16 May, 2006 | Leave a Comment
I was recently informed by a student in Austria who is studying English translation that my blog post The Ugly American Next Door appeared on the mid-term exam in their class last week! I think I can safely file this under “surreal.”
The post in question was a total rant, filled with slang and colloquialisms and oblique references to American culture. It would be very difficult for someone learning English to understand, which is why the teacher chose it I guess. And while this may seem wicked, it’s actually a smart idea. A sentence like: “He is a self-obsessed buffoon who was obviously raised by a pack of howler monkeys at the Bronx Zoo” could describe any number of world leaders. If you want to be a translator at the U.N., you gotta know this stuff!
So what exactly were they asked to do with my blog entry?
“The task wasn’t to translate your entry, but it was more about something like “reading behind the text”. E.g. we had to find out if you are male or female, how old you are, in which country you are, where you come from originally and (the most difficult one) what kind of person you are and how your attitude towards life is. We also had to highlight the respective phrases in the text to prove that we weren’t just guessing.”
The student then asked how old I was, to see if their answer was right on the test. I told the student the answer (30+) and received this in response:
“Maybe you’re happy to hear that most of us guessed that you are much younger (around 20)…”
Happy? No. Humiliated? Yes!
The thought that a class full of students was going over every word of this particular blog post makes me cringe in horror. And apparently, they don’t have their grades yet. Let’s hope they all pass – otherwise, I might get hate mail written in sketchy English.
Anglofille said @ 2:40 am | blogging + technology |
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They I am certain thought you were in your 20’s because you say that you live in student housing- Not a lot of 30 year olds do that- And the writing was so good they knew you weren’t 18-19.
A few of my posts, they would think I was 16. . . sigh.
It’s amazing how small the Internet makes the world.
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Anglofille Says:
May 16th, 2006 at 10:54 amThanks for making me feel better, Nicole!
I think you’re right that they thought I was so young because I’m a student. I guess their teacher was trying to trick them or at least show them that they should not make quick assumptions.
