Great read!

Whether it's 새댁 요코짱의 한국살이 (ISBN : 8990787084), 158公分的陽子小姐 (ISBN : 9867291190) or ソウルで新婚生活 (ISBN : 4479761349), I'll bet it is a good read, which I took less than 2 days to complete it! Tagami Yoko (田上陽子) has created such a good book, and it's rather fun to read, even though the book is a bit expensive to buy in Malaysia. It costs me around RM41, where if I were to buy the Chinese version, RRP is NT$250 (around RM29). It is only slightly cheaper than Japanese version RRP, which is ￥1,365 (incl. tax) (around RM44). The original Korean version is only ₩8,500 (around RM33). I bought the Chinese version, although I got to know this book from my Korean teacher, in which she bought the original Korean version. My sister loves it as well.

It's a book about Yoko-chan (a Japanese lady who is married to a Korean), and her life in Korea. It tells you about the culture shock she has gone through, and in some instance, comparing it to those in Japan. Some stories are rather hilarious. After reading the book, I found that the things that she found it rather surprise can be seen here in Malaysia as well. It makes me wonder how similar is Korea to Malaysia, like the bus experience, the hidden danger and so on.

Lost in Translation

I took these pictures in October last year at the famous KLCC Park.

And of course, the Malay 'equivalent' found near by:

To me, if the Malay sign was to be translated into English, I would say it means "In Action". Does "In Action" tells you that work is being done or it is under review whether a work will be done? It sounds something like the expression "I'll look into it". Whether there is anything done by the speaker or the speaker will try to see what he can do about it, unless we clarify with the speaker, the expression might be interpreted differently by different listener.

No doubt that some semantic might lost when translating from one language to another, but they could just use "Kerja sedang dijalankan&quit; which is more common than "Dalam Tindakan". Think I should go and have a look on the progress so far in the park. I might not even notice what is being done as the work mentioned might be just schedule maintenance of the park, or it is just how it was like in October 2005.