Lost in Translation

Hi everyone! Not much time to write/ramble because it’s 2:30 and I just finished up so I’d like to get some sleep (let’s not feel bad for me for staying up this late, I intend to sleep until about 11 tomorrow morning :))

So anyone who has ever traveled to Asia realizes that their languages (pretty much all of the languages in that region) are extremely difficult and not easily translatable by the average foreigner (again, having a Chinese speaker in your liberty group REALLY helps out!). However, the disparities between English and Chinese were quite apparent whenever you would see signs or advertisements or tee-shirts that were clearly translated from Chinese to English: it just didn’t quite look right. The grammar and the meanings and the order of words would always be shuffled around in an order that made the verbiage seem extremely funny.

So there we were, walking through the night market in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong. This being our third port visit in SE Asia, we’d gotten pretty good at the pushing through narrow stalls of foreigners and locals alike, bargaining for or pushing to sell “copy watch” or “copy purse” (side note- it turns out no matter WHAT language you speak, “copy” or “fake Louis vitton” is universal) and pashminas and trinkets and fake Ed Hardy tee-shirts and shoes (like my authentic hot pink Chuck Taylors :)) and art and knick-knacks and what not. One of the stalls was a man who would spell names in Chinese on little card stock pieces of paper, so you could get cute cards or whatever.

Also in his stall were these little signs (sometimes big ones that you would hang in your room when you were little that would say like “Molly Blvd” or whatever, others were small magnets). They were all of these “funny” sayings- you know about beer and sleep and work and being lazy stupid stuff like that. However, they were all in Chinese, with the English translation above them. And they were SO.FUNNY. The phrases were these hilarious little sayings that, while stupid in English, were absolutely HILARIOUS when translated from Chinese into English. It was almost like if you had a big set of those magnetic words that you would put on your refrigerator and re-arrange into funny nonsensical phrases.

Of all of the stalls at the market, we probably spent the most time at this one, howling with laughter over the little signs. At like $.50 each, I couldn’t resist getting a few, which are stuck to the wall in our stateroom on the ledge that we keep our toiletries by the mirror/sink. So every morning and evening, we see these little phrases and if anything, I know I’m guaranteed to laugh at least twice a day.

I wish I had pictures of them, but unfortunately I don’t. however, the first one reads:

“You are my Love, my Angle, don’t treat me like Potato”

And the second-

“You talk like Angel, Walk like Model but your body look like Buffalo”

I mean, how can that NOT make you chuckle? Don’t treat me like potato? What does that even MEAN?

Alright well, it’s bedtime for this bonzo! I was super fortunate to be able to call Dan and my mom tonight and chat for about 30 minutes total and it was sooo great to continue getting even more excited for Tiger Cruise and Homecoming! Five months down, one to go- we’re in the homestretch, folks!