Tuesday, July 4, 2006

The other day I read on cnn.com about a Guatemalan who was brought to court for acting suspicious while riding a plane to Hawaii. The man was acquitted and paranoia was ruled the cause of his arrest. The man made a statement after his acquittal. His statement was translated as “I’m very happy because I think I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Having interacted with many Central Americans in my life, I have come across many who overuse the phrase “yo pienso que” (literally translated as, “I think that”). Usage of that phrase should not necessarily be taken as indication of uncertainty. Personally, I would have omitted the word “think” from the translation. However, if the word “think” needed to remain, the statement would have been better translated as “I don’t think I did anything wrong,” as opposed to “I think I didn’t do anything wrong.” The latter raises the issue of uncertainty; more so than the former.

And there you have it, people…. a post about nothing. 🙂

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