A friend of mine asked me today where the Filipino slang word "apir" came from.

Apir!, when said by a Filipino, doesn't mean that he's commanding something to magically materialize before your eyes. Instead, it suggests a gesture done by two or more people slapping their hands together. In short, it's technically the equivalent for a Westerner's "high five". Read full post...

There's this game when I was a kid where we go:
Appear, (slap each other's palms)
disappear, (slap the back of our hands together)
one-half, (side of the hand)
one-fourth, (side of the fists)
one-fourth, one-half, disappear, appear!

If you don't get what I'm saying, find a Filipino (there's bound to be one in your area; Filipinos are everywhere) and have them demonstrate. Or...uh...I can make a video.

Anyway.

So, really, where did apir/appear come from? Is it because your hand appears to slap your friend's hand? Er... that could work, too, I guess. But the real origin of that is what some Westerners say when they "apir".

While some say "Gimme five!" (meaning your five fingers), some say "Up here!" (as opposed to a low slap or on the side). If you know the Give me five, on the side, down below— You're too slow! rhyme/game/whatever, you'll know what I mean. And now, despite the "up here" origin, though, "apir" applies whether it's a side slap or a low one.

So, pinoyblogero, I hope I answered your question clearly. :)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Churva!

EDIT: After further research and a couple of discussions with some of my friends, I decided to declare the contents of this post as unconfirmed. To be honest, I believed this piece of information when I first heard it from another friend, even though I have no concrete proof to show the real definition of "cheorvamus" or if the word even exists. However, since there is no concrete proof that it doesn't exist, then I don't want to say that this is false, either. I'll update this post when this gets settled. (And if you know any Greek who can confirm this, then I'd appreciate it.) Thanks!

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Okay, so this might be general knowledge by now, but my friends and I were talking about this today and made me want to blog about it.

"Churva" is now a commonly used expression in Filipino used when the speaker currently unable to properly express or explain something. Most have thought that it's an "original" word in the gay lingo... I guess it sort of is... Except that it was derived from an actual Greek word.

The greek word "cheorvamus" means "for lack of the right word to say or in place of something you want to express but cannot verbalize" which is pretty much what the function of "churva" is.

So that, people, is why I use freely use "churva" even though I rarely use words from the gay lingo. Don't be surprised anymore. ^_^

Friday, June 22, 2007

wanting but not wanting

I'm talking to myself about Google. Again.

It's just that Aileen's twitter keeps bugging me. (It isn't meant to bug anyone, of course.) It keeps saying "Wanted still: localisation editor". Not all the time, but it pops up every now and then.

I bet you don't see what's so wrong about that Twitter status. You know why? That's because there IS nothing wrong with that Twitter status. So why is it bugging me?

Easy.

'Coz I want the job.

But then I don't.

Harhar. Talk about indecision. I heard about that job opening when Aileen posted it in GPhilippines on... April... I think. And I've been mulling it over every once in a while since then.

Ever since I fell in love with Google —umm...yeah. I'm a Googlephile, if you haven't noticed yet from my recent posts— I've been wondering what it'd be like to work there. It sounds super awesome, and...

Well, come on. It's Google!!!

Plus, given the fact that I'm pretty obsessed with translation (as most of you have seen from my previous rant, lost in translation), I guess you could say it'd be a good job for me if I get hired.

That is, IF I apply at all.

I probably won't because
(1) I don't meet the requirements [namely the first],
(2) my passport is expired,
(3) I like my present job [Okay, so it's not as cool as working Google, but I like it, anyway], and
(4) there is no number 4.

Oh, wait, there is! Number 4: I'm making way too many excuses, it makes me wonder if I actually do want the job or not.

Riiiiiiiight.

I guess I just have this occasional tendency to box my "dreams" or über-cool things to be... well... to be precisely that: dreams and über-cool things that I can't reach. Most times I actually muster my guts and dive into the unknown (like I did when I applied for my current job), but sometimes the nervousness bug bites me. And so I limit myself. Because of that, I end up not getting that über-cool thing, like I chalked it up.

Sucks.

Ah, well.

In case you would like the job, and have more guts than I do, then, by all means, click the link at the top of this post, and try your luck. ^^

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

lost in translation

When I logged into Blogger today, my first thought was "They can NOT be serious about this."

About what, you ask? Well, about the word-for-word translation of everything, that's what.

For quite a while now, there's been buzz around that Blogger will be made available in different languages. I didn't think much about it. Ah, but I guess I should've braced myself for it. That was my fault, I suppose.

Whenever I use Google and it goes to Google.ph, I always wince when I see the Tagalog version. Don't get me wrong: I actually like — no, LOVE — my national tongue. But there are just some things that you don't translate. Being a freelance translator, I know how awkward (and sometimes simply WRONG) it is to take translation literally.

(I realize now that this post will appeal most to bilinguals. This might not have any effect at all on people who only speak English. Sorry.)

Translation is not just getting an English-"whatever language" dictionary and typing in what the almighty book says. A word can be translated in so many ways depending on context. There are some instances where literal translations of things are out of whack, and there are some cases where you just shouldn't translate at all.

For example— May I cite an example? Thank you. For example, take the "Collapse comments" link.
As shown in my cropped screenshot, it says "Gibain ang mga comment". So, yeah, "gibain" DOES mean "collapse". It also means "destroy". And, you know what? They should NOT have used it here because a Tagalog-only speaker would think that this link will DELETE the comments. You know what they should've used? A simple "itago" (meaning "hide") would've sufficed. But, noooooo~ they decided to stick with the dictionary definition of collapse. Rargh.

I won't go into great lengths of pointing out the many...errr...inappropriate translations... Like it should be "4 na komentaryo". Also, "komentaryo" (with one m! ONE!) actually means "commentary", which is different from a simple comment. A better word would be "puna", which was used in the Posts List. Um. Yeah. I'll stop there. I'll spare you from "Mobile Mga Kasangkapan" for "Mobile Devices".

Things are lost in translation, and that's why it should be used with care. Sorry for being so rant-y about this, but I'm just a bit of a Nazi when it comes to English-Filipino translation (and the other way around). The current setting makes me shrudder. I'm serious.

One might say, "Ah, but Sarah, what about those Filipinos who don't understand English?" You know what? With the current translation of Blogger, I doubt they'll undersand that, either.

This post is not written to discredit Google. This is not a hate post. As most of you know, I actually LOVE Google. And I honestly think that it's very thoughtful of Google to want to make their services available to non-English speakers. But still, I implore the translators: "ARGH get some help, man!" And if my guess is right, and Blogger had been translated by a computer program (or some other such thing), then I hope they fix it.

As for me, I'll just go and switch my language setting back to English. I'm sure other people will, too.