# Culinary question for Chinese speakers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266 "2023-02-23T23:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/1 "2023-02-23T23:43:08Z")
Sorry, I don’t know if this is Mandarin, Cantonese, or some other dialect: [![](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-e6ae3c62bb3c6f04276534d11b8b20cd) ](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-e6ae3c62bb3c6f04276534d11b8b20cd) Seriously, what does it say? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/2 "2023-02-24T00:04:39Z")
German salted pork hock. Salted pork hock is Cantonese slang for something naughty! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/3 "2023-02-24T00:07:29Z")
Great, thank you! I should probably try to learn Chinese someday… ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/4 "2023-02-24T00:35:47Z")
What it literally says is **“German pig hands.”** Unfortunately, “pig hands” is slang for a groper or sexual harasser. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/5 "2023-02-24T00:44:08Z")
And that’s a great example of why we need human translators because AI just doesn’t cover contextual word usage. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/6 "2023-02-24T00:58:25Z")
Engrish was around long before machine translation. You can’t assume who made that mistake (and who wouldn’t have). ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/7 "2023-02-24T01:21:50Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > And that’s a great example of why we need human translators because AI just doesn’t cover contextual word usage. As much as I’m inclined to argue that machine learning doesn’t grasp context, I think it may have just nailed it in this case. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/8 "2023-02-24T01:33:45Z")
That picture does look like ‘hands’ ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/9 "2023-02-24T02:04:02Z")
I’m curious what the context is. I see the price is in yuan. Is this a German restaurant in China, or is it a Chinese restaurant serving a German dish? Chinese are certainly not unfamiliar with pig’s feet and ham hocks. What makes it German, or Chinese? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/10 "2023-02-24T02:05:57Z")
I’m guessing it would be a restaurant in China serving a pork dish that’s made in a German style (whatever that could be), or maybe a German breed of pig? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/11 "2023-02-24T02:10:06Z")
So out of curiosity I looked up a bunch of “German ham hock” recipes and it appears that the most common ingredients amongst them were beer, juniper berries, cloves, and mustard, not necessarily all together. Mustard and cloves are definitely common Chinese ingredients. Sounds pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/12 "2023-02-24T09:03:38Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > And that’s a great example of why we need human translators because AI just doesn’t cover contextual word usage. In this instance, the AI or translator remarkably defaulted to the slang/casual meaning rather than the literal meaning. Usually the machine errs the other way around - it used to be that if you wanted Google Translate to say, “I will disembark from my airplane at 5PM tomorrow” you had to type "I tomorrow 5 PM **will down airplane"** - which could have led to some…FBI/TSA inquiries. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/13 "2023-02-24T21:07:06Z")
Instructions with aquarium equipment from China are ridiculously translated into English. Why is there difficulty with this? It would be easy for an English speaker to go over them. ---
**Author:** ![Jebbilene](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jebbilene/32/3414_2.png) [@Jebbilene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jebbilene)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/14 "2023-02-24T21:23:04Z")
It would cost money for an English speaker to go over them. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culinary-question-for-chinese-speakers/980266/15 "2023-02-24T22:07:52Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Usually the machine errs the other way around I agree with you that usually it is the other way around. My point is that AI translations just don’t grasp context and has little way of knowing if it is correct or not. It needs a human to say “Yes, that” or “No, try again”. While AI translations have improved over time, they only do so with a huge amount of human input telling them which is correct, which is slang, which is outdated slang, and which is absolutely off-base.