I was away for 35 days and many things changed. Firstly and very sadly one of my best friends died, which among many things, reminded me of my mortality. Then there was a local council by-election which proved once again how resistant people are to change. And finally there was a new Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd.
Locked in a hotel room with my sick daughter in freezing Harbin a couple of years ago, I channel surfed the TV and happened upon an interview of Rudd by a Chinese reporter. I was most impressed with Rudd's handling of very technical foreign relations issues in fluent Mandarin.
It would serve him well if people are impressed with the ALP policies under his leadership as I was with his Mandarin!
5 comments:
Would that have been this interview?...
专访澳大利亚工党外交部长陆克文
http://www.phoenixtv.com/phoenixtv/74312709583142912/20050131/497345.shtml
It certainly was. I can't forget January in Harbin with minus 20 outside! Many thanks, I can now read the transcript in detail.
My pleasure...my guess is that you are mandarin competent, and you clearly are on top of English. I have to depend on the, (always challenging, often amusing), process of using babelfish to "translate" from hanzi... eg this is babelfish rendering of opening of that interview...
"Further with everybody explained any is called the shadow cabinet. In cabinet system country, for example English, Austrian, Australian these countries. Because the cabinet members all must be member of national assembly which selects, therefore says in the incumbent party, because the incumbent party possibly falls as necessary or appears any type, so that temporarily dismisses the cabinet the situation, the incumbent party must prepare as necessary to receive the government, therefore the incumbent party must have to propose he at present already had the complete set the secondary roles, the incumbent party as soon as leaves office I to be allowed to receive immediately. Therefore in this kind of situation, he must have to let the voter clearly know, your incumbent party this batch of cabinets cabinet member name, your background, your ability. Says from Australia, Lu Kewen is inside Labor Party shadow cabinet's foreign minister. We if thought foreign minister this noun said the Mandarin speech too, good, then he is an Australian Labor Party's diplomatic work special member. "
I'm interested to know how he really explained, to China, what an "Opposition" in a "Parliamentary Democracy" is, and how it works. Is there any chance you could dash off a better translation of that passage for me/us?
It would seem that the show presenter was impressed with KR's putonghua....here's an amusing snippet re: his much vaunted ( by everyone except Kev himself) cunning linguist ability...
"...Australian ambassador to China insisted for a time on using bright young Rudd as his translator. This practice came to an end, however. On one occasion Garnaut was having a conference with some official Chinese of extreme eminence and remarked that Australia and China were enjoying good relations at that time.
Rudd, who speaks a kind of upper-class Mandarin, tried to render this with a certain flourish, which produced grins from the Chinese translators and a befuddled frown from the potentate involved. Rudd had said in Mandarin that Australia and China were enjoying simultaneous orgasms. "
Ha ha ha...
Is your chinese good enough to be able to formulate what he actually said? I bump into him now and then, and would like to be able to drop that (mis-spoken) phrase into conversation, I'm sure he will be vastly amused.
Oh yeh, and how could I say "Good to be with you"....it's his trade mark interview opening.
謝謝 ...and Happy New Year!!!
PS ...at least Harbin when you were there had water, as opposed to dilute benzene on tap.
While I am keen to read the full transcript of the interview, a translation would require some effort since I am one of those people whose second language is better than the first! I would first ascertain whether one already exists.
I believe I read the comment about Rudd’s faux pas in one of Greg Sheridan’s columns. That is entirely possible. After all, haven’t we all heard the bursts of laughter among English speakers in Chinese restaurants while perusing the menu? The Chinese must be keen to have their fun sometime. Seriously though, non-native speakers of any language do run into this kind of trap, with double meanings and colloquialisms not always fully understood. Nevertheless, I admire anyone who is able to discuss fairly complex issues in front of a TV camera using a second language learnt at any time beyond a very young age.
As for your other requests, the phrase may be "watch this space" .....
I most certainly will ...
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