Write about your favourite past time.
How would you have understood the above statement? Is it
A. A sweet memory; OR
B. A lousy hobby ?
It was quite surprised to know that actually most chinese-educated people would mis-interpret the sentence as to write about a memorable moment in the past, instead of the real meaning to write about a hobby or interest.
It is not their (or rather our, oh yea i'm chinese-educated too) fault to be blamed on, in fact. I guess....it's just Lost In Translation. XD.
Oh by the way that was one past year question of Feature Writing subject I'm taking this semetser - the lecturer told us about this doubled-meaning "statement" had caused some students to get zero mark. (Ouch, fcuk right, for those students. >.<) Just before I end this post, let's try another example : "What keeps you awake at nights?"
What would you have to say? Is it
A. something that causes you to wake up in the middle of night from your dreams;
B. something that causes you to fail to have some sleep even though you wanted to; OR
C. something that causes you to be awake actively doing things the whole night ??
Oh no, another romantic confusion for us. Prepared to be lost in translation in this English-dominating world. :P
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Lost in Translation
Written by Erica Chin at 8:27 PM
Labels: University, Word-maze
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2 comments:
My answer is C. Though I chose 'C', majority answers from my friends make me feel unsure of something that I confident in. I'm lacking in self-confidence since misinterpret always happens on my statement.
haha....well yea the answer is C la... mis-interpret always happens in life, we've just gotta be careful! :P
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