more Chinese-to-English translation fail(ure)

[Randy Alexander]

On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 7:51 AM, James Harbeck<jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>>The photo at
>>http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/fail-owned-lightswitch-fail.jpg?w=500&h=332shows
>>part of what seems to be a switch panel mounted on a wall, possibly in
>>a hospital. There are two switches, each with an engraved label in English
>>and Chinese, and what seem to be cable or hose connections underneath.

I think those are dimmer switches.  These kinds of control panels are
very common in hotels in China.  Built into the nightstand between the
beds.

>>I don't read Chinese and I don't know what the hanzi mean, and I won't try
>>to put them in this message. But the English labels are SMALLPOX and NIGHT
>>LIGHT.
>
> tianhuadeng = ceiling light
>
> tian = sky, hua = surface (or flower), deng = light
>
> But tianhua, the exact same characters (so skyflower or whatever),
> also means smallpox!
>
> Ceiling is tianhuaban -- the ban (board) is dropped in this compound.
>
> James Harbeck.

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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