Lucy Liu: A Great Source of Entertainment (August 4, 2012)

If you've read previous blogs, you will recall that Lucy Liu is a computer ap. At the touch of a finger, she can translate speech from English to Chinese and Chinese to English. One would think that this ability would be extremely advantageous to her owner, especially since the Chinese language is so difficult. After more than three weeks of pulling out Lucy and making numerous attempts to use her to talk to salespeople, waiters, waitresses, reception clerks, store owners, masseuses... (the list is long...), I am sorry to report that she operates at about 20 %!



Single monosyllabic words are her forte. A string of words such as "Can you heat the meat?", or "Do you have potatoes with beef?" are more than she can handle.

This morning I had a flash of insight, and I think I may have figured out Lucy's problem. She doesn't understand the tones! As you may already know, Chinese is a tonal language. There are four important tones that determine meaning. Lucy appears to operate in one tone zone! Most every translation about food comes out as something to do with marriage! Lucy may have the vocabulary down, but I am certain she still needs work on the tones.
Quick course on Chinese tones;
First tone: A high tone reflects a high pitch
Second tone: Rising tone is reflected in mid to high pitch as in asking "What?" in English
Third tone: The only tone which goes in two directions. It starts downward to the low range, then rises.
Fourth tone: The falling tone is similar to saying "Stop!" in a commanding way.

I am thinking Lucy Liu pronounces everything using a neutral tone which would explain the bizarre translations! Yesterday, I asked her to say "Happy Birthday to James" and she told him "Happy Birthday in Chains!" His anniversary is today which gave us all a good laugh!!

Yesterday, Sally and I went to the grocery store looking for a small bottle of whiskey to get James for his birthday. We had Lucy to help us. The scene went something like this...

Joan to Lucy; "Where is the whiskey?"
Lucy to clerk: "When do you marry?''



Joan to Lucy: "Do you sell scotch?"
Lucy to clerk: "No,sir. Do you have to take this amount?'




Lucy also prefers a nice quiet location without background noise!
James has decided that besides being a wonderful failure, she is a great source of entertainment.

Zai Jian!
Joan
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Location:All Over Yuyao