Man receives 2 metre long slipper by mistake – Mini Chinese Lesson
When we saw this funny story we had to find an excuse to make a mini lesson out of it. Well, it turns out the factory in the story is in China, that’s reason enough, right? ‘Size’ is also mentioned so much that we can definitely make use of those words to cobble together a makeshift lesson with different words to express the concept.
The story goes that a British man ordered a custom pair of slippers online, only to receive a 2 metre long slipper in the mail, read on to find out why.
Vocabulary
News Bite
Now onto the news – take a deep breath before you read this Chinese sentence, it’s a long one. Excuse the translation on this one, too. I’ve tried to keep the structure as close to the Chinese as possible which sometimes results in English which is a bit weird.
Traditional
據英國《每日電訊報》10月20日消息，現年27歲的湯姆·博丁漢左右兩隻腳不一樣大，當他定做拖鞋時，廠商換算單位長度出錯，弄錯了尺碼，送來了一隻足有2米長的拖鞋。湯姆說：「這隻鞋子大小為210*130*65cm，這相當於一隻大灰熊或者家庭轎車的長度。」Simplified
据英国《每日电讯报》10月20日消息，现年27岁的汤姆·博丁汉左右两只脚不一样大，当他定做拖鞋时，厂商换算单位长度出错，弄错了尺码，送来了一只足有2米长的拖鞋。汤姆说：「这只鞋子大小为210*130*65cm，这相当于一只大灰熊或者家庭轿车的长度。」Pinyin
jù yīngguó měirìdiànxùnbào 10 yuè 20 rì xiāoxí, xiànnián 27 suì de tāngmŭ · bódīnghàn zuǒ yòu liǎng zhī jiǎo bù yīyàng dà, dāng tā dìngzuò tuōxié shí, chǎngshāng huànsuàn dānwèi chángdù chūcuò, nòngcuò le chǐmǎ, sòng lái le yī zhī zú yǒu 2 mǐ cháng de tuōxié. tāngmŭ shuō: “zhè zhī xiézi dàxiǎo wéi 210*130*65cm, zhè xiāngdāngyú yī zhī dà huīxióng huòzhě jiātíng jiàochē de chángdù”English
According to an October 20th report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, 27-year-old Tom Boddinghan, who’s left and right feet are not the same size, had a pair of slippers made to order but the factory made a conversion error with the size and sent a slipper that was 2 metres long. Tom said: “The size of the slipper is 210x130x65cm, that’s equivalent to a grizzly bear or the length of a family car.
If you read the rest of the news article you’ll find out at the manufacturer thought that the slipper was to be used in a shop display. The Daily Telegraph also later reported that this story was an elaborate hoax;
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Dave Flynn
Dave is a designer of websites, learner of Chinese and lover of technology. Originally from the UK , he's been living in Taiwan and learning Mandarin Chinese for the last four years. He founded and runs Chinese Hacks, a blog dedicated to effectively learning Chinese.
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