I liked the translator's story - I've heard versions of it before I
think ... but it is still good. Seriously good message about the value
of difference and differences in culture.

Talking of Rowan Williams - I blogged about him once before.
in "The Athesist and The Archbishop"
http://www.psybertron.org/?p=1336

Regards
Ian

On 3/8/07, Jubair Alhadithi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi,
> Its 09:40 am here in KL, Malaysia! This wonderful meaningful story cheered
> me up! I love it!
> Jubair
>
>
>
> On 3/8/07, Tom Milner-Gulland <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > The list owner of Philos-L posted this amusing story to Chora, written by
> > Jonathan Sacks:
> >
> >
> > "I just love the story of the philosophy professor who was invited to give
> a
> > lecture on epistemology to the University of Beijing. He did so and not
> > being about to speak Mandarin was provided with a Chinese interpreter. He
> > began his lecture and after a sentence paused to let the interpreter
> > translate into Chinese but the interpreter said: No, carry on - I'll tell
> > you when to stop. After 15 minutes and the interpreter said 'stop' and
> > delivered five words to the audience in Chinese - I will not even attempt
> to
> > say what they were - and said 'carry on'. The same thing happened after 30
> > minutes - five more words, 45 minutes - another five words and at the end
> of
> > the lecture - an hour - four words and the audience duly stood up and
> filed
> > out. The English philosophy professor went to the interpreter and said:
> I'm
> > absolutely astounded. I have given an extremely complicated lecture about
> > epistemology. How were you able to summarise it in so few words? And the
> > interpreter said: Easy - after 15 minutes I said 'so far he hasn't said
> > anything new'; after half an hour 'I said he still hasn't said anything
> > new'; after 45 minutes I said 'I don't think he's going to say anything
> new'
> > and after an hour I said 'I was right - he didn't'. "
> >
> > http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10556.asp
> >
> > The rest of the paper, on harmonsing disparate communities, might also be
> of
> > interest to a friend of wisdom.
> >
> > and there's this by Rowan Williams, on atheism:
> >
> > at http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page5480.asp
> >
> > Tom
> >
>
>