American Midwest and Chinese Hinting-hua

Real examples from my own experience:
American Midwest:
“I guess the newspaper will be here by now.”
Translation: “Go get the newspaper.”
Chinese:
“I wonder what’s in the news today.”
Translation: “Go get the newspaper.”
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Tags China, American Midwest, Language, Hinting

Called Scriber Is Not Reachable

When I lived in China and I would get the following busy message I always cringed a bit at the English, but forgave them because, after all, it was English in China.
您播打的用户在无法接通，您稍后再播。
Sorry, called scriber is not reachable, please dial later.
However, upon moving back to the US, calling a Chinese number and getting this message, I [...]

Cisco Spin Part II

I know. I’ve been on a censorship blitz lately. If you’re sick of it I suggest skipping this post.
I wrote about Cisco’s corporate blog and lack of transparency a while ago, and every now and then, just out of curiosity, check back to see whether or not they are publishing comments made on one of [...]

The Power of Feedback

I have been writing to a lot of people and companies lately about various issues. One thing I have discovered in doing this is that my feedback can be very very powerful.
The best example of this has to do with Gmail. I was having a problem with Gmail in Safari where if Gmail was loading [...]

Muddled Languages

I have been playing around with Skypecasts most of the afternoon and stumbled across one called “Teach in Chinese”. I chatted a bit with the host. The contents of our chat follows:
Me: 你是主持人, 是吧?
Me: 你在吗?
Host: yes, sir
Host: 不好意思,有点忙
Host: 手里有点事
Me: 我想问一下你为什么想搞这个Skypecast?
Host: 哦, kind of Chinese Corner
Me: 哦
Me: 你作什么工作?
Host: Outsourcing
Me: 哦, 你们在哪个城市?
Host: 重庆
Host: 您呢?
Me: 北京
Host: 您是ABC?
Me: 不是
Host: [...]