SLL74: REVIEW: Round enough 圓滿人生
A New Year’s Resolution to improve a foreign language proficiency 新年新希望：增進外語能力
(Note: Paid subscribers can access the bilingual audio (English story —> vocabulary —> Chinese story), Quizlet Flashcards, and interactive vocabulary exercises below; as well as line-by-line bilingual version)
Round Enough
A: Got a New Year’s resolution for 2026?
B: Improve my foreign language proficiency. Time to round out my Wheel of Life.
A: I’ve heard of that … health, relationships and work. How will language learning help?
B: Relationships, for one. I’d like to make some foreign friends … maybe romance. Language gives you a way in.
A: Fair enough.
B: Health too. Mind health, actually. Learning something new can stop brain rot.
A: Yeah, a real brain workout beats mindless scrolling.
B: As for work, learning a language can help me growth. Maybe lead to new opportunities. One new habit, three bigger slices from the wheel of life slices.
A: Killing three birds with just one stone. Nice.
B: That’s the point. Make more life more round. Make it roll better.
A: So how are you studying? Are you using apps? Agentic AI? Or something more unmediated?
B: Actually, I want to collect bad translations.
A: That’s your method?
B: I want to analyze them.
A: Like what?
B: The internet is full of funny Chinese mistranslations. “Slip and fall down carefully.” Syntax problem.
A: Ha ha. I once saw “Delicious Roasted Husband” on a menu in Beijing years ago.
B: Yes, that’s a homophone disaster where “fu” sounds like husband and gluten.
A: This is Forensic linguistics as self-improvement.
B: Exactly. But they’re getting harder to find. AI creates a lot of AI slop, but it doesn’t make these translation mistakes.
A: Yeah, prefab language and dead-internet vibes everywhere.
B: True! It’s almost like the only way you know for sure you are reading human writing is if it has a mistake!
A: Especially, funny ones that would make a language assessor laugh out loud.
B: Exactly.
A: Strange. We used to correct mistakes to sound human. Now we collect them … just to prove we still are.
圓滿人生
A：你有 2026 年的新年新希望嗎？
B：增進我的外語能力。是時候讓我的生命之輪更圓滿了。
A：我聽過那個……包含健康、人際關係和工作。學習語言會有什麼幫助？
B：首先是人際關係。我想交一些外國朋友……或許還能發展一段感情。語言能為你開啟大門。
A：說得也是。
B：還有健康。其實是心理健康。學習新事物可以防止大腦腐爛。
A：沒錯，大腦運動確實比漫無目的地滑手機好多了。
B：至於工作，學習語言可以幫助我成長，或許還會帶來新機會。一個新習慣，就能讓生命之輪的三個面向都變得更寬廣。
A：一石三鳥，很讚喔。
B：這就是重點。讓生活更圓，也讓它滾動得更順暢。
A：那你打算怎麼讀？用 App？智能體？還是更無中介的方式？
B：事實上，我想要收集一些糟糕的翻譯。
A：那就是你的學習方法？
B：我想要分析它們。
A：例如什麼？
B：網路上到處都是好笑的中文誤譯。像是 “Slip and fall down carefully”，那是句法問題。
A：哈哈。我多年前曾在北京的菜單上看到 “Delicious Roasted Husband”。
B：對，那是個同音詞災難，「麩」聽起來像丈夫的「夫」。
A：這是把法庭語言學當作自我提升啊。
B：沒錯。但現在這些越來越難找了。AI 產生了很多電子垃圾，但它不太會犯這種翻譯錯誤。
A：是啊，到處都是預製語言和死亡互聯網的感覺。
B：真的！簡直就像是唯有看到錯誤，你才能確定那是真正的人類語言表現！
A：特別是那些會讓語言評分員大笑的有趣錯誤。
B：一點也沒錯。
A：真奇怪。我們以前修正錯誤是為了像人類一樣說話。現在我們收集錯誤……只是為了證明我們仍然是人類。
Vocabulary | 單字表
SLL71: Getting Your Life in Shape for the New Year (Wheel of Life)
New Year’s resolution, 新年新希望 (xīn nián xīn xī wàng)
Wheel of Life, 生命之輪 (shēng mìng zhī lún)
health, 健康 (jiàn kāng)
relationships, 人際關係 (rén jì guān xì)
work, 工作 (gōng zuò)
friends, 朋友 (péng yǒu)
romance, 感情 (gǎn qíng)
growth, 成長 (chéng zhǎng)
opportunities, 機會 (jī huì)
slice / slices, 面向 (miàn xiàng)
round, 圓 (yuán)
roll, 滾動 (gǔn dòng)
SLL72: The RedNote Dialogues
Agentic AI, 智能體 (zhì néng tǐ)
AI slop, 電子垃圾 (diàn zǐ lè sè)
prefab language, 預製 (yù zhì)
dead-internet vibes, 死亡互聯網 (sǐ wáng hù lián wǎng)
brain rot, 大腦腐爛 (dà nǎo fǔ làn)
SLL73: The Web of Words (Language testing & authenticity)
human writing, 人類語言表現 (rén lèi yǔ yán biǎo xiàn)
sound human, 像人類一樣說話 (xiàng rén lèi yí yàng shuō huà)
prove we still are (human), 證明我們仍然是人類 (zhèng míng wǒ men réng rán shì rén lèi)
mistake, 錯誤 (cuò wù)
proficiency, 能力 (néng lì)
unmediated, 無中介的 (wú zhōng jiè de)
assessor, 評分員 (píng fēn yuán)
CGLL13: “Forensic Linguistics” Proficiency Exam
bad translations, 糟糕的翻譯 (zāo gāo de fān yì)
mistranslations, 誤譯 (wù yì)
syntax, 句法 (jù fǎ)
homophone, 同音詞 (tóng yīn cí)
Forensic linguistics, 法庭語言學 (fǎ tíng yǔ yán xué)
… as mentioned above, paid subscribers can access the bilingual audio (English story —> vocabulary —> Chinese story), Quizlet Flashcards, interactive vocabulary exercises below … as well as line-by-line bilingual version for easy comparison.
