Tuesday 19 January 2010

Exam period pictures


I adore it. My school always knows how to amaze me. Each month its administrative staff put up a funny announcement in English. Here’s the one I spotted yesterday. This time the biggest problem must have been posed by the word ‘postpone’. Clue: in other words, it means ‘to put sth off’, or in a simpler way, to take a decision to do something later than planned, not earlier. But for sure every Pole will understand this sentence, as it’s an excellent literal translation of Egzamin z Business environment in CEE z prof. B. Mrozem został przesunięty z 1 lutego na 21 stycznia.

I won’t go to dziekanat to tell them to correct it, I somehow don’t fancy running a risk of being expelled for reproaching school’s authorities over the quality of English they stand for. I’ll just share with you my proposal on how to correct this clumsy sentence. Here it goes: The exam in Business environment in CEE by Prof. B. Mróz, scheduled for 1 February, has been brought forward to 21 January 2010. Doesn’t it sound better?

And right the one for aficionados of social networking websites. Captions speak for themselves, so I won’t tack on any comments.

3 comments:

Brad Zimmerman said...

Rather than wrestle with direction (brought-forward vs. postponed) why not just say, "rescheduled"? As in, "The 'Business Environment in CEE' exam by prof. B Mroz has been rescheduled from Feb 01 to Jan 21." Or, alternatively, "The 'Business Environment in CEE' exam by prof. B Mroz has been changed from Feb 01 to Jan 21."?

You are correct in at least one respect, however: it's confusing. *I* would have corrected it right on the A4 with a red pen though I suppose you could get expelled for that, too.

student SGH said...

the "rescheduled" one does sound good and plain.

I couldn't correct it. The noticeboard where the put up announcements is locked up behind the glass. There are any other reasons why I could be expelled, aside from my malice and irony, but they still remain somewhere in the realm of fiction...

Michael Dembinski said...

AAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!


AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!