Posted in Language, Translation on Jul 1st, 2008 6 Comments »
My first clue came in Taiwan when I was teaching English.
I’d approach the grammar portion of the lesson with fear and trepidation. Give myself a glancing review of subordinate clauses, predicate adjectives and past perfect participles. Relying as much on my students inability to understand English, as my own well honed skills in extemporaneous [...]
Posted in China, Medicine, Translation, Travel on Oct 10th, 2007 No Comments »
Sunday night was like any Sunday night before an early rising to meet the plane that would float me back across the ocean to the Middle Kingdom. Restless. Dream filled shallow sleep that longed for oblivion and respite from the months of planning and preparation. It did not arrive. It was like being a child [...]
Posted in China, Translation, Travel on Apr 21st, 2007 No Comments »
At times, it is not unlike bashing through concrete and rebar with a wobbly headed sledgehammer.
Somehow in wriggling across the borders of Chinese and English, nouns and verbs become pathologically flexible, the doer and the doing get mightly confused as to who is the lead, and who is the follow.
I suppose that had I had [...]
Posted in China, Medicine, Translation on Mar 30th, 2007 No Comments »
Since buying my latest ticket to Shanghai, I hear this question a lot.
“Oh, back to China? How often do you go?”
It is still a question that is difficult to answer.
In some ways, I’ve not left, I just happen to live on this side of the pond.
And while life does indeed unfold on this [...]
Posted in Curiosity, Language, Translation on Dec 15th, 2006 No Comments »
Reading and translation are two completely different skills.
.
If only translation were as easy as the multiple choice test of ordering off a Chinese menu.
As simple as translating words, and having the grammar and meaning neatly tag along.
As logical as math with it’s A+B=C.
No….translation is not just about words, it’s about how you string all together [...]
Posted in China, Medicine, Translation, Travel on Oct 27th, 2006 No Comments »
I’d been lamenting the anesthesia grey sky, wondering if they ever, anywhere in China, see blue sky these days.
It does exist.
At 33,000 feet on the way from Chengdu to Nanjing.
“中國通!”
It’s the phrase they use here to say “your Chinese is good, you know how to communicate”. I hear, and ignore it all the time. [...]