Tatiana sent me this little snippet this morning:
You think reading Shakespeare is hard? Imagine the poor people in a couple of hundred years time, who will be reading " So, like, I was like maaate I'm gonna shank yuu so ard bruv! and den Tairone was like "you havin' a bubble," and I was like "No mate, are you thick doe! but Shanesse was like OMG doe, Actual LOL innit! because she got a text from Brandon who said that Christa was like, on the chunder train after downing a whole bottle of Voddy and Strongy B......."
I defy you to translate that to normal, understandable English (without the help of someone under the age of 18).
Whoa....I give.
ReplyDeletehaha! I feel much better now : )
ReplyDeleteLOL not even my twins had an idea. This text sms language is so bad, the kids of today cannot even spell properly, never mind being able to add up with out the use of calculator aka cellphone on adding device. It is a great pity, but sure our parents must have had something equal to complain about: " the children of today.......bla bla bla bla"
ReplyDeleteMarianne, I was thinking just that... our parents and grandparents... Let's not even talk about their complaints about our music! Slang was totally forbidden at home!
ReplyDeleteDo you really want a translation? Cos I can give you one - but not really in Shakespearean English ...
ReplyDeleteI'll skip the Shakespearan, thanks. Regular English will do (if it exists).
ReplyDeleteSo, I said to him, "I'm going to hit you really hard with the shank!" (iron shank but probably a gun) And then Tairone said, "You're joking!" and I said, "No. Are you kidding?" But Shanesse was laughing. Actually really laughing because she got a sms/ text from Brandon saying that Christa had been on the toilet after downing a whole bottle of vodka and Strong Bow (cider) ....
ReplyDeleteYou too will understand all once you over here, innit tho?
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that 'chunder' is Aussie and hope to heck I never have to do it LOL Excellent translation! As for understanding it.... that, I assume, means I'd have to 'blend with the locals' ; )
ReplyDeleteChunder is a verb in Oz but a noun here ;)
ReplyDeleteROFLMBO!!
ReplyDeletei seriously have to ask my teenagers what they mean when they talk to me. thanks for the traslation katey! haha this was so cute tint and oh so very true. :))
ReplyDeleteROFLMBO, indeed!!!
ReplyDeletewell...I got some of it.
ReplyDeleteROFL! I'm lost! Give me Shakespeare anytime!
ReplyDeleteIn my senior year in English Lit we had to read MacBeth bit by bit and put it in our own words *UGH*
ReplyDeleteI love Shakespeare soooo much!
ReplyDeleteUmmm... I think I have to live here for as long as Katey has to be able to translate it that well! I had a vague idea what it was about, but.... O.o
ReplyDelete*laughing* Ok, first off, it just sounds to me right along the same lines as when all you Seffies get wound up talking to one another. :)
ReplyDeleteTHEN I saw that Katey actually translated it and suggested you'd be talking like that, too. Cracked me up!
Whenever we all get together on that big ship, I stand no chance of understanding anything!
Kimmy, thankfully my kid knows when I'm out of my depth and automatically translates. Comes from living with a mom who's often clueless in local conversation.
ReplyDeleteDani... indeed!
Kat, congratulations! I'll ship your medal to you.
Riete, it does rather make Shakespeare look tame.
Laura, not a job I would have enjoyed, but I'll take Macbeth over King Lear any day. We had ol' Lear... horrible, horrible story.
Marty, I figured you would!
Tat! My translator??
Oh my word, Kippy!!! I cracked up at that.... the very idea! Tell you what, we'll have Heather along to translate for you, ok? She's fluent in American by now ; )
Whew! Perfect! And she can translate Kippy for us ;)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
ReplyDelete*LAUGHING* Right, because I'm SO difficult to understand. You're all crazy! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou can talk! How many times haven't I had to go on bended knees for a translation of some Americanism? Ok, in fairness, South Africanisms are a little more complicated, but then, we're fairly complex creatures ;)
ReplyDelete*laughing* It'll be a battle of the babble!
ReplyDeleteI liked Shakespeare at school, but I guess it could have been so much different, if I ever had to read it in English. Luckily we got to read a rather great translation of his works, so understanding was not an issue. Anyway, some time ago I wanted to re-read some of his plays so I borrowed from library a collection of his plays and it was bilingual, that is original text on one page and translation next to it. And although my English is quite good, I must say I understood almost nothing from the original text. So I yeah, if one has to read Shakespeare in original it must be challenging at the minimum.
ReplyDeleteBack at school we had to read some works of Lithuanian classics, and I remember that was rather challenging - you could read the text, but some words and expressions, etc. would leave you puzzled.
On the other hand, good thing is that nowadays we can get Shakespeare and other worldwide or local classics at least printed in modern fonts. Imagine if one had to read that in medieval print or even handwriting.
Asta, I think that explains why many Brazilians love Shakespeare too. It's translated! So someone else had to do the hard work of interpretation. As I understand it, Lithuanian is the oldest Indo-European language and hasn't changed much over the centuries. I suppose there is a lot of slang now too? Yes, I'm grateful we don't also need to read those text in medieval print. I was doing some genealogy the other day and the handwriting almost slayed me.
ReplyDelete