Rosetta Stone Translation - Help!

[thph2006]

Can someone tell me how this phrase from the Rosetta Stone Mandarin II course should be translated?

S: 别对他太厉害，安梅，我肯定他是不小心。

T: 別對他太厲害，安梅，我肯定他是不小心。

The course doesn't provide any English translation (it's uses so-called immersion), but they do use the same material for all their different language courses so looking at the manual for their English course, the English for the same picture is: "Now don't be too hard on him, Mabel, I'm sure it was just an accident."

I'm a beginner so there's a lot I don't understand but for the life of me I can't extract the same meaning from the Chinese. It seems to me to say: "Don't be too familiar with him, An Mei, I'm sure he's not careful". Quite a different meaning. Where am I going wrong?

[HashiriKata]

Ok, let's try:

别对他太厉害，安梅，我肯定他是不小心。

"Don't be too familiar with him, An Mei, I'm sure he's not careful"

Actually, you're almost there. The biggest question I'd have is where you got "familiar" from. If you think "厉害" means "familiar", then look up that word again. "厉害", like many other words, means all sorts of things but not "familiar". In this particular sentence, it's quite appropriate to take it as meaning "severe/ fierce/ tough/ formidable/..."

So now, you're almost there by replacing just one word:

"Don't be too severe with him, An Mei, I'm sure he's not careful"

When someone's not careful, they may cause an accident, such as driving carelessly. So, you can now add "it was just an accident" to your sentence without changing its basic meaning:

"Don't be too severe with him, An Mei, I'm sure he's not careful" =>

"Don't be too severe with him, An Mei, I'm sure it was an accident (because he was not careful)"

With those minor modifications, you now can see that there's hardly any difference between your translation and Rosetta Stone's own translation:

"Don't be too severe on him, An Mei, I'm sure it was an accident."

"Now don't be too hard on him, Mabel, I'm sure it was just an accident."

[Koneko]

S: 别对他太厉害，安梅，我肯定他是不小心。

I personally think that it would be more appropriate to replace 厉害 with 严厉.

K.

[thph2006]

Thanks for the quick and clear response. You guys are fantastic! On the down side it reminds me of just how much further I still have to go with this crazy twisted language. Of course I'm sure for Chinese English learners the pain's mutual!

[Koneko]

No pain, no gain.

K.

[semantic nuance]

Or try 嚴格, 嚴苛.

Hope it helps!

[lokki]

Still, the message implied in "I am sure it was just an accident" is quite a bit different from "I am sure he is not careful". The first expression is indirectly saying that he is not really to blame that much, the second doesn't. He could be careful and still have an accident, but if he isn't then he can be expected to have one.

So what I am wondering about is this: Does "I am sure he is not careful" in mandarin have the same effect that the first variation has in English, of clearing him of blame ? Is that message coming across in the mandarin version as it stands, or is there a clearer way of getting it across ?

[thph2006]

Lokki,

I was wondering exactly the same thing. The cartoon lost a lot of detail when I copied it so for anyone who didn't see it right away, the little kid's actually a little monster, running around intentionally spilling the coffee. So the text should convey the joke's emphasis on "accident" or "unintentional" vs. "intentional". I wonder if the Rosetta Stone phrasing is right but just reflects the Chinese preference for more subtle expression. So I guess the question is - Is this the way a Chinese cartoonist would have written the line?

Cheers and thanks again to all for the great inputs. I'm learning a lot!