English with Dilbert
SARS arrival cards, with their bad translation, won't
help Czechs wanting to practice their English, but for
this they have Dilbert. Every day Hospodářské noviny
publishes the successful business cartoon in English
with a Czech translation. Dilbert's English isn't the
easiest to understand, and HN's brilliant translations
often explain a word or phrase that stump even some
native speakers. HN, for example, renders "Who's your
daddy?" as Kdo umí, ten umí! ("I know my stuff.")
Readers also learn how to say such things as "retention
bonus" (věrnostní prémie), "bone-headed mistake"
(hloupá chyba), and "do a sanity check" (zkontrolovat
smysluplnost). Only once have we caught an error in
HN's translations (yesterday, as luck would have it).
MFD also prints Dilbert each day , but only in Czech
translation. For a quick daily English (or Czech) lesson,
HN's version is hard to beat.
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