I have just started to notice fortune cookies that provide not only a fortune, but a lesson in Chinese as well. While this seems like a great idea, I would take it with a grain of rice. Many English words have two or more different Chinese equivalents and according to Ken Liu's Simplicitas, English words found in the fortune cookie lessons are often translated with the characters of one Chinese word and the pronunciation of another. So don't let the joke be on you.Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Chinese Language Lessons From a Fortune Cookie???
I have just started to notice fortune cookies that provide not only a fortune, but a lesson in Chinese as well. While this seems like a great idea, I would take it with a grain of rice. Many English words have two or more different Chinese equivalents and according to Ken Liu's Simplicitas, English words found in the fortune cookie lessons are often translated with the characters of one Chinese word and the pronunciation of another. So don't let the joke be on you.
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2 comments:
It's worse than that. Sometimes the translations are so preposterous that one suspects either a truly diabolical prankster or a truly awful piece of automatic translation software was at fault (and is there any way to tell the difference?). See another post by me on this.
The Chinese themselves don't seem to care much about this problem though. Odd for a people reputedly careful about appearances.
Oh, I meant to add: great pictures!
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