Tag: Language
Lost In Translation – Bad English Translations on International Signs
Here are some signs and notices written in English that were discovered throughout the world. You have to give the writers an ‘E’ for Effort. We hope you enjoy them.
In a Tokyo Hotel:
Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such thing is please not to read notis.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
In a Leipzig elevator:
Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
In a Belgrade hotel elevator:
To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.
In a hotel in Athens:
Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.
In a Yugoslavian hotel:
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
In a Japanese hotel:
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday.
In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers:
Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.
On the menu of a Polish hotel:
Salad a firm’s own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people’s fashion.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
In a Bangkok dry cleaner’s:
Drop your trousers here for best results.
Outside a Paris dress shop:
Dresses for street walking.
In a Rhodes tailor shop:
Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
Similarly, from the Soviet Weekly:
There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.
A sign posted in Germany’s Black forest:
It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.
In a Zurich hotel:
Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:
Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.
In a Rome laundry:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency:
Take one of our horse-driven city tours – we guarantee no miscarriages.
Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand:
Would you like to ride on your own ass?
In a Swiss mountain inn:
Special today — no ice cream.
In a Bangkok temple:
It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.
In a Tokyo bar:
Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.
On the door of a Moscow hotel room:
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
In a Budapest zoo:
Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
In the office of a Roman doctor:
Specialist in women and other diseases.
In an Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
In a Tokyo shop:
Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are best in the long run.
From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:
Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.
From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.
Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
– English well talking.
– Here speeching American.
Just a Two Letter Word
Lovers of the English language enjoy this…
It is an example of why people learning English have so much trouble. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language.
…..
This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is
‘UP.’
It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].
It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election.Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car. At other times this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses…
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special!
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about the word UP !
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary..
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time,but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks it UP . When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I’ll wrap this UP for now because my time is UP !
Oh…
One more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U P !
Don’t screw UP. Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book.. Otherwise UP yours! It’s UP to you!
Now I think I’ll shut UP!
Learn Chinese in 5 Minutes
E = English phrase
C = Chinese Interpretation
E: Are you harboring a fugitive?
C: Hu Yu Hai Ding?
E: See me A.S.A.P.
C: Kam Hia Nao
E: Stupid Man
C: Dam Gai
E: Small Horse
C: Tai Ni Po Ni
E: Your price is too high!!
C: No Bai Dam Ting!!
E: Did you go to the beach?
C: Wai Yu So Tan?
E: I bumped into a coffee table
C: I Bang Mai Ni
E: I think you need a facelift
C: Chin Tu Fat
E: It’s very dark in here
C: Wai So Dim
E: Has your flight been delayed?
C: Hao Long Wei Ting?
E: I thought you were on a diet
C: Wai Yu Man Ching?
E: This is a tow away zone
C: No Pah King
E: Do you know lyrics to the Macarena?
C: Wai Yu Sing Dam Song?
E: I got this for free
C: Ai No Pei
E: I am not guilty
C: Wai Hang Mi?
E: Please, stay a while longer
C: Wai Go Nao?
E: They have arrived
C: Hia Dei Kam
E: He’s cleaning his automobile
C: Wa Shing Ka
