English Words, Phrases and Expressions

I learn not a small measure of knowledge from reading this New York Times articles alone, titled "Obama, in His New Role, Calls for Stimulus Package". The article is a report from US President-elect Barack Obama's news conference.

1. "...approached the lectern. (I would have written "approached the rostrum" because I just came to know of the word "lectern" today)

2. "He smiled as he looked out at a large retinue assembled from around the world." (retinue -- a group of people who travel with someone important, eg a huge retinue of servants)

3. "... seen only in faraway shots as he dashed from the gym." (Non-native English speaker might have written "... as he hurried from the gym.")

4. "I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances." (seance -- a meeting where people try to communicate with the spirits of dead people)

5. "careless and offhanded remark. (I should start using "offhanded remarks" in the translation of the Malay word "terlepas kata")

6. "...a warm conversation." (I should really learn to use the word "warm" other than in connection to the weather)

7. "an array of economic advisers." (another way of saying "a team of economic advisers")

8. "...offered no new specifics about what he intended to do to."

9. "But the stagecraft of the news conference, held after a closed-door meeting of Mr. Obama’s economic advisers, was intended to show that he was hard at work in search of solutions." (I just love the chemistry of the two concepts)

10. "The session carried the trappings of an official event, with eight American flags lined against blue drapes."

11. "...to get a brief respite after a 22-month campaign."

Thinking In English And The Asian Way Of Saying Things

It was another day at work yesterday until my superior came over to my desk in the afternoon and whispered to me to take a look at one of the translations I did earlier in the morning.

"This is very Asian way of saying things," she told me.

The paragraph in question is about a man being struck by lightning at so and so time. I had translated the paragraph literally from the Malay copy without changing the structure of the sentence.

In the original copy, the paragraph was: "Dalam kejadian pada pukul 7 petang itu, Ali, 27, sedang bermain bola bersama rakan-rakan apabila kejadian itu berlaku," -- which itself is already a badly written copy.

So I translated it thus, "In the 7pm incident, Ali, 27, was playing with several friends when the lightning struck."

My superior said the better way of translating the paragraph would be: "Ali, 27, was playing with several friends when the lightning struck at 7pm." I kind of agreeing with her. It does sound better this way.

By the way, in case you want to know the story, the man died in the incident. And according to eye witnesses, the weather was fine at that time. The picture above, taken by yours truly, is for illustration purposes only.