http://www.mandevu.net/2009/01/05/easiness-schlep/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:13:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 http://www.mandevu.net/2009/01/05/easiness-schlep/comment-page-1/#comment-85076 JimSh Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:02:14 +0000 http://www.mandevu.net/?p=151#comment-85076 From what I know about English translating in China, there are a number of electronic dictionaries and computer programs into which you type the Chinese word and it gives you what it considers the English equivalent(s). I'm sure you've seen it too, but a lot of signs translated into English in China get translated into a strange scramble of words from such methods. The fact that it says "powerful-weak" I'm guessing is its bragging of a high and low setting, not of both superior power and weakness to other brands. The fact is, things such as this export to Cambodia and English signs in China is that they won't typically ever be seen by native-English speakers anyway (or at least not acted upon), which eliminates much need for accuracy. My guess is schlep somehow made it into a dictionary and came up for whatever word they were looking up--maybe the Chinese words for "easy" and "carrying". Who knows though--your theory is more fun. From what I know about English translating in China, there are a number of electronic dictionaries and computer programs into which you type the Chinese word and it gives you what it considers the English equivalent(s). I’m sure you’ve seen it too, but a lot of signs translated into English in China get translated into a strange scramble of words from such methods. The fact that it says “powerful-weak” I’m guessing is its bragging of a high and low setting, not of both superior power and weakness to other brands. The fact is, things such as this export to Cambodia and English signs in China is that they won’t typically ever be seen by native-English speakers anyway (or at least not acted upon), which eliminates much need for accuracy. My guess is schlep somehow made it into a dictionary and came up for whatever word they were looking up–maybe the Chinese words for “easy” and “carrying”. Who knows though–your theory is more fun.

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