Ask MetaFilter questions in the writing & language category

Thai to English translation needed for a car-parts website

cyanide — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:00:47 -0800

I need help finding parts for a Honda City on a Thai website. Would appreciate it if someone could translate important bits for me :) Hey all,

Need help finding things on this website which is entirely in Thai, a language I don't understand. I'm about to buy a Honda City VTEC Type 2/Z and would like to import a few parts from Thailand, one of the few countries where this car was sold, and probably the only country where I've found projector-type headlamps for this particular car.

I'd appreciate it if someone could figure out if they have a search page, and if you have a bit of time, find me alternate headlamps for a Honda City Type 2/Z (Some people refer to it as 2, others Z, try both). Would also appreciate it if you could find a page listing all parts available for this particular car.

Thanks!

ancient chinese

colusa — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:42:50 -0800

This is an ancient chinese inscription on an antique vase... thousands of years old. Can anyone translate it or let us know what kind of dragon this is or if it realates to any story... anything would help. Thanks your help is greatly appreciated Hello,
I recently aquired a vase, which is of asian decent, which I have done intense research on and cannot find what the Japanese writing on the vase says. I would greatly appreciate input from anyone with any info on this item or opinions.

Thank You!!!!

To start, it appears to be bronze.the vase is a standard oriental vase shape that sits on a tripod base with legs that curl under. The texture on the tripod base appears to resemble the leatherlike rough skin of maybe a dragon. It covers the area of the base stopping on the third tripod leg,witch then becomes a smooth texture, maybe resembling the tail of the dragon.

Starting at the base, which sits 1 1/2" up, tenticles begin to protrude from the surface. Between the first and second tripod leg, there are two claw like tenticle shapes protruding. The first one containing 5 fingers to the claw, sitting atop four more tenticles. The second set of tenticles contains 6 curved swirly claws coming from it. Between the 2nd and third tripod legthere are two more protrusions ( sitting closer to th 2nd leg.) the first protrusion contains 6 small twirled tenticles, while the second contains 9. between the 3rd and 1st tripod legs, there is a claw with four fingers, one finger is curved under and there are 3 curved claw nails.

Now the vase begins to become intriquite and very detailed.
The 1st tripod leg is the smooth textured leg resembling a tail. above that, the tenticle that protrudes form the surface, comes out about 2 inches and works itself into the shape of a dragon. The dragon appears to have a scales texture and as it reaches higher up onto the vase, begins to develop claws with distinguished sharp nails. the first foot has 2 claws (sharp nails) the texture and protrusions then for a mass array of details and dragon like objects, that covers half of the vase.
In the objects appears to be one dragon foot with 3 claws and one dragon's foot with 2 claws. The dragon appears to be on a rocklike strructure with its head covered in spikes peering out.its scaled tail also protrudes from the vase with arow of about 15 spikes on it.
The prtrusion concludes on the right side with a big swirl, while on the left it is a rock like texture.
This protrusion sitas on the vase's side. The rest of the vase is a dimpled texture with a thick glaze like texture dripping down the vase.( appears to look like lava dripping down a volcano.

it looks like this:
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq174/collectableusa/100_1353.jpg

Under that is this marking:
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq174/collectableusa/100E1305-1.jpg

Move me!

robotot — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:16:39 -0800

Book-filter (again)! I just read Markus Zuzak's "The Book Thief" and loved it and loved being moved by it. Give me more books that do the same. I really liked reading about the German people living under Hitler, and through the war and how that affected them, particularly about people who didn't necessarily agree with Nazi ideals, but were forced to live by them nonetheless.

Please recommend me books that touch on a similar vein. They don't have to be set during WWII Germany either. Feel free to expand on my criteria to include general war fiction (or non-fiction).

thanks.

What the heck is hanging?

RedEmma — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:49:31 -0800

What is the origin of the phrase "getting the hang" of something? What did it mean, originally, to "get the hang" of something?

Translate Wayne Coyne to Latin.

Cobalt — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:48:33 -0800

Please help translate this quote to Latin: "We are not what we dream, we are what we do." In 2006, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips was asked to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class of the Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, his old high school.

An odd choice, to say the least, that resulted in an odd speech you can watch here and here.

In the speech, he uttered the above quote, and I'd really like to have it in Latin. Thanks.

For those interested, the complete phrase is: "We are not what we dream. We are what we do, and all we have is action, and we can only really learn from experience. So if we can only learn from experience, what use is all this knowledge?"

Maintaining a NYC college's undergraduate literary blog

omnigut — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:10:21 -0800

Deep breath: I am the online editor for a New York college's undergraduate literary journal's blog, and a complete beginner. I'm wondering about increasing net-presence, keeping the site timely, and making it vibrant. Very open to ideas. Hive mind? The website is here. We've been up for about three long days.

At the moment we have about six people posting a week (once a day), with the invitation for more people in our program to post. The three major aims of the blog are to advertise the program, advertise the talents of its students (the same thing as the first), and to give us lowly students a bigger audience.

But how do I go about increasing the traffic to our blog? I know there are many websites out there that list blogs, literary blogs, websites etc, but don't know how to get on their blogroll, or how to excite NY's literary community. I know there are people you can hire to do that, or robots, but not sure of the ethics of that kind of thing. Might be wrong about those anyway.

Here are our current ideas:
1) Organize a competition for poetry and flash fiction. We'll get reputable judges to decide on the winner, and give cash. How much would get people to submit; would $100 bucks do?
2) We'll play recordings of authors/poets reading their work, mainly published authors, but also students who want to read and discuss their work (comments).
3) We have an expensive hairdresser who is going to interview people on camera while giving them haircuts (hopefully big names), which we'll then edit into two or three minute videos.
4) I'd like to get our name out there amongst the web-community of New York. How do I do that?
5) We'll be keeping track of events, and making a calendar of stuff we recommend and are going to/reviewing.
5) Any other suggestions? Thanks!

Comi, bibui, lascivi?

lilywing13 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:01:40 -0800

Comi, bibui, lascivi. Does it mean what my friend was aiming for? My friend (ok, it's really my husband, and yeah, it's for XBox Live) needs a motto of at or under 21 characters. What he's shooting for is "I ate, I drank, I played (or I was playful)". Did he get close with the attempt? If not, do you have any suggestions?

Even happier alternatives would also be translations of "breakfast of champions" or "I eat champions." Thank you in advance.

Strange language in website

keijo — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:16:52 -0800

What language is the text on this page? If it is and (probably it is judging from the URL) an anagram, what language is it derived from? Strange language

How to list a company acquisition on a resume.

swift — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:17:01 -0800

How do I list a company acquisition on my resume? I worked for UnknownCoolStartup in 2006, which was then acquired by GiantCorporation in the same year, and I have been working there ever since, working on the same stuff as I did at UnknownCoolStartup, basically. My title has changed, of course.

How do I list this on my resume? Is it something like

UnknownCoolStartup (now GiantCorporation) 2006-2008

GiantCorporation (was UnknownCoolStartup) 2006-2008

GiantCorporation 2006-2008

or separate entries for both jobs (which takes valuable space)?

etto, watashiwa chotto skushi Nihongo o hanashimasu.

McGuillicuddy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:31:37 -0800

Can you help me translate 10 lines of English to Japanese? I need help translating part of a school application from English to Japanese. This is for a sponsorship form from a language school that requires that the sponsor (me) translate the answers from English to Japanese. If you want to send me questions or answers, you can email me at hokkaidorose at gmail.

Here are my statements:

1) I have known "Sofie" since Spring of 2006.

2) "Sofie" has visited Japan twice. She traveled to the Kansai area for work in 2003. "Sofie" stayed at my house in Tokyo for 3 months in Summer 2008.

How is "Ellerslie" pronounced?

good in a vacuum — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:52:56 -0800

How is "Ellerslie" pronounced? For years I've been pronouncing the last syllable as a long E sound ("ellers-lee"). Is this correct, or is it a long I sound ("ellers-lie", to rhyme with "fly")?

I have to ask,

aubilenon — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:48:05 -0800

"I'd like to welcome you to Dallas-Fort Worth" "I would say that's correct" What is this linguistic construct called? "I need to apologize" "I should say so!" "I'd like to thank you for flying Air Aubilenon"

All these sentences express a sentiment only by saying the speaker wants that sentiment expressed. What's it's called when you do that?

(I guess "I do declare, I've never been so full in my life!" is sort of the opposite?)

Bonus question: why do airlines use it so much?

why not modus operandus?

Capri — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:26:12 -0800

[Latin filter] Why is it "modus operandi" and not "modus operandus"? Can someone who took more Latin than I did explain why "modus" appears to be singular and "operandi" appears to be plural and yet they're always paired? Thanks.

I'm using my AskMe question allowance to track down a Language Log post! what.

dorothy humbird — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:28:24 -0800

I am having a devil of a time locating a Language Log post that is almost impossible to search for. It's on the declarative "what," and all the keywords I thought I was remembering aren't turning up the right result. The post was on, as I said, the declarative use of "what" as a sort of pause, or cease-fire, in conversation. Whichever Language Log writer posted the entry mentioned a program on NPR he was listening to, which I believe referenced the mortgage crisis, and short selling vs. naked short selling, at which point, he stated that his only response was:

what

It's driving me nuts that I can't locate this post, so I hope one of you dutiful mefites out there has bookmarked this particular post for your own nefarious purposes.

Thanks!

Are you great at reading horrible handwriting? Your expertise is needed!

mwachs — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:35:20 -0800

Are you great at reading horrible handwriting? Your expertise is needed! Last year, I met one the most kind men I had ever come across while traveling through Europe. Unfortunately he gave me his address while rushing for a train and the handwriting of the street is pretty impossible for me to read. Can you decipher it? And if you happen to live in either Alicante, Spain or Rabat, Morocco, perhaps you know him? His name is Idrissi Hafid.

Can anyone suggest potential clients for a freelance or contract medical writer?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:12:22 -0800

Can anyone suggest potential clients for a freelance or contract medical writer? Help me hive mind!
A bit of background:
-1 year experience writing and developing continuing medical education materials for physicians (I honestly thought it was boring but it could have been the therapeutic areas); wrote slide kits (ppt presentations for meetings), literature reviews.
-1 year experience writing and developing peer reviewed journal articles on the promotional side of medical education. I really enjoy it because it has provided me with an opportunity to learn much more about clinical trials, oncology, etc. I find it very challenging and have learned a great deal about a few types of cancer but I need to have a few more years experience to truly understand the material. Most people, from supervisors to pharmaceutical companies, really like my writing. However, it is only a specialized type of writing (eg, journal articles for medical journals). At this point, that is all that I have as samples – journal articles or scientific posters.
-Dabbled over the course of the past year and wrote “executive summaries” of meetings (boring, but I can write them). There wasn’t much of an opportunity to really learn new information.
-PhD in the biological sciences (neuroscience). I enjoyed teaching biology to undergraduates, everything from intro biology to graduate level courses, because it was a vehicle for me to learn more. I loved looking at the inside of things and learning how they worked. Bringing this up because perhaps there is a market for writing for this audience? No real samples of this type of writing, however (uh, other than occasional directions for a lab or teaching material…).

Spring forward to now. I would like to become a freelance medical writer in the next few months (stupid with this little experience and stupid in this economy, I know). For various reasons, I have reached my limit for working in an office for any length of time.

Who are my potential clients? I googled, googled, and googled to find a list of about 200 medical education communication agencies - I anticipate that a few will bite but probably not many (because I am an unknown). I plan to try to specialize and offer to similarly write journal articles for clinical trials/oncology or psychiatry. The average medical writer charges $100/hour for this type of project.

To be safe, I would like to target more companies/potential clients. I don’t know what other companies write and for what rate, though. Who else has lots of data (from a clinical trial), needs help writing it, and will pay that much money? Any ideas as to where I can find a big list of these type of companies (I can only take so many hours of googling till my brain falls out and roll on the floor).

Are there other types of areas that I can break into that would be 1) interesting/provide new material to learn, 2) the average person changes between $60 to $100 (or more) to write the material, and 3) may use my background in some way. Is there a way to see samples of what they write (to be honest, this is how I learned to write material for clinical trials, by looking at other material). Is there a way I could learn about this other type of writing or market besides working for such companies full time?

In summary I am looking for suggestions for other clients: whom to target, where to find them, and the going rate. If anyone can suggest really interesting areas of writing that may require a bit of work on the side that would also be helpful.

Temporary e-mail account not linked to me: tryptophanhydroxylase2@yahoo.com Not signing off with my metafilter name because between this and previous posts, there is enough info to figure out who I am (haven’t indicated anything to my current employer yet, and I don't want to launch a freelance career today).

Thanks.

Women writers like Neal Stephenson, are there any?

exceptinsects — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:24:03 -0800

Women writers like Neal Stephenson, are there any? I love the way his books seem to be such a reflection of what he is interested in and wants to write about, and how he is perfectly willing to take 900 pages to explore whatever he feels like. Like, a lot of other writers would take out that section in Anathem about the folding chairs, or in Cryptonomicon about the cereal, etc. but those are some of my favorite parts.

Infinite Jest has a lot of this kind of thing too, (plus footnotes, yay).

However, lately I just feel like reading more women authors. No special reason, I guess.

So: long, digressive, complicated, somewhat humorous, fun novels that teach you stuff you didn't know about...but written by women?

Disindentured grin?

furtive — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:19:24 -0800

Please provide a fancy way of saying "without teeth".

I want more of the same.

Autarky — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:07:17 -0800

I enjoy literature with a dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic bent to it. I want more. Recommendations? Examples of books I've really liked:

1984
Fahrenheit 451 (pretty much anything by Bradbury. Love, love, love Bradbury's stuff)
We (Zamyatin)
The Giver

The movie Gattaca was also good. I realize that several of those are very "high school reading list" (because, in fact, a few of them were on my high school reading list), so works that differ a bit from those are certainly welcome.

Recommended ancient classic literature for beginners

rocks009 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:38:08 -0800

Where do I start with ancient classic literature, especially accessible versions of mythological or vaguely historical tales? Preferably from Anglo-Saxon or Norse traditions, but I'm open to anything really good. The only pre-19th Century classics I had to read in school were by Shakespeare. I enjoyed them and moved on. But now I see that I missed a whole world of classic literature. I have always been fascinated by the the Arthurian legends and started to read Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur once, but struggled with it - I am about to try John Steinbeck's take on the Arthurian legends, which seems a bit more accessible. I really enjoyed Marco Polo recently (The Penguin Classics version), and have just discovered Beowulf. Of the plethora of works out there, which are the best and most enjoyable reads?

Extra credit for pointing me to translations/interpretations that are enjoyable for a non-scholar, while still reflecting the original essence.

How to best communicate the data about which I will later AskMefi?

vanoakenfold — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:11:37 -0800

Question-Asking-Filter: What would be the best way to ASK a question on AskMeFi that I want to ask? Pre-question question-answers within. So I'm sort-of asking it now, but I want to pose it again using the answer(s) this question reaps. So anyway.

I've got more than a hanfdul of wooden cubes stuck face-to-face together in oddball configurations that, together, form a mystery number of x-by-x-by-x cubes, that I made many years ago and have since forgotten the solutions. How should I present the spectrum of the piece configurations, in a text-based setting like Ask-Mefi?

(a) Is there a freeware PC/web-based program I could use to build a visual representation of them, take screenshots and post for MeFites to mentally assemble?

Would the question be too much to ask, considering I don't know how many x-by-x-by-x cubes the pieces actually form total?

(b) should I instead type out a series of..
XXX // XOX // XXX
XOX // OOX // XOX
XOX // XXX // XXX
..whereas O is the wood and X is absence of wood, for each piece?

I'm truthfully not even certain all of the available pieces are even present, given that I don't know their solution(s), but they were all found in a sealed baggie so I might presume they were the complete set(s).

Things I do know: some of the pieces are shorter in overall cube-length than the entire assmbled-cube's max width. I did make a 4x4x4 cube and a 5x5x5 cube at some point. I am the originator of the puzzle and the solution has not ever been posted on the web by me or anyone else to my knowledge (although the gnomes who often scamper about and hide my keys in random places may have at some point posted the solution). There are 25 pieces, with a maximum piece-length of no more than 5 cubes across.

The question though -- how I could I best communicate the configurations of these pieces, and perhaps secondarily, would anyone even bother answering it, and perhaps tertiarily, would providing a non-MeFi-based incentive for answering it encourage someone to answer it?

"Donna Lee" lyrics, please.

lothar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:41:07 -0800

Does anyone know [the] lyrics to "Donna Lee"? Yes, I know it's an instrumental, thanks. Once upon a time I engineered a recording session for a vocal group that harmonized on the head to Donna Lee (and scatted solos). I assumed it was some canonical vocal version of the tune, but can't find it anywhere. How do you know these lyrics, or how did you find them?

It ends with, "...much faster than a guy like me can play."

Or, if you want to play the home version of this game, write your own version of the lyrics with good scansion and meter, and I'll post a performance of it on mefi/music.

In My Mind I'm Going to [North or South?] Carolina

kirkaracha — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:54:46 -0800

Does "Carolina" used by itself mean North Carolina, South Carolina, or both? In "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "Nothing could be finer/Than to have your ham an' eggs in Carolina." James Taylor sings "In my mind I'm going to Carolina" (I know he grew up in North Carolina). The Carolina Panthers play in Charlotte but officially represent both states.

So what does "Carolina" mean? I've usually heard "the Carolinas" used to refer to the two states together.

Help me find a depressing poem!

aheckler — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:59:09 -0800

I'm looking for a longer poem about death/dying that I read some time ago. IIRC, I found it via the "Poetry Sunday" series on the Daylight Atheism blog, but upon a little research, it was not one of the poems featured there. Perhaps it is by one of the same authors? I seem to remember the poem having the word "procession" in it and being relatively long (ie, the equivalent of ~4 written paragraphs or so), but other than that, I cannot recall much. My GoogleFu (TM) is failing me.

What does the Chinese character in Fae Myenne Ng's Steer Towards Rock frequently used to mark chapters mean and what writing style is it in?

Kattullus — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:23:42 -0800

What does the Chinese character in Fae Myenne Ng's Steer Towards Rock frequently used to mark chapters mean? And what writing style is it in? You can see the character in the Amazon look-inside feature for the book (click excerpt on the left to see the character).