Language and Humor Blog

‘Ticket-holding fits’? (lost in translation)

Kevin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:02:27 +0000

Have you ever been so excited to ride a boat that you had ticket-holding fits? Perhaps, but I don’t think that’s what the translator of a certain Chinese sign meant.

A photo on Leonie Doyle’s blog (Lightlyskipping) shows a sign for tourists in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in Southern China. “To the boat(s) for ticket-holding fits” is the English translation.

The full Chinese is very different from the English, so I’ll save it for below. Let’s just start with the “fits” part. Usually, these bad translations come from the fact that Chinese words, like English words, can have multiple meanings and the wrong meaning can get translated. (Professor Victor Mair sometimes posts about these on Language Log, such as here, here, and here.) But in the Chinese on this sign (assuming the characters are representing Mandarin Chinese and not potentially differing meanings in the local Wu) nothing seems to also mean “fit.”

This seems instead to be a visual confusion of characters:

旅游 (lü3you2, traditional: 旅遊 ), “tour” in “tour group” on the sign and
放好 (fang4hao3), “fit” in the sense of “to place/store (something) well.”

Thus, “To the boat(s) for ticket-holding [tourists]” is probably what they meant.

The full Chinese is:

买好船票的游客（非旅游团队）请由此排队乘船。
mai3hao3 chuan2piao4 de5 lü3ke4 (fei1lü3you2tuan2dui4) qing3 you2ci3 pai2dui4 cheng2chuan2
(traditional: 買好船票的旅客（非旅遊團隊）請由此排隊乘船。)
“Travelers who plan to buy boat tickets (non-tour group) please thus line up to ride the boat.”
(more fully: Travelers who get ready to ride the boat by buying the necessary boat tickets (non-tour group) please thus line up.)

Again, the corrected English is:

“To the boat(s) for ticket-holding [tourists]”

So, the sign tells Chinese readers without tickets to line up and implies that English readers with tickets can go right ahead. I don’t think it helps that they added the “international” symbol for line up / queue up: a woman and a man standing behind another man who has one leg raised as if he’s about to start hopping.

‘The Calculendar Commercial’ video (Rebecca Black – ‘Friday’-Inspired)

Kevin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:52:38 +0000

Have trouble figuring out the days of the week? You need The Calculendar! (Available in many languages.)

This TV-commercial parody was inspired by the lyrics

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today it is Friday, Friday [. . .]

Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes afterwards

from Rebecca Black’s song “Friday” (which was written by adults not by the young singer).

Link to The Calculendar video

Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

You don’t need to watch the original video first, Rebecca Black – Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO), but here it is:

Link to music video

Happy Chinese New Year ‘tu’ you!

Kevin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:51:14 +0000

It’s Chinese New Year’s Day. Happy Year of the Rabbit! According to Language Log and Dog sun, the clever thing for Chinese cards now is Chinese-English mixing of greetings. Thus:

“Happy New Year 兔 you!” (Happy New Year tu you!; tu4, rabbit).

2009 was the year of the ox/bull and used “Happy 牛 Year!” (niu2 [nyo], ox/bull).

2012 will be the dragon ( 龍 long2 [lung]). Perhaps they could sing “Auld 龍 Syne.” Or they could use the dragon zodiac sign ( 辰 chen2 [chuhn]): “Happy 辰ese New Year!”

2017 is rooster ( 雞 ji1, but the zodiac sign is 酉 you3 [yo]), so maybe: “酉, Happy New Year!”

See more about Chinese New Year and zodiac signs with Chinese characters on my old post:
Happy Boar Year 2007!

2010 Australian word of the year: googleganger

Kevin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:35:02 +0000

Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary announced their word of the year (WOTY) for 2010 yesterday:

googleganger
'goohguhlganguh [American dialects end in "-ur" for many]

noun a person with the same name as oneself, whose online references are mixed with one’s own among search results for one’s name.

[google + (doppel)ganger]

By the way, I’m not the Kevin Sullivan who wrote, directed, and produced the Canadian Anne of Green Gables television movies.

Macquarie Dictionary also has people’s choice awards in 18 categories.

See more years plus UK and American words of the year on my site:

UK and Australian English Words of the Year (since 2006)

Language Expert Susie Dent of Oxford University Press (OUP), United Kingdom
Macquarie Dictionary, Australia

American English Word of the Year (since 1990)

American Dialect Society (ADS)
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary
New Oxford American Dictionary
Webster’s New World College Dictionary

‘Spot the Ambiguity’ video

Kevin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:23:01 +0000

Steven and Brandon have a misunderstanding. Can you spot the ambiguity?

Link to video

Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

‘The Time That’s Spruced With Pine’ (my video)

Kevin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:35:24 +0000

After a short, original light-verse poem, hear about Christmas and Japanese New Year’s and learn some Japanese words related to New Year’s.

Link to video

Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

‘Dictionary of American Regional English’ nearly complete and tweets

Kevin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:32:02 +0000

If you’re interested in American dialect words, look no further than the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). The nearly completed multi-volume dictionary (with Volume I, A–C released in 1985 and Volume V, Slab–Z due in 2011 [Fall 2010 newsletter]) would cost you hundreds of U.S. dollars (electronic version coming eventually), but on the site you can get 100 sample entries, plus quizzes and more.

You can also get a word a day by following darewords on Twitter. I have.

‘Talking to Zoo Animals’ (my video)

Kevin — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:26:47 +0000

Here’s my story of talking to zoo animals and imitating their calls. It’s a true story, but I took some dramatic license. I didn’t actually wear glasses as a young child. And I don’t remember the monkeys’ food being invisible.

Link to video

Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

Funny video: ‘Don’t You Just Love Working in an Office?’

Kevin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 04:24:22 +0000

Youtube videos are not all stunts/cute animals or else (near-)professional content. There are also simple, low-budget amateur videos that are well-written and well-performed, such as katinatreesee’s video “Don’t You Just Love Working in an Office?” She plays a slacker office-worker messing around with the phone and office supplies.

Link to video

‘Language and Humor: First Show’ (My first live-action video)

Kevin — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:21:28 +0000

This is the first show of “Language and Humor.” You’ll see that everything goes well until— Actually, you’ll see that it never starts going well.

Could I— Could I have a moment alone, please?

Link to video

Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.