“基别”, Does This Name Sound Like Chinese Vulgar Word To You?
I was browsing through Zaobao.com, and I came across this piece of news – “新加坡马拉松赛夺标 基别不愧是世界冠军！“. It is about the result of Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon which was held yesterday (07/12/2008). I find the translation name of Kennyan World Champion Luke Kibet kind of funny. Let’s take a look:
现任马拉松世界冠军基别不负众望，在昨天举行的第七届渣打银行新加坡马拉松赛中跑出2小时13分01秒的成绩，以绝对优势拿下男子公开组冠军，并捧走3万5000美元（约5万3500新元）的奖金。
The word in red and bold “基别” is the translation of “Kibet”. It pronounces as “Ji1 Bie2″ in Chinese. To most Chinese speaking people from Singapore and Malaysia, they must find it sounds familiar. It really sounds like a very common, popular vulgar word to me. It is the same as another vulgar word “ChiBye”. I don’t know about you guys, it sounds 99% like that vulgar word.
I’m surprised that SPH actually allows such kind of translation to go public. Definitely they can do much better with it, definitely. When I was having lunch just know, I saw it the news on Channel 8 and the translation name from Mediacorp is “基贝特”, “Ji1 Bei4 Te4″ in HanYu PinYin. This version is better, much better than the SPH version.
Some of you may find me being fussy, or critical, or “鸡蛋里挑骨头”. I don’t know. What do you think?
