Just looked up the Cantonese, and apparently they have the same 山核桃 = pecan as on the mainland, but a whole other word, 合桃, for walnut. Even more chaos. XD) Seriously! (Are 核桃 and 合桃 pronounced the same in Cantonese like they are in Mandarin?) And thanks for the notes above about the hickory tree, I wouldn't have made that connection. Possibly there are Chinese learners of English currently groaning about why English says "pecans" sometime and "hickory" other times?
Is this an older translation? I feel like with the internet at one's fingertips, it would be pretty easy to figure out what "two left legs" means, but I can imagine that pre-internet it might not have been that easy to figure out idiomatic stuff if you weren't a native speaker... No, published in 2015, sadly. My guess is a combination of an underqualified translator with mostly textbook-only experience, plus being underpaid and on a short deadline. Oh well, maybe in ten years I'll know enough Chinese to revise it for my own amusement.
Lovely Zhu Yilong links, thank you for sharing. <3 (Also hoping for less RL whump for him, jeez.) Pleasure as always, and yeah, "less RL whump" exactly, sigh.
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Seriously! (Are 核桃 and 合桃 pronounced the same in Cantonese like they are in Mandarin?) And thanks for the notes above about the hickory tree, I wouldn't have made that connection. Possibly there are Chinese learners of English currently groaning about why English says "pecans" sometime and "hickory" other times?
Is this an older translation? I feel like with the internet at one's fingertips, it would be pretty easy to figure out what "two left legs" means, but I can imagine that pre-internet it might not have been that easy to figure out idiomatic stuff if you weren't a native speaker...
No, published in 2015, sadly. My guess is a combination of an underqualified translator with mostly textbook-only experience, plus being underpaid and on a short deadline. Oh well, maybe in ten years I'll know enough Chinese to revise it for my own amusement.
Lovely Zhu Yilong links, thank you for sharing. <3 (Also hoping for less RL whump for him, jeez.)
Pleasure as always, and yeah, "less RL whump" exactly, sigh.