Lost in Translation

In my current job, I have interactions via email every day with people from all over the world. Since my company is based in China, the majority of these interactions are with individuals from China or Singapore. I've discovered that being able to translate from what is commonly referred to as "Chinglish" or "Engrish" is quite a skill. The words I receive in the email are, indeed, in English, but deciphering the meaning can be somewhat difficult.

Just this morning I received a software bug report alerting me that the "Tv has a poop voice when change sound mode." Now I've worked on a lot of televisions in my career, but never have I thought to myself, "Gee, this TV seems to be making a strange noise. Let's see, what could it be. I think it's making a poop voice. Yes, that's definitely it. A poop voice." Since Grant's arrival (well, let's be honest, my whole life) I've dealt with quite a bit of poop, and not once have I noticed it had a voice. Erin may disagree.

I've also recently received emails imploring our team here in Indy to "jump in the tricky and implement the software risky controlling immediately." Yep...that was my response also.

Regarding a hardware problem I discovered last week, I received this in response from an engineer in China:

"I did not why indy dont know it. This kindly information should be pulished before Indy found out."

Hmm.

All of this is part of the joy of working in a global environment. I'm sure there's some Chinese dude blogging at this very moment over in Shenzhen trying to figure out what "gone up amongst the lillies" or "where the rat bit the woman" means. Good luck with that...Nobody in California can figure those out either.