Engrish in your daily life - sandwiches mastered

[SadieKate]

Did you see that sign? It was on the road as we shuttled down to Whoops.

It just cracked me up but wind noise was too high to talk.

[maillotpois]

I did not see it.

[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.

[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???

[carpaltunnel]

Like those who have such tatoos...but may not know how to read the language at all...except for that single tatoo.

I work with a young man who is now sporting a new expensive tattoo, one (he says) Chinese character. He told me what he was told it means. I asked him how he knew it didn't say "I got this sucker's money!" He wasn't amused. Anyway, its kind of a neat graphic, but would you get something tatooed on your body that you couldn't read yourself?

[Zen]

I told a guy his tattoo says "eat more chicken"

[deeaimond]

I work with a young man who is now sporting a new expensive tattoo, one (he says) Chinese character. He told me what he was told it means. I asked him how he knew it didn't say "I got this sucker's money!" He wasn't amused. Anyway, its kind of a neat graphic, but would you get something tatooed on your body that you couldn't read yourself?

when i worked in a waterpark in the US i saw alot of 'chinese' tattoos... i saw a man with 10 characters on his nape and i couldn't figure out what it was (i read some chinese) I mean, my chinese isn't fantastic but I can read a simple newspaper. So i asked him what it was and he said it spelt out his childrens' names, sally and jason...

chinese characters are not letters in an alphabet. all characters have a complete sound and meaning...

so basically it was all pure rubbish..

I also had a girlfriend who had a random character on her back, which she said was love, but i knew for a fact it wasn't... but her response to that was that she didn't wanna go around thinking that the tattoo was a wrong one so she'd rather go on believing it was what she said it was.

after that i learnt to keep my mouth shut. I mean... it would be pretty tough to know u had some rubbish that u paid alot of money for tattooed permanently on yr body

as for the tattoo parlours, they don't care. I walked into one which had displayed its chinese characters upside down.. the salesgirl pretty much snorted when i told her they were upside down. they don't care. they just wanna make money.

[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

[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?