Isabella Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 To explain - my mother is paying for her grandkids to go on a replica sailing ship, the Leeuwin. We wrote to a friend telling him of the wonderful opportunity dd has in going on this adventure.. part of his reply reads.. When 'D' goes for 7 days on board the LEEUWIN, it will be an all new experience, she might like to become a sailor then. The Chief-Mate on the Leeuwin used to be a female once and I heard a while ago that there was a female applying for the Skipper job. I totally read it as the Chief-Mate had had a gender-change operation. It was only after about 30 seconds that I realized it probably meant that at one stage they had a female Chief-Mate. I asked my dh how he read it, and he said of course the second option. He couldn't believe that I could have taken it the other way!!:confused: The writer is German, so maybe it's just put a little differently than I would have written it. So how do you read it - hopefully poll to follow very soon.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 The sentence construction is clunky but pronouns in different languages can be tricky. Filipinos, for instance, often use "his" and "her" interchangeably! (That can be really confusing since you wonder if there was an operation and then a reversal!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I read it as "at one time, the ship had a female Chief-Mate, but that position is currently held by a man". But I can totally see it the other way, too. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I read it as "at one time, the ship had a female Chief-Mate, but that position is currently held by a man". But I can totally see it the other way, too. :D This is it. Switzerland speaks English with German syntax and periodically comes up with some real doozies. a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyJudyJudy Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I read it as "at one time, the ship had a female Chief-Mate, but that position is currently held by a man". But I can totally see it the other way, too. :D Yep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReader Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I read it as "at one time, the ship had a female Chief-Mate, but that position is currently held by a man". But I can totally see it the other way, too. :D This (although, really, for me it's a stretch to get the other reading..) But, I've lived outside the US for 4 years now so maybe my exposure to non-native English helps me sort out these things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I read it as a poorly structured sentence about a female chief-mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 So how do you read it - hopefully poll to follow very soon.:001_smile: I read it the second way. But I quickly realized that can't be what he meant. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasRachel Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I read it as a sex change as well. So you're not alone. But like you, I kind of went :confused::confused::confused: and then figured out what he was trying to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 When 'D' goes for 7 days on board the LEEUWIN, it will be an all new experience, she might like to become a sailor then. The Chief-Mate on the Leeuwin used to be a female once and I heard a while ago that there was a female applying for the Skipper job. The word once at there'd of the sentence makes it sound like an operation has happened. If it said "once, they had a female..." it would read the other way more naturally. After reading further, you can get the true meaning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHASRADA Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Yes, the syntax is awkward and, the way it is written, literally means the person in question used to be a woman. However, I would not take the statement literally as written, but assume the author, at least in this instance, is not adept at expressing themselves clearly in writing. This is one of those situations where context is key. If you know the author's native tongue is not English, and there is no reason to believe a trans-gender issue in this situation is likely, than I would go with the latter interpretation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 (edited) I read it as a poorly structured sentence about a female chief-mate. :iagree: The sentence construction is poor, but it's obvious what he meant from the context. Edited September 5, 2011 by WordGirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 My first thought was sex change, but that was only for a few seconds. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 The writer is German, so maybe it's just put a little differently than I would have written it. German isn't nearly as picky about syntax as english is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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