凱 (pyrrhic_victoly) wrote in linguaphiles,

pyrrhic_victoly
linguaphiles

点心店...?

Hi :)

I'm trying to translate a few short stories from Chinese to English. The problem is that they were originally written in Japanese, so there are a bunch of cultural references that I'm sure have been lost. Right now, there's one phrase in particular that's bothering me.

他像是点心店店员一样歪着头

That would be something like, "He tilted his head like a snack shop clerk."

Is there a better way to translate 点心店, like "bakery" or "confectionery", perhaps? Or would that be inaccurate? 点心 is also dim sum, but that doesn't seem right in this context, as I don't think a Japanese author would be using a dim sum analogy. The character has just asked a question and he's tilting his head in curiosity at another man while waiting for a response. I assume that the description was meant to invoke the image of a store clerk tilting his/her head while waiting for a customer's order, but I'm not sure.
Subscribe

  • Anatomy of a "CUNT"

    The word CUNT is not simple, but compound. It consists of two parts. However, first of all, let's get rid of prejudices. The word CUNT is as…

  • a Russian name for the letter Q

    The letter Q looks like the letter O , but with a small tail at the bottom. Could the name of the letter Q relate to this tail? It is…

  • The Touchy Subject

    Apparently, English etymologists are ticklish. That's why they don't want to touch on some sensitive topics. And very important ones. Let's take…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 1 comment