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The objective is to design and build a vehicle which is capable of traversing a number of different courses which include such dangers as water, steep inclines, mazes, etc.

Unlike FMC, this competition is being held in China, which makes the language barrier a bit of a problem. In an attempt to get around this problem, the organisers have put up a website for English-speaking folks.

Unfortunately, the guy they hired to do the English translation seems to be the same guy who does all those user manuals for Chinese consumer electronics devices

At least I *hope* that explains why the website gives a list of "undertakers" -- I sure hope it has nothing to do with the level of personal risk involved for those taking part.

This site clearly demonstrates the problems associated with putting up a site that will attract international visitors and I'm very familiar with the language difficulties created by such an online presence.

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My jet engine and missile websites regularly produce a stream of barely readable emails from all corners of the world.

Some of the writers obviously work very hard to try and express themselves in fractured English, while others have obviously relied on a semantically inadequate online translation service such as BabelFish.

Then there are those who just write in their native tongue and leave the translation up to me.

So it's obvious that when you're dealing with an international medium like the Net, language can become a real problem.

Of course for the vast majority of websites, such as the one put up by Joe's Used Cars, there's no real need to worry about non-English-speaking visitors. But what about those sites designed to appeal to an off-shore audience?

Well I took a look at NewZealand.com and was very pleased to see that this site has links for several other languages -- excellent!

So what about other sites that would obviously attract a large number of overseas visitors? Surely the government's immigration website would have support for languages other than English -- right?

Of course it does -- there are two whole lines of Maori at the top of the page!

Okay, so it could be argued that those who are contemplating immigrating to NZ should have at least a basic grasp of the English language anyway -- but if they can't read the immigration website, how would they ever know?

Come on NZ Immigration Service -- at the very least you could include a link to BabelFish for non-English-speaking visitors, couldn't you?

But back to that Chinese competition -- I'd love form a team to attend and represent New Zealand. I'd also love the chance to go for a hat-trick of wins (Scrapheap, Junkyard Wars *and* the Dezhou International Strange Vehicle Invitational Games).

Unfortunately, I suspect that the Official Assignee will be unlikely to consider such a trip (even though it's all-expenses paid) to be in the best interests of my creditor (The IRD). Nice to see NZ supporting those who try to fly its flag eh? :-)

Maybe if it involved researching craft shops or tracing the route that hop-hop took to get to NZ, the government would likely send me on my way with a packed lunch and a pat on the head -- but alas, it's just a chance to demonstrate NZ's ingenuity and engineering abilities and we all know that such things are far less important than things such as "The Arts" :-)

If you're interested in becoming part of a team to build a vehicle and compete in this competition then please let me know. Even if I can't get out of the country myself, I may be able to coordinate a challenge and help out.

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

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