Just like Chinese milk, Wikipedia is no longer safe to consume
Wikipedia is not really palatable, but as they say, they eat everything in China.
Last year Language Log posted a quite unusual menu in a Chinese restaurant that serves stir-fried Wikipedia, with a choice of egg or pimiento.
Few days ago, while searching for some online Chinese academic journals, I stumbled into this particular medical survey on "food poisoning due to eating wikipedia contaminated with Salmonella".
The original Chinese title for this rather strange foodborne illness is 一起河粉引起的沙门菌食物中毒调查, where it clearly shows that the food that really contaminated with Salmonella is actually 河粉 (pinyin: hé fěn), otherwise known as 粿條 (pinyin: guǒ tiáo), a kind of flat rice noodle.
What makes the author translated 河粉 as wikipedia is puzzling me, but apparently since Wikipedia is contaminated with Salmonella, it is no longer safe to be eaten, just like tons of other "Made in PRC" foodstuffs.
And no, I don't think Uncyclopedia is any safer.
Last year Language Log posted a quite unusual menu in a Chinese restaurant that serves stir-fried Wikipedia, with a choice of egg or pimiento.
Few days ago, while searching for some online Chinese academic journals, I stumbled into this particular medical survey on "food poisoning due to eating wikipedia contaminated with Salmonella".
The original Chinese title for this rather strange foodborne illness is 一起河粉引起的沙门菌食物中毒调查, where it clearly shows that the food that really contaminated with Salmonella is actually 河粉 (pinyin: hé fěn), otherwise known as 粿條 (pinyin: guǒ tiáo), a kind of flat rice noodle.
What makes the author translated 河粉 as wikipedia is puzzling me, but apparently since Wikipedia is contaminated with Salmonella, it is no longer safe to be eaten, just like tons of other "Made in PRC" foodstuffs.
And no, I don't think Uncyclopedia is any safer.
posted by Nishiki at
11:47 PM
2 Comments:
Uncyclopedia is not safe in Malaysia.
I have always assumed that this class of error arose from someone typing the word they are trying to translate into a search engine then assuming the first English word they did not recognize in the result was the word they were looking for.
…a technique which probably works fairly well, except when it doesn't.
Sadly, if they knew what Wikipedia was (and had access to it) they could usually use it to translate words like that by finding the Wikipedia article on the subject, then using the in-other-languages box in the lower left sidebar.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home