Monday, November 26, 2007

Scribbles and Scrambles - Completely Lost in Translation.


The theme of my holiday weekend seemed to be translation error.

For starters, I finally watched Lost in Translation with Bill Murray. Note: read reviews if you are tempted to see it. I just posted mine at Amazon. It will appeal to a very specific people group...make sure you are within the group range or you may not like it.

And now for the story.

A family member who shall remain nameless (no, not Pat) recently discovered something new in our multilingual world.

To quote this person. " I just found out that hola meant hello."

To which one other unnamed family member shook her head and said "Hola!!"

By now you may know that my family rarely lets anything go. If there is humor in it, it will be milked. One of my childhood nicknames is completely politically incorrect or I'd share it with you. (Yes, this is probably why I am what I am!)

So, in light of this lovely family trait, this information was shared with two more family members at a small family gathering. "Hey, nameless-to-protect-face just found out that hola meant hello."

One of the tellees snickered and joined in. The other said. "What. What does that mean?"


In a quickie replay of Who's on First, the statement was repeated a few more times with the same response. Finally, exasperated, the tellee said. " I don't get it. What's a holameanthello?"


Good question.


So, when you are out and about tomorrow, watch for the holameanthellos.


And if you don't get this...consider it a translation error. Seems to be the theme.