dimanche 10 août 2008

Translations gone awry

快乐 (kuai4 le4) This means "happiness" in chinese. It's used generally to describe happiness. However, just like English, there are variations, to describe the degree of happiness and different types of happiness.

For example, "高兴" (gao1 xing4) would mean "happy" as in "I am happy with my job". In order to exaggerate the degree of happiness, one can use "快乐如神仙" (kuai4 le4 ru2 shen2 xian1) and this means to be as happy as an immortal.















Apparently, the owner of this place tried to get an English translation for the words 餐厅 (can1 ting1) but got an error message instead and didn't realise it. 餐厅 literally means Canteen or dining place.
















I have no idea how they managed to get such a translation! But what the words "生鲜超市" (sheng1 xian1 chao1 shi4) literally means is "live" and fresh supermarket. Maybe what it really means is that it's a supermarket that sells really fresh goods.

Aucun commentaire: