Challenge #2 - Beijing Hua translated
Posted by Jonah Lopin on Sun, Dec 13, 2009 @ 01:49 PM
I put forth a challenge in a recent post to see if folks could translate some authentic Beijing Hua. I took some crap for the post in the comments because the recording is not the best (sorry!!) and because the sentence is really just a snippet of conversation taken out of context.
Despite the criticisms, I still think it's a good exercise. Here's the translation:
Ta1 jiu4 yi3wei2 wo3 gan4ma2 ne? Wo3 shang4 fen1ju2 le... n'n' nar3 you3 gong1 fu40r (time) a?
What does he think I was doing? I went to the local police station. How [the heck] do I have time?
Does anyone out there (other than me) like these posts and want more Beijing Hua sentences to translate?
UPDATE: I received an email from my Chinese friend who was actually there when this sentence was recorded. He writes:
"J, I listen to the clip again carefully. I'm a bit unsure about our former translation of the second character "jiu4". It's too fast and unclear. I guess there is another possibility. The second character is not jiu4, but zhe4. Both of the answers are Ok. It's too hard for me to recognize. Actually this time I prefer the latest version of translation. Anyway, I gave you both options:
Answer：他就以为我干嘛呢，我上分局了，哪有工夫啊
Another Possible Answer：他这以为我干嘛呢，我上分局了，哪有工夫啊 "
Ok, if W can't translate this then I guess the test isn't fair after all... sorry loyal readers.