Friday, January 4, 2013

Clueless with dictionary

From our communication archives.

The setting: a cubicle farm somewhere in the US. A Russian, call him Nick, a Japanese, call her Tomoko, a native (as in no more than 300 hundred years native), call him Native.

The events:
Tomoko has sent an email to Nick.
Native arrives at Nick's cubicle a few minutes after Nick read the email.
Native notices Nick is upset, agitated, his cheeks slightly flushed.
Native: Is there something wrong, Nick?
Nick, really fast: It's Tomoko, she, she call me clueless.
Native: What, why would she do that?
Nick, really fast: Here [points to screen], she sent me email, and I checked in dictionary. Means clueless.
Native: Just a sec. [reads the email] So, you had a problem and looked up that word in a dictionary?
Nick, fast: Yes, in English - Russian dictionary [points to dictionary]. It says it means clueless.
Native: Oh, Nick, no, no. She is Japanese, her English is not the best. She writes in a foreign language, then you go and translate that into yet another foreign language. Don't you think something could get lost there?
Nick: Oh, so she does not say I am clueless?
Native: No, all she is trying to say is that there is uncertainty about the proposed process. It has nothing to do with you, there is nothing that says clueless.
Nick: Ah [smiles]

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