Chapter 1308 Book Friends
Xiao Peng was lying on the lawn reading a book when suddenly someone blocked the sunlight.
"Hello, classmate." A girl greeted.
She was standing in a direction that blocked the sunlight, so Xiao Peng could only see her outline. He shielded his eyes from the sunlight with his hands and sat up. Only then did he see clearly that the person who spoke to her was a girl with chestnut hair and glasses. She was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, and her hair was casually tied in a ponytail.
Xiao Peng looked around and pointed at himself and asked, "Are you calling me?"
"Of course!" the girl laughed.
Xiao Peng was embarrassed. He was the only one around, so she must have called him! In fact, the reason he was so surprised was because the girl called him "classmate".
He really does look like a student now: wearing a baseball cap, a thin black jacket over a white T-shirt, jeans, sneakers and a pair of big black-framed glasses. Well, he has a very nerdy temperament.
I haven't heard this name for many years. Being called like this on campus... I have to say, I feel really happy inside.
"Excuse me." Xiao Peng smiled and asked, "Classmate, what do you want to talk to me about?"
The girl asked, "Classmate, I noticed the book you read. I want to ask if you are a 'Verneist'?"
"Verneist?" Xiao Peng was stunned for a moment, then he understood why the girl asked him that: the pile of books next to him included works by Jules Verne, namely: "Children of Captain Grant", "The Mysterious Island" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea".
Without waiting for his reply, the girl sat down next to Xiao Peng and read from the pile of books beside her, picking up each one: "Theory of Tidal Statics, Theory of Tidal Dynamics, Natural History of the European Seas, Physical Geography of the Oceans, Structure of the Ocean Floor and Origin of the Ocean Earth." These books don't seem to go well with Jules Verne's works.
Xiao Peng explained, "Different books lead to different perspectives in different eras. For example, Jules Verne's novels could be considered science fiction when he wrote them. Many of the plots in his books, considered science fiction at the time, later became reality: neon lights, televisions, moving walkways, air conditioning, skyscrapers, missiles, tanks, submarines, airplanes... Oh, and the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen as a new clean energy source. It is precisely because these predictions came true that we have the so-called 'Verneists'. They firmly believe that all of Verne's novels are based on reality and regard Verne as a 'prophet.' With all due respect, these Verneists make the most basic mistake: science fiction is not responsible for predicting the future. The value of science fiction cannot be judged by its success in predicting the future."
"So what do you think of Jules Verne's novels?" asked the girl with glasses.
Xiao Peng thought for a moment: "The plots are modular, the characters are underdeveloped, and science fiction isn't a primary element in his novels. All of his novels should be considered adventure novels. He uses 'science fiction' as a guise to support his wild imagination and thirst for adventure. This is the most fascinating aspect of his novels and also Verne's cleverest point. He excels at disguising the known as the mysterious unknown. For example, 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' was written between 1869 and 1870, and in fact, many of its insights into the ocean come from this book... well, 'The Physical Geography of the Oceans', published in 1855 by the American scholar Maury. You can see this by comparing the two books."
As Xiao Peng spoke, he handed the two books, "Ocean Physical Geography" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", to the girl with glasses.
The girl with glasses took the book and smiled. "Okay, now I believe you're not a Verneist. But thank you. You've given me a new perspective on Verne's books. Are you a CITG/CEG student or a TNW/AS student?"
CITG/CEG and TNW/AS stand for the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and the Faculty of Applied Sciences at TU Delft respectively.
Xiao Peng was stunned: "Why don't you think I'm a student of 3mE?"
'3mE' stands for the School of Mechanical, Navigation, and Materials Engineering. Xiao Peng reads books about the ocean, so anyone would probably assume he's from '3mE'.
The girl with glasses smiled and said, "I'm from 3mE. I've met almost all the students there, but I don't have any impression of you. Wait, are you a new graduate student? Which graduate program are you in? Navigation Technology? Applied Earth Sciences? Geoinformatics? Who is your PhD advisor?"
The girl with glasses asked questions like a machine gun, and Xiao Peng was a little confused: "Huh?"
"Oh, sorry!" The girl with glasses put the book aside and said, "I'm just happy to see that someone likes Jules Verne's novels. After all, many people say that Verne's creative model and writing style have been abandoned by the times. Oops, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Lotte-Metz."
After she finished speaking, she extended her hand to Xiao Peng.
Xiao Peng shook her hand and said, "Xiao Peng. From Daxia."
Lot-Metz was stunned after hearing this: "Do all the names in your country start with the 'S' sound?"
"What do you mean?" Now it was Xiao Peng's turn to be confused.
Lot-Metz explained, "I know there's a very powerful man in your country named Shawn, nicknamed 'The Salvage King'. And you're called 'Shop', so it's not surprising for me to say that, right?"
Xiao Peng laughed after hearing this: "It's just a coincidence, just a coincidence."
People always like to follow their own habits. This is the same for everyone on earth, including Daxia. In fact, in Daxia, the pronunciation of many familiar foreign names is different from their actual pronunciation.
For example, "King of Understanding" (Dongwang), whose name is pronounced similar to "bed," is more suitable for translation as "Trump." However, in Daxia, he is called "Trump." Also, "Bethune" should be pronounced as "Bethune." Adam and Eve's son "Abel" is pronounced as "Abel." Zeus' wife Hera should be pronounced as "Hera." The name "Schrödinger" should be "Schrödinger."
This situation arose because Daxia held a meeting in the early days of its founding to discuss how to standardize foreign names. The final decision was to adopt the "name follows the owner's convention" approach. All name translations were based on the translations in the 1956 books "Manual of English Name Translation" and "World Name Translation Dictionary," leading to the current situation.
Foreigners are similar. They like to use their own way to call names they don’t understand, so the "Xiao" in Xiao Peng's name becomes "Sean" in the mouths of many people.
Another reason for this situation is that foreigners learn Chinese a little differently.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
