No great moments of Chinglish as such this week, but a few inspired spelling foul-ups.
At one point I was called upon to initiate a conversation by greeting my female partner, DD, thus: "Hi, Sop Hail!" Sophia, I imagine, had been intended.
A little later DD, playing a hotel receptionist, delighted in being able to tell me: "I'm sorry, you haven't been fisted under that name."
After that laughter break, we came upon the oddity of a passage about employment practices talking about "out of rice men". Completely stumped on that one. Any help, anyone? Brendan?? I wonder if it's perhaps a Chinese phrase for contract workers, outsourcing ("iron rice bowl" is the standard idiom for being a job-for-life salary man).
Oh yes, it's a fascinating job.
2 comments:
Hmm, if those with employment have rice, then those without rice are the unemployed??
No, the context seemed to suggest that they were a category of employees.
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