Yet Another Memory

"A hit on my blog from Taiwan! Interesting!"

Part of the enjoyment of maintaining a blog is watching hits from around the world.

Two days later there was a second hit from the same IP address in Taiwan. That piqued my curiosity more. A few days later I checked my email and found several comments on old posts. The comments were in Chinese.

Something isn't right. Why would anyone post Chinese on an English blog?

I took a few of the Chinese symbols and entered them into a Chinese to English translation web page. The first translation was innocuous.

免费 transliterates as miǎnfèi and means free of charge

The next translation didn't fall into the innocuous category.

情 transliterates as sèqíng and means erotic or pornographic

I was not pleased. I deleted the comments.

But, this experience did bring back a memory from my childhood. My mother had a small autograph book with wooden front and back covers held together by a ribbon. It was filled with notes and autographs from people she met during World War II. One comment was written in Chinese. I asked her what it meant and she said she didn't know. If I remember correctly, it was written by a co-worker in an aircraft factory in Niagara Falls where she worked for a short period of time. It would be interesting to have it translated.

So... to my sisters. Do either of you have the book? If so, take a photo of the page and send it to me. My immediate supervisor at work is Chinese. I'll ask her to translate it.