Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Olympics


Who says the olympics shouldn't take place in China. Olympics in China is fun, here are some examples.

Adjectives: French swimmer Bernard is described as "The Brute-sized Frenchman" in the Chinese Media.

The other thing I will mention briefly is the olympic hostesses which were celebrated with the headline Perfect hostesses outclass sexy cheerleaders by the Chinese English language daily.

Being a hostess is not easy, below I have copied some requirements mentioned in the above article.

"Hostess candidates ... aged 18 to 24, between 1.68 and 1.78 metres in height (5 ft 5 ins and 5 ft 8 ins), with a "ruddy and shiny complexion", "elastic skin" and "a plump but not fat body".

"Their faces needed to meet standards including the ratio between the "width of the nose and the length of the face" and "width of the mouth and width between the pupils", with eyes three-tenths the length of the face."

The last thing I would like to mention is a resounding victory of Chinese Pigdin English (Charmingly called 'Chinglish') signs and menus, etc. These have been the victim of a campaign for their total destruction, but in a masterstroke Reuters article the author states "Texas-based Global Language Monitor (GLM), which analyses word usage trends, said Beijing was fighting a losing battle and should celebrate "this delightful mixture of Chinese and English"."

Thank God the Olympics isn't all about sports and obnoxious 'olympic spirit'.

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