
Also, I run out of things to blog about sometimes so if anyone has any questions about China, what I do here, the kids I teach, the food I eat, how I am doing or anything else that may or may not be vexing your mind just let me know and I will answer in a blog post. If I do not know the answers I will try to find out! Thanks!

2 comments:

Kamala Crockett said...

Oh I miss China so much! I loved all the translation mistakes too. They are hilarious especially because they are on huge bilboards and such. You would think they would have someone who knows English check it before they print it in huge letters. Oh the fun times in China.

Alicia Baker said...

Tessa!! Your posts make me so anxious to get to China right now!! I hope I'm able to handle the chaos as well as you have.