That Wai Guo Ren Life

Language is one of the most interesting, beautifully complicated things that everyone in the world has the opportunity to experience.  Culture, language, understanding of self, and time are inextricably connected, and in order to really learn another language one basically has to completely change the way he thinks about himself, others, and the world. But languages are hard to learn (unless you've got some kind of crazy language-learning gift, which I'm totally not jealous of except I am), and usually it's just easier to go to a dictionary or the internet for a quick, direct translation from some other random language to your own.  They're handy, they're quick, and they're not usually very accurate, which can result in anything from frustrating communication breakdown to mass hilarity. Today's post is hopefully the latter. Most people already know how hilariously inaccurate Google Translate is sometimes (check out Malinda Kathleen Reese's YouTube

Hey, guys! My work is just finishing up our Spring Break (one of the many perks of working at a school), and a couple of coworkers and I spent most of our break time at one of the most scenic locations in China: the Floating Mountains of Zhangjiajie. Zhangjiajie is located in Hunan province, about five hours away from Changsha by high speed bus and hard seat train.  It's a city of about 1.5 million people up in some of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen.  We spent our time specifically in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, hiking through the Yangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, and Gold Whip Stream areas.  Fun fact: James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar got the inspiration for its floating mountains from the "Floating Mountains" in this park (found specifically in the Tianzi Mountain section), and there's even a mountain in Yangjiajie called Avatar Mountain (or the Hallelujah Mountain) after the movie.   I found out about these "Floating Mountain