For some time, I’d intended to write a post about signs, menus and other printed materials that featured funny, ridiculous or nonsensical translations to English.
But upon finding a NY Times slideshow (accompanied by an article by Andrew Jacobs and a readers’ gallery of submitted photos), I’ve resigned to the fact that I simply couldn’t do a better job than hundreds of people at once. Check them out.
There are some real gems among the submitted photos, such as:
#9: “Decent Public School” in Varanasi, India (taken by Justin Hefter).
#20: “Careful Drowning” in Putuo Shan, China (taken by Jonas Crimm).
#43: “Genuine Fake Watches” in Instanbul, Turkey (taken by Jules Villamor).
#44: “Each hour takes about 1 hour” in Seoul, Korea (taken by bmarconi).
#59: “Stay away from the deer with ANTLERS!!” in Miyajima, Japan (taken by cesse123).
#82: “No Wasting GARBAGE!” in Indonesia (taken by Anthony Zak).
#88: “Sorry we’re open” in Instanbul, Turkey (taken by Skidel).
#151: “Wikipedia fried with eggs” on a menu in Beijing, China (taken by cohenhead21).
Some highlights that come to mind, from my travels, include:
- “Beatiful ladies” outside a strip club in Tijuana, Mexico [Beatify: to declare (a deceased person) to be among the blessed and thus entitled to specific religious honor].
- “Sea products” and “Shepherd’s bag” on a menu in Bratislava, Slovakia.
- “Meet balls” on a menu in Bangkok, Thailand (see above photo).
If you have any you’d like to add to this list, feel free to post them (with a link to the photo) as comments.
Taken in Spain by Rhett Larsen
Tags: A Sampling of Chinglish, Bangkok, Bratislava, China, foreign signs, India, Indonesia, Istanbul, Japan, lost in translation, Mexico, Miyajima, Slovakia, street signs, Thailand, Tijuana, translation, Turkey, Varanasi, warnings
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
traffic sign: downward spiral (china)