The HARLK

"My eeengleesh teecha...he harlk!" 

"He's what? What's a 'harlk'?" 

"Yes the HARLK! You know harlk? He have BIG muscle and green and so very strong! HARLK HARLK HARLK! HARLK SMAAAAAA!"

Ok so this post I've been trying to write for several days, but it wasn't until I saw something that caught my eye this morning on the way to bus duty. Many times it's funny to see what gets lost in translation between English and Chinese but this particular sign was somewhat...disturbing. Long story short (and since I can't remember the exact wording), there were several, large, movie poster size advertisements for a local hospital that would perform a controversial procedure for women. It kind of took me aback how blatantly advertised this was just out on a local street and main road in China. 

One of my favorite examples of getting lost in translations is that almost every time a student is home sick for some reason it's because, " Blank student is not here today. They have diarrhea and will not come to school."  Not that we aren't totally comfortable talking about bodily functions here in China between us teachers but....lost in translations. 

It's funny that I thought about this today as I just recently saw on my newsfeed someone commenting about how frustrating it was when others take quotes from the Book out of context.  It's almost exactly what happens with things here in Chinese.  The translator, whoever it is, just wants to make sure we get the main idea of the advertisement or context when really, details are just as important sometimes.
Those are the thoughts of the day.  Now I should really go fix myself some dinner and maybe clean my room that I've been trying to clean for 4ish days now.