Freedom...what???

I recently bought an electronic dictionary. Yeah, I gave in. However I have a reasonable excuse for my sudden purchase impulse. My Chinese class is becoming harder and I had been killing my eyes using the paper book dictionary I bought 10 years ago - which, by the way, is still very useful and also, I admit it, I found out how to use it only recently. For those who know what a Chinese-English dictionary looks like you'll easily understand how painful it can sometimes be when looking for a character.

Anyways, back to the main track. The "e-dico" (I'm too lazy to write the whole thing) is designed by one of the main manufacturers here. It's got super nice features and the ones I find particularly useful are the ability to write the characters (as such with a PDA) and also it "reads" the characters for you. All in all, it has saved me a lot of time in my Chinese learning.

I have to say that I haven't been playing around with it. I only use what I actually need. So one day, as I was showing it to my lil'sis' Michiyo she came upon a dramatic discovery... Yes, she was playing with the illustrated English dictionary; basically you choose a category, select a drawing and a nice electronic voice reads the definition. As she was fiddling with the device, she suddenly turned to me and showed me... It was in the "Dessert" section. There was a drawing of what resembled McDonald's fries... Why was it in the Dessert category? Well, that's a whole other question... Anyways, when she selected the drawing, what an outrageous surprise was I to "ear-witness"! The nice electronic female voice intangibly pronounced in a scary precise robotic almost welcoming way these 2 words: "FREEDOM FRIES". I was shocked, offended to the highest point. I knew that Taiwan was overwhelmed by American-English language, food, clothes, music, movies... yes, I dare say the word, culture. But that was the limit. I almost fainted in front of my lil'sis' who was kindly smiling at my discomposure.

Seriously speaking, a dictionary is supposed to convey knowledge in the most objective way, is it? I'm not one of those French people who likes to hate whatever comes from the US just because it provides a sense of higher values... even cultural superiority. Nope! Yet finding... no hearing Freedom Fries coming from a dictionary is somewhat mind-racking. As I said the manufacturer is one of the biggest in Taiwan... probably the biggest one. I'm gonna have to file a complaint and have them translate French (US manufactured salad dressing) into CONS (Chemical Orange Nasty Sauce)... one might want to find out the meaning in French... again, if you actually do, "excuse my French".