Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for April 28, 2024

Yeah, you can never be too sure if what the translator says is accurate.

Here’s another one: don’t give your translator your credit card.

How about”It was me, the translator who gambled nearly $140 million , not the baseball player, so there’s nothing to worry about here, and we can all just forget about it.”

Baka!

Strange, when I try to learn to count in Japanese, I get an itchy knee.

Don’t forget, “I’m just playing within myself.” As opposed to playing outside himself.

通訳ってバカだよなTsūyakutte bakada yo na.

Hah, I had this happen in Japan. I was a naval reservist doing my annual training in the Ship Repair Facility and one of the foremen came up with a young guy with a name tag titled “Interpreter”. We talked for about 5 minutes and I was no clearer to getting my point across to the foreman than I was when we started…this kid spoke no meaningful English. The foreman finally smiled at the kid, thanked him, then sent him off. Then he turned to me and apologized in perfect English and we hammered out the details on the job.

So sorry. Excuse please. Begging your pardon.