theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/1 … 95057.html
Maybe Taiwan should follow Beijing’s lead on this one. I got a couple of chicken nuggets in a bag the other day reading “food good”.
Anymore amusing translations that you’ve read of, or seen? I’ve seen so many over my time here.
“Shaw’s Institute of Translateology” has got to take the cake.
Let’s see…other worthy entries:
“I’m MR. TIRE MAN. I’m Professional!” (spoken by a cartoon character whose appearance leads us to doubt the sentiment further.)
The MRT has something odd on their cardboard standee (something about holding onto the escalator, or taking care of old people or something. Another cartoon character.) Can’t remember what…I’ll make a note of it today and post back.
I like my Korean cartoon notebook where the cover reads, “When I’s tired from the voices in my head I think of you”…each page then either has some stupid saying “Please bring it home to me” or rips off an 80’s song like ones by Firehouse, Richard Marx, and the one that goes “I wanna fall from the sky straight into your arms” but they write it as “I Wanda fall from the sky…” By the way, if you know the name of that song I am trying to find it.
Or the ATM machines that announce “Processing…Please waiting.”
Nice article, though why oh why do people keep repeating that “bite the wax tadpole” urban legend?
www.romanization.com/mrt/chinglish.html
They recently changed it. But the MRT is still filled with mistakes in its use of English. For example, the scrolling LED marquee at the Shandao Temple Station says, “Beware of your personal safety when traveling on the MRT.” 
I went to Taiwan Post Office website today. It offers a service that translate chinese address into english. The translation was so bad.
I heard in China they have signs in the back of taxi’s reminding you “don’t forget your personal thing” Mum always told me if I use it too much, it’ll drop off, buy I didn’t realise she was serious.
I especially like the “Boutique rooftop apartments” advertised on the link.
Or the signs everywhere now asking us to “Marry” Christmas.
[quote=“antonxie”]
What about this one on the MRT platform: “Nighttime Safeguarded Zone” when the Chinese can be literally read “Ladies of the night protected area.” Has anyone ever figured this one out?
Anybody seen “No Smork”. I had to swipe that when I saw it in a public restroom.
[quote=“cranky laowai”][quote=“antonxie”]
At YoHo Beach Resort outside of Kenting I saw a sign on a wall that said, “No Climpling”…even if I knew how to climple, I wouldn’t want to try it.
Cranky Laowai, I was trying to remember my favorite MRT mistake; thanks for reminding me. “Beware of your personal safety…” because it’s out to get you.
Oh, and the cardboard standup says, “We concern.” I guess they wanted to sound fancy, used a synonym for “care”, and neglected to make sure which part of speech “care” was before coming up with that sign.
Might be Stars by Simply Red ?
The park in between Sungshan Airport and Hsinsheng N. Road (the one with the hedge maze) has a nice sign of park prohibitions. Next to the picture of someone stepping on the grass and the Chinese that says “Don’t step on the grass” is the English translation: “Don’t abuse sword.”
I have a picture of it somewhere…
I love this one! Someone was trying a little too hard with his dictionary, then misspelled sward. Or maybe they were just warning Poagao to behave himself.
I can’t make fun of that. That’s just such good advice on so many levels. This leads to another point. Just because a sign has more than one language, many assume that it should read the same in every language. Maybe it was intentional. They had problems with Chinese speakers walking on the grass and English speakers abusing the sword. Was there a portion in French that said, “please bathe sometime in the near future” or in Canadian that read “One maple leaf on your person is plenty, thank you?”
Thank you so much hexuan! I gave you some karma points from my meager account for being such a help… I absolutely loved that song, but since it came out while I was little, I never knew the name of it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
[quote=“ax”]
I love the restaurants with “No Food” signs on the door. Why don’t they just say “closed today”