Do you know what I do for a paying job? You’ll never guess. Oh … *looks up* … perhaps you can. But you’ll never guess what I edit. Scientific papers for post-grad students in Asian countries.
Chinese people writing English makes for an interesting read, in the sense of the (apparently not truly) Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.” The Chinese do not use articles, nor do they change tense.
Therefore: — Boy go store. Boy go store yesterday. Boy go store today. Boy go store tomorrow.
Chinese people who are writing scientific papers like to use big words. Never use a fifty cent words when a twenty dollar word will do.
Big words, no articles, no changes in tense — doesn’t that all sound like fun? I’m not complaining, though. I’m happy for the money and I’m enjoying learning about the differences between our languages. But it’s definitely headache-inducing work.
