tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post4074072292326753400..comments2024-01-08T19:49:13.932+00:00Comments on Froogville: It's only my sense of humour that keeps me goingFrooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-33803811629965860612012-10-04T01:53:59.591+00:002012-10-04T01:53:59.591+00:00While the basic meaning the guy is striving for he...While the basic meaning the guy is striving for here can be inferred easily enough, the images that he's adopted are utterly ludicrous, and the metaphor just doesn't work.<br /><br />Nobody patches their underpants. (Do they??)<br /><br />An overcoat - however "bright and colourful" - doesn't necessarily hide or distract from the clothes underneath, because it doesn't cover <i>everything</i>, particularly if it is unbuttoned. But you would normally expect - except with some crazy street-dweller, perhaps - that <i>other clothes</i> would be concealing the underwear. It's just nonsensical.<br /><br />What the author meant (and the original article had been written, though presumably by a ghost writer, under the name of one of the junior ministers of Foreign Affairs) was: <b>"You shouldn't suppose that the rest of the country looks like Shanghai."</b> He should have just said that!<br /><br />Chinese rhetoric seems to love overblown imagery. It's very hard to persuade people here that - especially in formal contexts like an academic article on diplomatic policy - it is much better to just use plain and direct language.<br /><br /><br />Here, of course, my author was again making the tired argument that 'You can't expect China to contribute much to global public goods because she's not really a very developed country yet.' Yes, it's true, up to a point. But China wants to have its cake and eat it: the government (and the people) pride themselves on having once again become a significant world power and the leading regional power in SE Asia, and aspires to rival or displace America as a globally dominant superpower. But they don't want to shoulder the international responsibilities that come with that elevated status. I read this twaddle over and over and over again in these think tank papers.<br /><br />Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-33747110455301309692012-10-04T00:25:39.233+00:002012-10-04T00:25:39.233+00:00Ah, thanks, Don. I think I've heard that - but...Ah, thanks, Don. I think I've heard <i>that</i> - but it's almost unrecognisable from the "patched underwear" I was given.<br /><br />There's this one particular translator this think tank uses a lot who has got the reputation of being "the best" they have, solely, I think, on the basis that he uses a plethora of colourful and wildly inappropriate idioms. They're impressed that he even knows this kind of English. I am perpetually frustrated that he doesn't know how to use it <i>correctly</i>.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-55771969984235600592012-10-03T23:26:17.138+00:002012-10-03T23:26:17.138+00:00"The seemingly bright and colourful overcoat ..."The seemingly bright and colourful overcoat could not possibly cover up the patched underwear beneath."<br /><br />Hilarious! This is a Chinese idiom, but their translation is much more colourful.<br /><br />金玉其外败絮其中 jīnyùqíwài, bàixùqízhōng, or "gilded exterior, shabby and ruined on the inside (idiom)", or my dictionary says "rubbish coated in gold and jade".Don Taihttp://www.dontai.com/wp/noreply@blogger.com