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Only thing that irritates me as a non-english is the spreading (mis) use of "SMS-english", you know:
" my m8 got 1 fr bday" You are NOT typing SMS´s here, please, take the time to write full words! There is no 160 char. limit here
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Posted: 2005-01-09 12:19:56
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If someone speaks English, I expect them to understand it as it is intended in general usage - not some hillybilly translation of their own.

I got an interesting quote from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Quote:
"There's glory for you!"
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' " Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!' "
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,' " Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is, " said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty. "which is to be master—that's all."

[ This Message was edited by: GOwin on 2005-01-09 14:15 ]
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Posted: 2005-01-09 15:13:00
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Are you really this? My translation - hey a**hole im talking to you. Or. Own dumba** what part of (subject or instruction) dont u understand? This message was posted from a T610
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Posted: 2005-01-09 15:22:48
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@GOwin, I can almost understand your frustrations and your strategic use of "Dense" looks rather tricky back there

Going back a bit, I have another way of translating the "PANG ILANG PRESIDENTE SI GLORIA ARROYO?" question to an english equivalent which would require a similar answer which is 14th. It's quite simple and straightforward if you come to think of it. Since 14th is an ordinal rank then the question would simply be "At what ordinal rank is Gloria Arroyo as the president (of the Philippines)?". Nobody I know has ever tried to translate it that way.
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Posted: 2005-01-10 03:47:00
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You may call it tricky while some may call it sarcasm - wit even.

Whatever.
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Posted: 2005-01-10 05:25:45
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Too bad it was too tricky for some that they didn't realize that the sarcasm was pointed towards them.

I think some of us should learn to "read between the lines" or is that too difficult.
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Posted: 2005-01-10 05:41:43
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@blackspot
i think, HARD would be the right term.
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Posted: 2005-01-10 16:44:02
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Ok, enough of that.

Let get back to nuances, not nuisances.
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Posted: 2005-01-10 16:57:00
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@Any Esatonians from the Phillipines

Can one of you please explain the comment about President Arroyo for those of us who do not live in the Phillipines?
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Posted: 2005-01-10 20:05:26
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It was an attempt to make an example that literal translation doesn't always work. In English, there is no literal equivalent for the Pilipino word for "pang-ilan".

The nearest thing to it would be like asking, "Arroyo is the nth president of the Philippines?"

The expected answer would be an ordinal number.
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Posted: 2005-01-11 00:54:35
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