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 notice.
In a Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In another Japanese hotel room: Please to bathe inside the tub.
Alongside a Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
At a Bangkok dry cleaners: Drop your trousers here for best results.
Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand: Would you like to ride on your own ass?
In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.
At a Tokyo shop: Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are best in the long run.
A Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner: Coolers and Heaters: 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.
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 Hong Kong supermarket: For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service.
On the box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong: Guaranteed to work throughout its useful life.
Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan: Stop: Drive sideways
In a Beijing department store: Mickey Mouse High Fashion Apparel
Name of small guest house in mountains of northern Pakistan: ‘Sea View Hotel’
On a menu in a Hong Kong restaurant: Spanish omelet (tomatoes, mushrooms, onion) Omelets surprise (two parsons)
On CD cover of local artists singing various western songs, name of well-known Roberta Flack song: ‘Tonight I calibrate my love for you’
#1 by Jodie on May 6, 2011 - 10:07 am
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“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.”
This is written so pleasantly that you forget that it’s actually describing road rage.
Personally, I love signs that are slightly off the mark with the translation. They make you smile and, for me anyway, makes you appreciate just how much of a nightmare English is to someone who’s learning it as a second language. I wouldn’t want to have to do that.
Don’t get me wrong, for important documents or signs, the translation does have to be spot on but that’s what professional translation agencies are for. Otherwise, so long as the meaning comes across, the wording doesn’t have to be exactly as it would be in England. Slighty off translation do have a certain charm and I wouldn’t want to see that disappear.