Author Topic: Need a little bit \'o help (translation) (Read 898 times)

« **on:** December 17, 2006, 11:59:11 AM »

I\'m translating a letter and there\'s a sentence that confuses me a bit. Here it is:

"My parents are involved in labor for their livelihood."

What the Christ does that mean exactly? That the parents work for a living?

Titan · « **Reply #1 on:** December 17, 2006, 01:14:46 PM »

That means the person who wrote it isn\'t that great at grammar

« **Reply #2 on:** December 17, 2006, 01:19:33 PM »

Yeah, it\'s some Indian dude who translated from Indian to Engrish. But do you have a suggestion as to what it means?

« **Reply #3 on:** December 17, 2006, 01:20:28 PM »

It wasnt me IT WASNT MEEEEEE

« **Reply #4 on:** December 17, 2006, 02:11:34 PM »

his parents are slaves

« **Reply #5 on:** December 17, 2006, 04:04:41 PM »

Quote from: Samwise

I\'m translating a letter and there\'s a sentence that confuses me a bit. Here it is:

"My parents are involved in labor for their livelihood."

What the Christ does that mean exactly? That the parents work for a living?

That they work to stay alive, and to stay afloat. Pretty much like you said, they work for a living. He might also mean labor as more specific, like manual labor as opposed to just plain work.

« **Reply #6 on:** December 17, 2006, 04:08:29 PM »

what Bozco said

« **Reply #7 on:** December 17, 2006, 07:03:43 PM »

As an addendum to what bozco said, if he looked up translation for certain words, he could also mean \'in labor\' to mean in organization of labor. Management/employment firms/unions or such, but that\'s far less likely that him just meaning \'they work for a living\'....

What\'s the context of the sentence?

« **Reply #8 on:** December 17, 2006, 11:41:32 PM »

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Quote from: FatalXception

What\'s the context of the sentence?

There\'s no context really. The letter didn\'t speak of anything like it before, nor after. So that\'s all I\'ve got and it\'s been giving me a headache trying to figure out how to translate it best.

« **Reply #9 on:** December 18, 2006, 04:39:19 AM »

His parents are giving birth.

Titan · « **Reply #10 on:** December 18, 2006, 10:55:38 AM »

I think it just means that they are doing like blue collar work or are laborers to support themselves. Its hard to put it in full context when I haven\'t seen the rest of the letter. But its understandable if you don\'t want to post the full letter.

« **Reply #11 on:** December 18, 2006, 11:14:14 AM »

Quote from: Titan

I think it just means that they are doing like blue collar work or are laborers to support themselves. Its hard to put it in full context when I haven\'t seen the rest of the letter. But its understandable if you don\'t want to post the full letter.

No, it\'s not that I don\'t want to post the letter, it\'s just there\'s no need. Because that sentence is all there is about the parents. Very weird. All I know is that:

1) They\'re probably in India
2) They must be poor

Hello

Author Topic: Need a little bit \'o help (translation) (Read 898 times)