Think Outside The Fast-Food-Box

Here's a challenge: You have to translate two full Chinese sentences ( 13 kanji symbols out of a total of approximately 47,035 in the  Kangxi dictionary ) in 1 hour. Let's suppose you can't speak or read Chinese and you don't know anyone who can ( just like me ).

Let's look at the obvious options:

1. You go to an "expert" website like kasamba and pay around $30.00 to get it right away
2. You can try to google it ( it's "free" but a waste of time )
3. You call a paid translation service ( cost at least $50.00 and they need forever to get back to you)
4. You send an email to friends who might know someone who can help you ( again free but uncertain)
5. You post it on a blog, on twitter or on facebook and ask your social network ( same things as email to friends )

This task is perfect for a "think-outside-the-fast-food-box" solution:

What I did two weeks ago ( when I had exactly this problem) was I called a local Chinese restaurant with delivery service to order sweet-sour chicken and rise. 30 minutes later, the delivery boy brought me my food and I asked him if he can help me translate this 2 sentence document for an extra tip of $3.00. He was more then happy to help me and had a fun time explaining to me the meaning of the symbols and the sentences. It was great!

There I was...sitting on my desk with the solution to my translation problems: Delicious Chinese Fast Food! Mmmhhh....

Any other good stories on how to solve challenging problems in unusual ways?