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Until May 10th...

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"Strong Willed Woman"

from: Jaime S.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 2:21 PM
subject: So I got a tattoo...

Hey guys, my name's Mari. I've always been a fan of the blog, and I was wondering if you could verify my tattoo's meaning.

I'm a foreign language major, and I've studied both Mandarin and Japanese in the past. I decided to translate the meaning of "strong willed woman" into 英気女 (eiki onna). So... is this correct? I sure hope so!

I sent you a pic, too. Thanks a lot.

At the very least the characters are written correctly as if it was supposed to be Japanese.

Unfortunately, 英気女 does not mean "strong-willed woman" in Japanese.

It is more like "brilliant woman" or "woman of excellent ability" if they were to translate it literally. But even this is not a proper translation because 英気女 is not grammatically correct in Japanese.

It lacks the proper grammatical bits and such, so it sounds very brusque and looks sort of "faux Chinese" to a Japanese person. To be proper, they would need to be written 英気に富んだ女性 [eiki ni tonda josei] if "brilliant woman" was intended.

But it cannot be proper Chinese because the simplified character form 気 is used only in Japanese. In Chinese, only the character forms 氣 (traditional) or 气 (simplified) are used.

Another problem is that it seems quite inappropriately boastful and prideful for someone to tattoo themselves with "brilliant woman" in a Japanese context. One would only say this sort of thing about someone else, or as a goal to strive for, and not as a label on your own body. The most common usage of 英気 in Japanese is in the phrase 英気を養う [eiki wo yashinau] which means roughly to "rest up to be able to demonstrate one's full ability."

Certainly there are other, much better, ways of saying "strong-willed woman" in Japanese. One might be 意志の強い女性 [ishi no tsuyoi josei].

Better luck next time,

Alan & Tian

Eiffel Tower's Official Site

http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

For a country which has its own government agency to ensure linguistic purity & accuracy, one would think France would have same standard for other languages as well.

Apparently not so, as seen here at the official website for Eiffel Tower.

The button for Japanese [日本語] is missing first character.

(Thanks Ulas for the tip)

Love and Light video

This is one of my videos. Making video's is new to me. And they loose a lot of detail when they are uploaded.

Plagued by Blogger bX-tb9qow Error

Alan, myself and several readers have noticed this error when trying to access comment function of older postings.

As of right now, there is no fix from Blogger.

Tree of Life photo competition entries

Our April competition has already attracted some beautiful, glowing images!

Here are just a few...

Wear it your way -

And show us!

Competition ends 30th April

Email your photo to treeoflifephotocomp@gmail.com

Good luck and happy snapping!

from: Brendan B.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 8:22 PM
subject: Lady Gaga's Japanese Arm???

Hey,

I love the site and I came across this picture of Lady Gaga in Japan and I was hoping that you could figure out what she had written all over her arm. Knowing Lady Gaga, I can only imagine. Thanks a lot!


Brendan B.


http://justjared.buzznet.com/2010/04/13/lady-gaga-is-new-to-narita/

Alan, who is a long time Lady Gaga fan (just kidding), has this to say:

Lady Gaga? Hah! But I think she is terrific and it is just so typical of her to have someone write random things in Japanese on her handbag and arm.

Anyway, the text on the handbag, which looks a lot like the text on her arm (which is partially obscured) reads:

アイ　ラブ　スモール　モンスター [I love small monster]

東京　ラブ [Tokyo love]

The text on her arm is actually different from that on her bag:

アイ　ラブ　リトル　モンスター [I love little monster]

Hot on the trail of the "little monster," I see that Gaga seems to call her fans the "little monsters" and she even has a tattoo that says "Little Monsters."

http://www.popeater.com/2010/02/03/lady-gaga-new-tattoos/

So no doubt she meant リトル　モンスター [ritoru monsuta-] to mean her Japanese fans. Now she just has to fire the person that wrote "small monster" on her handbag. :)

By the way, that is a Hermes Birkin bag priced worth about £3,000.

http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/star-style/fashion-news/450544/lady-gaga-goes-japanese/1/

from: Ben
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 12:16 PM
subject: NY Daily News: Photos: Tiger Woods' alleged mistresses Joslyn James, Loredana Joli, Cori Rist, Rachel Uchitel

Hi Long time fan! I was looking up stuff on Tiger Woods and came across this gem. The caption says her (Joslyn James) tattoo says "betrayal" in Chinese.
First line: "coming" in Japanese?
Second: In my dreams
Third line is something like karmic retribution written incorrectly (yin guo bao ying) and below that "highest satisfaction" Last line not sure. Any ideas?



楽しみ [enjoyment/pleasure]
夢中 [in dream/dreaming]
因果応報 [cause & retribution]
最高潮 [climax]
裏切 [betrayal]

Arangaon Women's Sewing Project Moves On

After five productive years, the Arangaon Women’s Project has been disbanded.

The women who were trained in these skills have moved on to pursue their own careers.

One woman has begun her own business as a tailor.

One crippled woman now teaches basic computing skills in the village.

Several have joined a local organization named ‘Prithvi’ specializing in rural development.

We are so happy to have been part of this initiative to educate and empower village women!

We'll be following their progress in years to come through updates from Mehera Kleiner, who lives and works in the Arangaon area.

from: iona c.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 10:03 AM
subject: what does it mean yall?

Yo! A friend just got this tattoo... what does it mean yall?

from: Chuck R.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 8:17 AM
subject: Hanzi Smatter submission

Just stumbled onto your site and have been laughing my ass off for the last hour! I have a friend with a lame Chinese/Japanese/something-or-other character tattoo that I'm dying to know what it actually means.

He tells us that it means "Mighty Whitey" (and while i could explain to you its non-racial origins i would probably just be wasting your time), but i can only imagine that it actually says something along the lines of "anglo-saxon douchbag dick-licker"

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated!!!

Chuck



強勢的色 is a word-to-character translation of "brave's color".

from: Heath R.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 3:54 AM
subject: Chinese Tattoo

Hi, I got this tattoo done when I was very young and very drunk a long time ago and have since forgotten the meaning.

Can you help me out please?

Thank you.


Heath.

Tree of Life's Adventure in Kashmir!

Kashmiri handpainted boxes are one of our top items.

Last season we visited Srinagar in Kashmir, to check on the condition of workers there.

We were satisfied that they are treated fairly - we found the workplace to be healthy and tranquil.

And along the way, we also found MAGIC.

Behold - the home of Tree of Life's legendary Kashmiri papier-mâché!

The dashing Parveez has long been our supplier of Kashmiri papier-mâché products.

His artisans train for five years to do this highly meticulous work.

Each colour is applied one at a time, in layers.

It's a privilege to watch these artists at work.

They are swift and precise.

A box with painting as fine as this fetches a higher price:

We also visited a copper shop and saw some spectacular handcrafted samovars.

Each piece is full of personality!

When the weather got too hot, we headed to Gulmarg -

the Meadow of Flowers.

This famed hillstation is a ski resort in the winter.

It was probably one of the coolest places we had ever seen.

The landscape all around is rich and romantic.

We found Kashmir's proverbial title, "the enchanted vale," to be entirely true.

Back in Srinagar, we kept working.

Handpainting can adorn almost any product.

It was fun brainstorming new items to decorate with this exquisite traditional design.

In the evenings, we took sunset cruises on Dal Lake in the tiny boats known as shikaras.

It's mostly locals who enjoy the lake.

Some use shikaras to tout their wares.

There are hundreds of houseboats on Dal Lake too.

Their interiors are astoundingly ornate.

The carved sandalwood is so fragrant!

Parveez introduced us to the glories of saffron tea.

We vowed to prepare it ourselves back here in Australia.

But somehow, it has never measured up to the Kashmiri original...

photography by Shirin Borthwick

Necklace in Shop 'Till You Drop

Beautiful tribal necklace in store now - only $16.95