mistranslation or paranoia?
i received an e-mail from someone today. the e-mail consisted primarily of one sentence: "You have stolen my thoughts."
i won't keep you in the dark, it's a mistranslation, but taken out of context, the paranoia factor is grand. i have to send something from site to another site in thailand. being the indian customs is so tough, there's a chance some customs fees may need to be paid in thailand. i can't do that, so i suggested i send them to the guy who arranged the transfer, and indian on the west coast, and he send them on to thailand. a lot less headache for me. and he replied with that sentence and an address. so "You have stolen my thoughts." = "you read my mind" in normal english.
reminds me of the first manager i had working for TheGeneral, a korean who didn't understand that beginning engineers might not have $1000 to throw in their pocket for overseas travel to be reimbursed later. he also had a poor grasp on english colloquialisms. i always joked that i should call my ombudsperson and tell them my manager was sexually harassing me. whenever he'd call me on the phone about a job or progress or whatever, more of then than not he'd end "feel free to touch me anytime." rather than "feel free to GET IN touch anytime". pervert.
i won't keep you in the dark, it's a mistranslation, but taken out of context, the paranoia factor is grand. i have to send something from site to another site in thailand. being the indian customs is so tough, there's a chance some customs fees may need to be paid in thailand. i can't do that, so i suggested i send them to the guy who arranged the transfer, and indian on the west coast, and he send them on to thailand. a lot less headache for me. and he replied with that sentence and an address. so "You have stolen my thoughts." = "you read my mind" in normal english.
reminds me of the first manager i had working for TheGeneral, a korean who didn't understand that beginning engineers might not have $1000 to throw in their pocket for overseas travel to be reimbursed later. he also had a poor grasp on english colloquialisms. i always joked that i should call my ombudsperson and tell them my manager was sexually harassing me. whenever he'd call me on the phone about a job or progress or whatever, more of then than not he'd end "feel free to touch me anytime." rather than "feel free to GET IN touch anytime". pervert.
posted by slyght at 6/27/2006 05:32:00 AM
2 Comments:
or maybe he really wanted to touch you...
ya haveta love the language barrier. chuckle, chuckle.
XXXOOO
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