Mandarin class today...
Jul. 13th, 2004 09:43 am...will meet in the kitchen. Why the kitchen, you ask?
Because we're making fortune cookies, of course.
Before anyone feels the need to point this out to me, yes, I'm fully aware of the fact that fortune cookies were invented right here in the good old USA early in the last century and are thus about as Chinese as... I'm lacking a good metaphor here, feel free to supply one yourself. But I've never believed that you should let cultural authenticity get in the way of an entertaining exercise in translation.
What I want you all to do is come prepared with an English fortune - a single sentence, that's all. While we're in the kitchen making the cookies, you'll swap English fortunes with your conversational partner and prepare an on-the-spot translation. Which will then be written down on the handy little paper strips I'll provide - look, exercise in the script, too! - and then, of course, inserted in the cookies.
Lorna, I promise, if they make a mess I'll make sure they clean it up...
Because we're making fortune cookies, of course.
Before anyone feels the need to point this out to me, yes, I'm fully aware of the fact that fortune cookies were invented right here in the good old USA early in the last century and are thus about as Chinese as... I'm lacking a good metaphor here, feel free to supply one yourself. But I've never believed that you should let cultural authenticity get in the way of an entertaining exercise in translation.
What I want you all to do is come prepared with an English fortune - a single sentence, that's all. While we're in the kitchen making the cookies, you'll swap English fortunes with your conversational partner and prepare an on-the-spot translation. Which will then be written down on the handy little paper strips I'll provide - look, exercise in the script, too! - and then, of course, inserted in the cookies.
Lorna, I promise, if they make a mess I'll make sure they clean it up...
Re: Oh dear lord...
Date: 2004-07-13 11:42 am (UTC)It's Pingstein, is the actual thing--he's some kind of really amazingly distant cousin of my friend Mr. Roth, and when he's not almost the only Jewish Chinese-restaurant owner in New York, he does homemade jewelry for fun, and can apparently get a really good price on stuff like gold wire. But it's still out of my price range.
Those fries were really, really good, though.