Tuesday, January 06, 2009

English Education

I was helping Jia translate a picture dictionary for a friend and had to tell her what some of the objects were in English so she could look them up in Chinese. We were using a common translation program online--something I've seen co-workers use before. It usually has some good translations.

We had to look up "blowtorch." After finding the translation, I noticed that the site provided a sample sentence. "He have all the apparatus, including a blowtorch, for freebasing cocaine."

Not only is this sentence grammatically incorrect, but it is definitely not promoting the harmonious society that Hu Jintao has been promoting since I arrived in China.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

haha, that's great.

Jill Browne said...

Too funny! Perhaps creme brulee didn't make the cut because it's in French.

Enjoying your blog. ;-)