something about a money lender

[kudra]

Some interesting vocabulary at

http://www.signese.com/2006/08/02/dsc_1020/

I could read all the characters but it didn't quite make sense.

Before I put it into adsotrans I thought it was something about a practical vacation, something about money, you don't have to leave the building(house). Tentatively I had it as, Be practical, save money, stay at home for vacation.

Ha Ha Ha.

Lost in Translation doesn't even begin....

For all those people who are told to learn words instead of characters, and don't quite believe it, take notice!

使用假币者没收送派出所

使用 = use

假币者= money lender

没收 (mo4shou1) = confiscate

送 = send

派出所 = police station

So it looks like a warning, that (people) who use the money lender will have (something?) confiscated, and be sent to police station. That would also exlain the "!!!"

Could someone verify that, and smooth out the translation?

thanks.

[studentyoung]

使用假币者没收送派出所

The sentence is使用假币者没收，送派出所！！！However, it seems that so many important words have been omitted in it.

In fact, the whole sentence seems to describe 使用假币者，我们将没收其假币，并将假币送交派出所！！！Who uses counterfeits must be confiscated the counterfeits, which must be sent to a police station then.

使用假币者: Who uses counterfeits

假币：counterfeit money

Thanks!

[kudra]

Ah, counterfeit money!

adso has

假币者 = person borrowing money.

since there was the lend/borrow ambiguity, I took it to be lender.

I pasted 使用假币者，我们将没收其假币，并将假币送交派出所

into adso, and the first 假 is part of person borrowing money.

The second 假 get's adsotated as "fake" (conterfeit), and the third

假 get's adsotated as "borrow".

This is not to bash adso. It's just hard to parse terse chinese, as my laughable attempt shows.

Although studentyoung seemed to do alright. Perhaps adso can't muster the requisite

indignation at the criminal element to get and maintain the right context.

I guess what I want to know, is what is getting sent to the police? The counterfeit money, the people who use the counterfeiters, something else? Aren't the people using the counterfeiters being threatened with being brought to the police? Or is it enough of a threat that they will loose their counterfeit money and be left with nothing?

[roddy]

I read it as 'Anyone who uses fake money will be confiscated, and taken to the police station'. It would have been clearer if they had said something like 'Fake money will be confiscated and the user taken . . .', as you can't really confiscate someone (unless 没收 can also mean detain, but I've never seen that usage.)

[studentyoung]

I guess what I want to know, is what is getting sent to the police? The counterfeit money, the people who use the counterfeiters, something else? Aren't the people using the counterfeiters being threatened with being brought to the police? Or is it enough of a threat that they will loose their counterfeit money and be left with nothing?

Ah, a lot of questions! Before I answer your questions, I would like to slightly explain some relative conditions in China mainland. The counterfeit money has been a headache for people in their daily life for years, because a lot of counterfeits enter the currency circulation. Even some Chinese people sometimes can’t tell the counterfeit for the true apart. What’s more, sometimes even some professional money-checking machines (验钞机) fail to identify a counterfeit to a true one. Therefore, apart from buying a professional money-checking machine, in order to avoid unnecessary loss or legal problems caused by counterfeit money, shop owners usually post a warning word (like the photo) at counter. If they do find someone use counterfeits in their shops, they will confiscate the counterfeits and call the police to help deal with the rest. Usually the one use counterfeits will loose the counterfeits, and they sometimes will answer some questions to convince the police that they are counterfeit victims and have nothing to do with any illegal actions.

Is that all clear now?

Thanks!

[kudra]

Thanks for the detailed explanation studentyoung, 讲得清清楚楚.

I did not realize these signs were that common. Then it makes sense that they could be so abbreviated since everyone kind of knows what to expect. Everyone except some laowai who thinks it's about moneylending.

[kudra]

So based on my confusion above between vacation and counterfeit, is it possible to say something like this?

旅游时用(的)假币不用假币.

(lv3 you2 shi2 yong4 [de] jia4 bi4 bu2 yong4 jia3 bi4.)

Perhaps forcing the issue a bit?

[skylee]

Consider - 渡假時不用假幣.

[kudra]

Thanks skylee,

however, the point wasn't so much to be clear, rather I was trying for a pun on 假币

maybe it just doesn't work.

[skylee]

No, 假幣 does not mean money for a vacation.

[trevelyan]

"This is not to bash adso. It's just hard to parse terse chinese, as my laughable attempt shows."

No offense taken. I think I can shed some light on what happened in case anyone is curious. It seems the software saw the following grammatical construction in a position where it seemed reasonable to have a noun construct, and so bundled them together automatically:

假 - to borrow (VERB)

币 - money (NOUN)

者 - (personal indicator)

What it should have seen was:

使用 - to use (VERB)

假币 - counterfeit money (NOUN)

者 - (personal indicator)

The problem was that the backend database didn't contain the word 假币. So it interpreted 假 as a verb rather than adjective modifying 币 as part of a larger noun compound. I just added 假币 to the backend database and the software now kicks out "person using counterfeit money".

This is actually a pretty good example of why data entry is so important.