The TV show "The Office" - in Mandarin!

[Alex12]

Hi Everybody,

For a final project we were asked to film a skit in chinese, so my group chose to do a Chinese version of "The Office."

Below is the script, and I was hoping somebody may be willing to read through it and point out anything grammatical/word choice that is incorrect... we are 2nd year students (intermediate college course), so the chance that there's a few mistakes is pretty high.

Any help that you can give is hugely appreciated!

P.s. The plot might seem strange in script form, much of it relies on wordless cutscenes and body language.

The Office

Pam: 你好Lisha！ 好就不說！

Pam (in response to Lisha over the phone): 馬馬虎虎。 我在工作。 學校怎麼樣？ 。。。 噢， 你跟天明鬧彆扭了。別生氣了，Jim 也常常這樣。 今天我們沒想出。。。

(Jim overhears Pam)

Jim (to the camera): 她到底為什麼生氣了。每天她生氣或者傷心的， 結果我們不停吵架。我只要工作。

Michael (alone in his office, speaking to the camera): 在工作上我最好了。 真的。難怪每人愛我。

(Jim walks in)

Jim: 我要你的幫助。 這篇。。。

Michael: Jim! 你好嗎？

Jim: 我很好， 可是這篇。。。(Michael cuts Jim off)

Michael: 真的馬？看起來 Pam 心情不好。我們說得把。

Jim: 算了，没沒問題。

(Jim leaves Michael’s office)

Michael：他肯定有問題。他要我幫他。 (Calls Emily)

Emily (to Michael over the phone): 喂。什麼？是非常大的問題馬？我現在去。

Emily: (speaking to the camera) 每天 Michael 给我打電話。他平常有 (Sarcastic tone) “非常大的問題” 一會兒没有咖啡，一會兒又不找他的咖啡杯。他很丢三拉四的。(Camera cuts to Michael)

Michael (to Pam): 我們二點有會議。

(Pam nods; camera cuts to Jim, who finds a post-it note from Pam on his desk telling him about the meeting)

(In the meeting room) Michael：我們現在開始。

Emily: Michael 請我來幫你們。我們知道你們吵架。

Pam: 對。Jim 根本不在乎我。 他不喜歡我的 post-its.

Emily: 真的嗎？ 你不喜歡她的 post-its 嗎?

Pam: 對! Jim不喜歡我的 post-its, 另外不喜歡我的米飯！他吃 不下三碗飯！

(Jim starts to object, but is interrupted by Emily)

Emily： Jim, 吃的下吃不下三碗飯？

Michael： 我吃下三碗飯。

Pam： 吃我的米飯把，要不然我跟你吹了。

(Pam leaves)

Jim: 無論我什麼做，都她生氣。

(Jim leaves, Emily gathers belongings)

Michael：那太好了！

Emily (now in her office)：Michael 很笨的，害得我真的不喜歡我的工作。

Michael (alone in his office) : 我跟很多問題打交道。我覺得今天很好了。我人很聰明。

[Alex12]

Here is what we were aiming for in English:

Pam: Hi Lisa! Long time no talk (or good to talk to you, something to that effect).

Pam: Ah, you and Tian Ming are fighting? Don't get angry, Jim is often like that too. Today we are not getting along.

Jim: Why in the world is she angry? Every day she is either angry or sad. As a result, we are continuously arguing. I just want to work.

Michael: As far as work is concerned, I'm the best. Really. No wonder everybody loves me.

Jim (walks into Michael's office): I need your help. This... (referring to a piece of paper in his hand)...

Michael: Jim! How are you?

Jim: Im good, but this (again referring to the piece of paper in his hand)...

Michael: Really? It looks like Pam is in a bad mood, let's talk about it.

Jim: Forget it, I'll figure it out (or I don't have a problem. This is in reference to the piece of paper in his hand that he was asking Michael about)

Michael (alone now): He definitely has a problem. He needs me to help him. (calls Emily)

Emily: Hello? What? You have an extremely big problem? I'll go there now.

Emily (to the camera): Every day Michael gives me a call. So often he has an "extremely big" problem. One moment he's out of coffee... the next moment he can't find his coffee cup. He is very scatterbrained.

Michael (talking to Pam): We have a meeting at 2 today.

(Jim sees a post-it for the meeting that Pam left him)

Michael (as soon as Jim walks into the meeting): Very good, we can start now.

Emily: Michael asked me to come help you guys. We know that you are fighting.

Pam: Yes! Jim doesn't care about me at all. He doesn't like my post-its.

Emily: Really?! You don't like her post-its?

(Before Jim can respond) Pam: Right! Jim doesn't like my post-its, he also doesn't like my rice.

(Jim starts to object, but Pam interrupts him)

Pam: He can't eat three bowls of rice.

Emily: Jim, you can't eat three bowls of rice?

Michael: I can eat three bowls of rice.

Pam: You better my rice, otherwise I will break up with you.

(Pam leaves)

Jim: No matter what I do, she's always angry.

(Jim leaves)

(Emily gathers belongings)

Michael: That went very well!

Emily (speaking to the camera): Michael is very stupid. Because of him I really don't like my job.

Michael (alone now in his office): I deal with many problems. I think today went very well. I'm such a smart guy.

[Kenny同志]

Here is my attempt. 不当之处，望各位不吝指正。

Pam: 嗨，利萨，好久没跟你聊天了。

Pam: 啊，你和天明在吵架？别生气，吉姆也常那样，我们今天也闹别扭。

Jim: 到底什么事惹她生气了？她天天不是生气就耷拉着个脸，结果我们两个总是吵个没完。我想安安静静地工作！

Michael: 说到工作，我可是第一，难怪都喜欢我。

Jim (走到迈克的办公室): 请你帮个忙。这个…… (指着手里的一张纸说道)

Michael: 吉姆，有事吗？

Jim: 哦，没有，只是这个……(又指着手里的那张纸说道)

Michael: 哦？帕姆看上去心情不大好。跟我说说，怎么回事。

Jim: 算了，我还是自己想办法。

Michael (吉姆走了，迈克一人在办公室): 他肯定遇到了什么问题， 要我帮忙。（叫艾米丽）

Emily: 唉，什么事？你遇上了天大的问题？我这就来。

Emily (对着镜头道): 迈克每天都给我打个电话，总是有个“天大的”问题。他上一刻出去喝咖啡，下一刻就找不到咖啡杯了。总是丢三落四。

Michael (对帕姆说道): 我们两点钟有个会。

(吉姆看到了帕姆留给他的关于开会的便条)

Michael (吉姆刚到开会的地方): 太好了，我们开始吧。

Emily: 迈克叫我来当和事老的。我们知道你们俩个在吵架。

Pam: 嗯，吉姆根本就不关心我，他不喜欢我的（便条, I cannot think of a better translation）

Emily: 是不是有这回事？你不喜欢？

(没等吉姆开口) Pam: 嗯，他不喜欢我的便条，也不喜欢我烧的饭。

(吉姆想要辩护，但帕姆打断了他的话)

Pam: 他吃饭一餐三碗都不到。

Emily: 是么，吉姆，你一餐吃三碗饭都不到？

Michael: 我能吃三碗。

Pam:（你要多吃我烧的饭, I guess this is the intended meaning, but I am not so sure.），不然我就跟你分手。

(帕姆离开)

Jim: 不管我做什么，他总是不高兴。

(吉姆离开)

(艾米丽收拾东西)

Michael: 会开得不错。

Emily (对镜头说道): 迈克大傻冒，都是他，我真的烦死这工作了。

Michael (一人在办公室): 我处理好多问题，今天的事办的不错，看我多聪明。

"You better my rice" sounds kind of weird, because it is not consisitent with "He can't eat three bowls of rice." so I guess the intended meaning is "you must eat more rice"

This is the only line I find kind of perplexing. All the rest seem pretty good to me.

Edited March 20, 2010 at 10:32 AM by kenny2006woo

[Alex12]

oops! I think I made it more confusing by posting the English translation... in my original post there is the Mandarin script in Traditional that we came up with, and I was more hoping to have any glaring grammatical/ word choice errors pointed out.

Thank you very much for doing a full translation haha, that's a huge effort... unfortunately we have several key patterns and words scattered throughout that we were required to use =.

I'll still compare it to ours though to see if you said anything similarly that we may have gotten wrong, thank you!

If anybody else would be willing to do a grammar check it would be incredibly helpful

[XiaoXi]

Oh this is the American version.