no comprehendo

I cooked myself some Korean instant noodles for dinner today. Everything on the packet was in Korean, and the only reason why I didn’t botch things up was because of the pictures that came with the instructions. The first picture showed a hand putting the noodles and the contents of the orange packet into boiling water. The second picture showed the noodles being drained, and the third, a big bowl of noodles with brown gravy and bits of mushroom on top. I figured (correctly) that the contents of the last two packets were to be put in at this step. Hooray! Perfectly cooked noodles.



The worst instructions I’ve ever read were for a game a friend gave me.

“Rules of the game – a game for two persons – KALAHA has simple rules, but many tactical possibilities. In each of the round pits are put six balls. Each of the two players has his 6 pits in front of him and his KALAHA and the larger bin to each player’s right. The first move is determined by lot. The player who begins with the first move picks up the balls in anyone of his own six pits and sows the 6 balls only to the right, one in the following pits and in his KALAHA. No. ball is put into the opponent’s KAHALA, If the player’s last ball lands in his own KAHALA, he gets anotherturn, also several times successively, in the case of repeating. Its’ now the other player’s turn, During the game the pits are emptied on both sides, Always, when the last own ball is landing as the last ball in an own empty pit the player can capture his own ball and all balls in the opposite pit of the openent and put them in his own KAHALA. The game is over when one of the both sides = 6 pits is empty and accordingly a player can not move anymore, The remaining possible balls are put in the KAKAHA of the concerned player. Winner of the game is the player who has the most balls in his KALAHA.”

I think I read it like 5 times before I decided to make up my own rules. :)

I wonder how large the illiterate market is? I bet it isn't very big (or at least not very important a vote) cos they took out the colour coding on the trains and replaced it with very confusing English. Have you ever used the LRT at Bukit Panjang? Just about impossible. It has trains leaving from the same side of the station that go to different stations so to know which train to get on, you have to look at the English sign above the train that will say something like “Buangkok 5mins” and then conclude that if you want to go to Buangkok, you must not board the train waiting at the dock, but wait five minutes for the next one. I'm so glad they are putting in multi-lingual signs. Now all they need is colour-coding and Singapore will be illiterate-friendly

People are important regardless of whether they can read.