ALMATY: A couple of hours after we took off on Tuesday for Almaty, I was surrounded by reporters from China. I was only too glad to share my excitement with them when I made my first verbal slip.
"The Games' safety lanterns and cauldrons embody features of China's ancient civilization," I began in fluent Putonghua: "And Greece, too, is home to one of its own. In other words, one country represents the Olympic spirit, while the other represents oriental civilization. In fact, during our days in Greece, we often heard locals telling us that the Beijing Games is 'perfect'"
Somehow, the English word "perfect" slipped out naturally, and for a short while I could not find the right Chinese expression for what I meant to say: That the Greeks said there is no better mixture of the two civilizations than the upcoming Olympics.
As simple as the word "perfect" is and as odd as it may seem, getting lost in translation is not new to me. And we are not talking about a Bill Murray prototype, because it doesn't just happen from Chinese to English, but also the other way round.
When we were bringing the flame to Beijing from Athens, Minos Kyriakou, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, said on the flight that he was thrilled with the success of the handover and wanted to address the welcoming ceremony in Beijing.
When he did, I was his interpreter for Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) chief Liu Qi.
All was well until Mr Kyriakou said: "President Liu, when I met you at your office for the first time, I felt that we had known each other for a long time."
My brain shut down for a second, and what I came up with was nowhere close to the obvious Chinese idiom yijian rugu, or "to click with somebody".
Mr Liu smiled.
I felt embarrassed but didn't blame myself because those slips have to do with the unique environment at China Daily.
I have been with the paper for more than two decades; its working language is English, which most people in the office speak. But at the same time, there are just as many foreign staff eager to pick up some words of Putonghua as there are Chinese employees anxious to improve their English.
The result? An office environment where the languages are more often than not used interchangeably.
At home, things aren't that much different either.
My wife, an international news major, also speaks English quite well, and so does our school-age son. Much like in our office, my family is also accustomed to using a mixture of languages, or whatever word that seems appropriate - never mind the language.
And now this. While it has been about three months since I officially assumed the role as a spokesperson for the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay (BOTR), and although I have been most cautious, it still hurts.
Each time I flip through the torch relay itinerary, I cannot help but notice how many languages are spoken in the 21 cities that we will visit within the month.
Thank gosh I haven't learned most of them - what a scene it would be if I ever come to distort seven or eight languages instead of just two!
Qu Yingpu, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily, is spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay
(China Daily 04/03/2008 page1)
