Useful English phrases translated into Mandarin...mostly correctly.

[randomness]

Thanks to a_dodecahedron for the pointer to this hilarious page

http://zompist.com/phrases3.html

which will particularly delight my friends who can read Mandarin, because there are a number of nasty little landmines scattered amongst the correct translations.

A couple of highlights:

"I admire you above all for your purity of spirit and your appreciation of the arts." is actually more like "How 'bout you come back to my hotel and we can 'mess around'?"

"How about a little contribution to the Policeman's Ball?" is actually "How much money?"

Enjoy!

For extra fun, the phrasebook is also available in French, Spanish, and German and Russian, Italian, Danish, Dutch.

Actual quotes from phrasebooks are in They Thought You'd Say This, which I think cries out for a contribution from drbitch's and frotz's Icelandic tourist handbook.

Comments

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

In a similar vein, there's Joanna Russ's Useful Phrases For The Intergalactic Tourist

The search I employed to find that URL also trolled up some truly weird stuff.

[ceo]

I'm particularly amused by

I understand your language perfectly.
Je parle français comme une vache espagnole. ["like a Spanish cow"]
Hablo español como un gringo borracho. ["like a drunken gringo"]
Ich sprechen deutsch wie italienisch Fußballtrainer. ["like an Italian soccer coach"]

Holy shit Hen niubi

[alexinbeijing.livejournal.com]

That's awesome... My favorite is this one: "I must compliment you on your understanding of our language.
Ta1 ma1 de, ni3 shen2me ye3 mei2 dong3, dui4 ma?
他妈的，你什么也没懂，对吗？"

Re: Holy shit Hen niubi

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

That is a really good one. I figured I'd leave it as "an exercise to the interested reader". :)

Re: Holy shit Hen niubi

[alexinbeijing.livejournal.com]

Oh, I guess I should translate that one, huh? The Chinese is something like "F%&*!, you don't understand *anything*, do you?"

Re: Holy shit Hen niubi

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

See, you're nicer than I am. I was just going to let someone stroll across that landmine. :)

Re: Holy shit Hen niubi

[alexinbeijing.livejournal.com]

你坏蛋! :)