(Untitled)

[criminalize]

so i've been attempting to translate technical articles (primarily about spray products, e.g. deodorant, insect repellent etc.) from english to chinese for my mom in my spare time. in addition to translation i've also been editing the english, 'cause it was written by a non-native speaker.

Comments

[vilajunkie]

LMAO Yeah, the sentence structure is "Keep out of/ reach of children/ and/ eyes." "Reach of" isn't connected to eyes. It's actually a really common phrase in actual English-language aerosol products, so it's not just a poor non-native speaker thing. English makes a lot of clauses and...whatever that word is that means connections between clauses, that don't make sense to other languages. If you tried to fix the sentence, it would read "Keep out of eyes and out of reach of children", which is just awkward and too many words for 21st Century English. English likes to cut out phrases that repeat themselves as long as the native speakers know what the sentence means.

[criminalize]

either way, though, isn't telling someone to keep bug spray out of their eyes kinda... obvious? D: like it goes without saying?

[vilajunkie]

You'd think so, but then look at all the idiots on Youtube who do stuff like set themselves on fire because it's "cool" or "funny". Or people who shove stuff up their noses and butts. Society is way more stupid than you might realize. :P

Oh, and, McDonald's actually has to put "Caution: Contents May Be Hot"...on the coffee cups. All because some woman in the 80's or 90's was dumb enough to put hot coffee in her lap.

[criminalize]

oh, true. i saw something before about someone who drunkenly made a flaming shot and then tried to drink it... they were spitting fire. got severe burns all the way down their throat. it sounds horrendous; idk how anyone could be that stupid.

ooh, i remember this! late 90s, i think it was. either that or early 00's. haha, that's like that woman who sued 'cause mcdonalds made her kids fat or something. honestly, what does she expect? it's MCDONALDS.

[distorted_r]

What the heck. XD Damn, that must have been so annoying to do.

[criminalize]

it's the first time i've ever translated a technical article into chinese. i normally do magazine articles into english. @__@ i'm not very good at chinese either, so it was... really hard, ahahaha.