Engrish in your daily life - sandwiches mastered

[maillotpois]

I did not see it.

[carpaltunnel]

Okay, does anybody else sing "We've no fewer days to sing God's Praise" on that verse in amazing grace?

You're right! It always felt wrong but I never stopped to figure out why.

Here's mine: In a small town newspaper, the local cafe had a weekly ad for probably 25 years:

Smith's Cafe - Take out orders to go.

Not as funny as many of those in this thread, but it was good for a weekly smile for many years.

[chakra]

I used to work at this restaurant in Vancouver called Cin Cin, as their pastry chef (this is years ago, but Cin Cin is still there, I think, on Robson Street).

Anyway, management noticed that, even though there were a lot of Japanese tourists about, no one seemed to come into our place. Also, you could see them outside, reading the menu, giggling and moving on.

It turns out that Cin Cin? In Japanese? Means "penis of a small boy."



The owners fixed it by including an elaborate translation of the phrase, "cin cin" - in Mediterranean countries, it means "cheers".

Business did pick up - a little - but I betcha there are way more pics of the restaurant sign on Japanese websites than we ever got customers!

Chakra

[shootingstar]

Interesting..about cin cin. I haven't eaten there yet...too many restaurants to try...seriously.

And I don't know Japanese language at all. But do understand the strange Chinese-language transliterations to English. Or translations. To me, some of the strange Chinese to English translation faux paus, are genuinely based on common difficulties for a Chinese-language speaker to master English language phonetics and hence, problems in spelling correctly.

I know...I was shocked into English only place on first day in kindergarten after leaving womb of being raised in Chinese-language-speaking-only home in Canada. It is possible for a child to be born in Canada and not know english until they got to kindergarten. I was one of them.


so I guess I view funny english language translations as funny..up to a certain point.

[Eden]

so I guess I view funny english language translations as funny..up to a certain point.

The Engrish.com site started more to showcase the sort of random usage of English that seems to show up on Japanese products in Japan... it has certainly branched out to show some funny mistranslations too, but true "Engrish", I think, is more like the T-shirts that just have non-sense phrases (or inappropriate language, especially when attributed to some cute little cartoon animal...) on them for the sake of displaying English words. Much of the stuff shown was probably never meant to actually be read or sold in an English speaking market.

I have often wondered if the t-shirts that were so popular in the 80's here with Chinese and Japanese characters on them were not similarly funny and non-sensical to speakers of those languages.

[SadieKate]

shootingstar, people who speak other languages have plenty of stories about Amuricans botching their languages - and pronunciations. Heavens, huge public education system and listen to how we botch our own language (my example was just that). Listen to any news cast, read any forum. Doesn't matter what language you speak, you've got an equal opportunity to use a malapropism.

[OakLeaf]

Well if we're drifting into funny signs that don't technically misuse the language...

there was one I saw a few years ago that I really wish I'd had a chance to photograph, on a garden/landscaping store:

JESUS IS COMING SOON
ALL LAWN FURNITURE ON SALE

[SadieKate]

LOL! That's going to make me laugh all day.

[Zen]

JESUS IS COMING SOON
ALL LAWN FURNITURE ON SALE

Well a man needs a nice place to sit, doesn't he?

[maillotpois]

Quick - look busy!

[shootingstar]

I have often wondered if the t-shirts that were so popular in the 80's here with Chinese and Japanese characters on them were not similarly funny and non-sensical to speakers of those languages.

I'm sure alot of the popular T-shirts with Chinese /Japanese characters have single word harmless words...like 'strength', etc. Or 'woman' or 'water'. I only know the last 2 characters... My mother gave up teaching us a long time ago. And Chinese language school in small Ontario town didn't excite anyone.

Probably abit corny /banal to those who can read and write Chinese or Japanese. Like those who have such tatoos...but may not know how to read the language at all...except for that single tatoo.

[yellow]

A few gems from my trip to Mexico:

(this first one is cross posted from the handstand thread)

[OakLeaf]

It would take a better person than I to refrain from killing mosquitos when they're biting me... What is the context for that sign???

[lph]

Does that mean "don't kill the mosquitos"??

In Norwegian "mater" means "feeding", so to me it looked just like a zoo sign saying "Please don't feed the mosquitos".

Gladly.

[yellow]

It would take a better person than I to refrain from killing mosquitos when they're biting me... What is the context for that sign???

This sign was at one of the cenotes where we snorkeled. Since these are like caves, there were oodles of bats as well as some other cave-nesting birds (motmots and swallows) that probably eat mosquitoes. So it could be that they would like to preserve the mosquito population for the critters (though I doubt a couple dozen people swatting mosquitoes would affect the mosquito population!). The more likely explanation is that they don't want you to use mosquito repellent, which could affect the water quality of this very sensitive ecosystem. You are not supposed to use sunscreen either, but then you don't really need it since you're in a cave most of the time.

lph, matar is "to kill" in Espanol.