Jeremy, one of my colleagues, is having a clear out of his desk and boxes of stuff because his computer is not very well. As some of the boxes came over from the old office when we moved 5 years ago and have been untouched until this day, it's been a very exciting event! Tickets have been sold, standing room only, women and horses fainting - you know the kind of thing.

One of the things he's found are photocopied extracts from a 'teach yourself Armenian' book - yes, exactly the kind of thing that everyone has in their bottom drawer. But if you knew Jeremy, you wouldn't be surprised!

Have a quick glance through, some of the translation exercises are ideal examples of everyday language and obviously the ones to learn should you be going to Armenia for your holidays this year (or even next).

EG - the 16th lesson includes the following sentances to be translated into Armenian:
Lives of great men are sublime
My soul is immortal.
My body is mortal.
Their uncle's horse is brown

From the 18th lesson:
They have seen the actor and actress.
My niece lives with an Italian lady.

From the 19th lesson:
Where were you yesterday at seven o'clock? I was in my room with the singer.

If anyone want to borrow this wonderful tome......

Maybe they speak differently in Armenia... and singers like to hang around with tourists...
;-)

I was thinking of taking all the best bits and putting them together to be next year's Eurovision entry......

Oooh, yes, I'd love to see that!

I have a Russian phrase book somewhere which tells you how to say "It is increasing at the rate of one and a half per cent every year", which must be useful for something. One of my school French textbooks was the best, though. I've no idea what the author liked to drink, but I'm convinced he liked to drink it in quantity. Choice sentences include:

"He used to tell me whether Yves was playing the saxophone."
"The pigs with whom I was now travelling seemed to like me quite well."
"I am not happy to be guarding a broken-down lorry all night."

And, most mysteriously of all:

"Bring a towel, please; then fetch the Vicar."



Post Edited (06-12-03 21:10)

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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I once saw a Bahasa phrasebook (that's the official language in Indonesia) that included some rather bizarre phrases, including the immortal:

"I hear that the doorknobs are imported from Italy."

I know it sounds like a Python sketch, but it's true . . .



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

Still giggling about the towel and the vicar........

The towel and the Vicar is class :) But all of the above are obviously very helpful in the *right* situation.

Thing is, does the bizarreness of the phrases make you remember the language any better? I attempted to learn Swedish earlier this year (some of it did stick!). But...when am I ever going to write a letter to my non-existent Swedish cousin to say thank for the cut glass bowl that was given to me on Midsummer's Eve, as it will always remind me of the maypole dancing?! A whole module on that, why not one on asking for help after being run over by a dog-sled? :-)

One of my sisters is quite fluent in Swedish - I must ask her about the cut glass bowl! :-)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Sarah - If she can explain the logic of that exercise convincingly then please pass on 'tack sa mycke' from me! :)

I wonder if the vicar and the towel is any relation to the bishop and the actress?

Maybe the line about the towel & the vicar is for use after a childbirth, for a very early christening?

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Hehe... lol.

We've got a couple of Esperanto phrase books in the Library, but I've never looked closely enough to see if there is anything daft in there.

Maybe the vicar is related to the singer?



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

Drat, Simon beat me to it.

A friend works at HSBC in their IT department. One afternoon he translated their Spanish site back into English through Babelfish. One word, possibly something to do with funds or savings, was persistantly translated at 'bottom'
The phrase 'basket of bottoms' has never been forgotten......


And got mutated into 'Going to hell in a handbasket of bottoms !'

Reminds me of my dad's translation software which persisted in translating the Italian phrase for "shopping trolley" as "undercarriage of the expense".



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Another colleague at work - David - has just purchased Monty Python and the Holy Grail on DVD.

In the extras are scenes dubbed into Chinese ............. and then the Chinese is subtitled back into English with apparently hilarious results. I say apparently because David was laughing too much at the memory of it to give me any examples.

But I let him off as I persuaded him to read TEA last month - he's now on LIAGB and has ordered his WOLP!

The Japanese scenes are indeed pretty good, although not as good as Ally McBeal in Polish (one bloke does all the voices, which is funnier than watching it in English as far as I'm concerned, and you can hear some of the english underneath anyway) and not as good as the Camelot song and dance routine in Lego...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Hubby is in a choir and at the last Christmas dinner he sang 'Man, I feel like a woman. dressed as Aunty Jack.

For those outside Aus in the 60-70's Aunty Jack was a bloke dressed up as a woman but NOTHING like Dame Edna. Aunty Jack sported beard and moustache, balloons for boobs (size 64JJ at least!) with a really lovely flowery dress, football boots and one boxing glove. And a voice like James Earl Jones with a sore throat. His favourite saying was "If you don't watch next week I'll come 'round your house and RIP YOUR BLOODY ARMS OFF!!!!"

Ahhh, memories!