Mingpao doesn't even get the joke right. But all the better, I can now laugh at mingpao in addition to Apple. Unintentionally funny.
以Pad為名 被嘲「衛生棉」
【明 報專訊】蘋果將平板電腦命名iPad，而Pad在美國口語中的意思之一是衛生棉，惹來輿論調侃。Brew傳媒公關公司創始人哈默靈（Brooke Hammerling）質疑蘋果如此給產品改名，是否在乎女性市場，「和我談話的每個女性聽到這個詞的第一反應，幾乎都以為是衛生棉，看來蘋果之前根本沒 做多少市場調查。」有男性公關專家亦調侃道﹕「我等覑蘋果iPad第二代有護翼版趕快問世。
紐約時報
If your girlfriend asks for a pad and you give her a tampon, is it the same thing? I don't think so.
Kids, if you don't study hard you may end up not having a girl friend, not knowing what period is, not knowing the difference between a tampon and a pad but lucky enough to be hired by mingpao and translate crap like the above.
Previously ....
update 7PM:
Apparently ( or not so apparently to me ), the translation is right. When I type in the Chinese that's what I see. So I guess it's right. Kids study hard or you end up like me.
唔，我的英語不靈也不知道 pad 該指的是什麼，不過作為女性我是知道什麼是衛生棉的，唯一認識有關英文字是 panty liner，tampon 則是衛生棉條。
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, can't stop laughing at the original translation and how you turn this into a vital lesson for young boys to study hard so as not to be a laughing-stock when they grow up. (And yes, I have a rather juvenile sense of humour also when it comes to female hygiene products!)
ReplyDeleteMichelle: this graphic may explain things a bit :P
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs17/f/2007/167/5/e/iPad_by_Lord_Konstantin.jpg
"Kids study hard or you end up like me." hahaha lcl you always make me laugh :D
ReplyDeleteLadies, I know you all try to seek some guidance/laugh in this area ... from a guy. But I must admit I fail somewhat. I thought I know better but I don't. When I point out other people's mistakes (or so I thought), I invariably make some myself, always, it's like some natural law from nature or something.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, laugh at me, I earned it. I guess I shouldn't have touched this bloody subject. In my own defense, as somebody who was originally from HK, and mingpao as a Hong Kong based website, my expectation for the Chinese translation of the "pad" varies somewhat from what they use and hence, what should I say, the confusion.
Anyway, I am glad you ladies have a good laugh even the joke is on me.
Oooops, the joke's on me too. How embarrassing, especially as a Chinese woman!!!! When I read 衛生棉 the image that pops into my head is a tampon rather than a pad. Hmmmm.... this is VERY worrying. My humble defense? I don't have any defense, so unlike Blair (who is right now being grilled over his role in the Iraq war in the Chilcot Inquiry), I'll just stop defending the indefensible and go hide in a corner now (and maybe learn to read Chinese again XD!!)...
ReplyDeletehaha ok guys, it is true that we usually hear 護墊 for pad in hk :)
ReplyDeletenow let's get out of this bloody subject :D
Snowdrops, I am with you on this one. That's exactly what I have had in mind when the Chinese "cotton" used. So I don't know why mingpao uses this Chinese term in HK when at least you AND I (two people) don't get it as a pad. It does seem more of a tampon. BUT I guess I don't have the last word on this matter.
ReplyDeletemichelle: You are right on.
Thank you ladies for being such a good sport and sharing your thoughts on this serious matter.
Thanks Michelle and LCL for generously giving me a get-out clause, you're both too kind :)
ReplyDeleteBut you know, much as I'd like to get off the bloody subject, you wouldn't believe how much it's been bugging me since, as I kept asking myself, How could I not know the term??? Because I know that I didn't call sanitary pads 衛生棉, but I don't think I called them 護墊 either...
My annoyance at myself was so much so that I had to double-check with my mum (yes, plumbing new depths of embarrassment), but yes, I finally got it! We called them 衛生巾!! So mystery's finally been solved on this important subject, well at least for me...
Thank you for your kind indulgence of this discussion and please do return to your regular scheduling...
Snowdrops:
ReplyDeleteI hope you can sleep better tonight.
Thank you for bringing in the authority on this one. That's how we kids joked about it in junior high, white sun gun. As the society advances and so are feminine products, there are different sizes and thicknesses and hence the pad but by and large they are all known as white sun gun at least for people of my generation. So I don't know how the heck mingpao, the hk edition no less, would have called it differently. They might have used material from Taiwan.