Little aunt ＝ housekeeper
By Rae Huang

The other day, Annabel, a British woman, and her Chinese husband were invited to their friend, Suwei’s home for dinner.
When they got there, a girl dressed in an apron（围裙） of about 18 years old opened the door for them. In fact, they had been to Suwei’s home many times, yet they had never seen this girl before. After seating them, the girl was asked by Suwei to serve them tea and fruit. Seeing the girl busy making dishes up and down in the kitchen, Annabel couldn’t help asking, “Hey, Suwei, who is this girl? I’ve never seen her before.”
“Oh, she is a new member of our family, our little aunt (xiao a yi).” Suwei replied.
However, Annabel still felt confused: Little aunt? A new member? But it seems that they are not relatives. After they got home, Annabel turned to her husband and said, “Honey, were you confused during dinner?”
“Haha, little aunt means bao mu in Chinese.” he responded.
“Bao mu? Housekeeper?” she said in a surprised voice.
“Well, sort of. Sometimes it means nanny or cleaning lady, too.”
“Why? Housekeeper is housekeeper, and nanny is nanny. Why does he call her ‘little aunt’? So confusing.”
“That’s a euphemism（委婉语） for housekeeper in China. Though the meaning is vague, it can avoid embarrassment by calling her little aunt. What’s more, this form of address can make the girl feel genial（亲切） and comfortable. You know, a girl who wants us to call her 'little aunt' instead of 'bao mu” is hoping we will treat her with more respect and kindness than we presently do.” He concluded.
Actually, there are also many euphemisms in English, such as saying "sanitation engineer" instead of "garbage man"; "shoe rebuilder" instead of "shoe maker"; and "dining-room attendant" instead of "waiter/waitress". Euphemisms are of great importance in social intercourse, for it can help us avoid embarrassment and can generate new and useful ways of understanding things.

不可不读的英文谚语（搞笑版）
暑假的时间就是多，这两天潜心网上灌水，也翻阅了以前收集的一些谚语，特意拿出来和大家共享，希望大家喜欢。
1. Behind every successful man， there is a woman. And behind every unsuccessful man， there are two.
每个成功男人的背后都有一个女人，而失败男人的背后则有两个女人。
不多说啦，下次要是有人和你说Behind every successful man, there is a woman.你就可以直接对上：And behind every unsuccessful man, there are two. 肯定把别人的下巴吓掉：人生哲理，好渊博哦……
2. Success is a relative term. It brings so many relatives.
成功是一个相关名词，会给你带来很多不相关的亲戚（联系）。
Relative在这里有两个意思，一个是“相关”，一个是“亲戚”。句中就是巧妙地运用了这种关系。但是relative一般是指除了直系亲属之外的其他较远的亲戚。
上次看报纸，印度有一家人，175人同住屋檐下。每年光是食物就要花1.5万英镑。从早到晚都有人在进餐，买衣服都是成捆采购，看电视是100多人挤在一个大厅里。天下之大～这里的一家人就不用relative而用family member。
3. Never put off work till tomorrow that you can put off today.
不要等明天交不上差再找借口, 今天就要找好。
4. ″Your future depends on your dreams.″ So go to sleep.
“现在的梦想决定着你的未来”，所以还是再睡一会吧。
5. ″Hard work never kills anybody.″ But why take the risk﹖
“努力工作从不会导致死亡”不过我才不想亲自去验证。
还可以告诉别人： "Work fascinates me." I can look at it for hours! “工作好有意思耶!”（潜台词：尤其是看着别人工作。）
6. The more you learn， the more you know. The more you know， the more you forget. The more you forget， the less you know. So why bother to learn？
学的越多，知道的越多； 知道的越多，忘记的越多； 忘记的越多，知道的越少。还有必要学习吗﹖
我记得原话是：The more you learn, the more you know. 不知道哪个天才给延伸的，Suky对他的景仰之情真是如黄河泛滥，滔滔不绝。
7. God made relatives. Thank God we can choose our friends.
神决定了谁是你的亲戚，幸运的是在选择朋友方面给你留了余地。
Thank God就是老美们常说的：感谢上帝！这句话在电影中也经常出现。
看完这些谚语，您可以体会到些许老美的幽默了吗？

Lost in translation

Dear Chef，
I am an engineering department process technician in a foreign electronic corporation. Our manager often asks me to translate all kinds of process documentation for our company. I don＇t know many special words about electronic systems， so my translations often have many mistakes and cannot be used for production in the factory.
So I want to find a good way to translate the special documentation. Can you teach me to solve it﹖
Sincerely yours，
Lost－in－Translation
Dear Lost－in－Translation，
I have had a similar experience with this sort of translation and I can’t say it was a pleasant one. I think I totally understand the problem. Translations can be a real headache. Luckily, I have got a couple of friends who are really good at them and the following advice is what they gave me and hopefully it can be of some help for you.
It is needless to say that before translating a text it is deadly important to know everything about it. To be able to do that, you should never start your translation right away; instead, read your source text many times before you bury yourself into it. Translation is not exactly like composition, yet to understand the frame of the passage may also be helpful in guiding you in your choice of dictionaries and other reference works. Look up every word, even those that seem familiar. This is especially important when you are trying to translate some “special documentation” where a word might carry a completely different meaning than the one you are used to. Find a dictionary in your special field and use it. Use the internet and find content similar to your source text. It is especially helpful with your wording and sentence structures.
Change your perspective when you finish translating a sentence, and read your translation as if you were someone else and see if there is any difference between your translation and the original text. Never add or cross out anything. Those “special documentations” are not for literary use but a guide to others. What you need is not a beautiful passage, but a clearly described guide to other people. If this advice aforementioned still cannot help you out of the darkness, you might want to think about mailing those documentations to the Chef with an appropriate amount of money, and the Chef can do your work for you.

Seriously, for sure the first couple of times will be deadly hard. But once you face the hardship and persist on then after a couple of translations you will find the similar tasks much easier.
Best wishes,
The Chef

如果你对办公室生活或办公室英语有任何疑问，请给the Chef 写信，就有机会赢取都市风健身中心的50元体验券。the Chef的电子信箱是thecommonchef@yahoo.com
Vocabulary:
needless to say: 毋庸置疑
reference：参考
perspective:角度
aforementioned：以上提到的
persist：坚持