12.10.2007

Again?!


What is up with China and the "f" word? Someone sent me this picture with the same Chinese character that was also translated into the "f" word in the swearing menu. At first I thought it was a photoshop job or a joke, but then I looked at the Chinese character in the swearing menu and this photo, and saw that it was the same. Either there are some really dumb people translating that character, or this is a sick joke.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The character in question (gan) is one of those pesky chinese characters that has two variant readings. When pronounced with one tone, it means 'dry' - which is what it should have been translated as, dry goods. However, pronounced with another tone, it can mean 'fuck'. I have come across this mistranslation many times too. I can only assume that all of these people are using the same machine translation programme, or there's some cranky chinese translators out there having some fun at their employer's expense!

Margaret Larkin said...

Thanks for the info--I talked to someone from Macao who explained it to me, though not as well as you just did! Now I can see the misunderstanding, though I don't know why the translator wouldn't just run it past a knowledgeable English speaker.