Bad Translations

One of the ponds at Alishan has a sign next to it which includes the prohibition;
“No frolicking in the water”.

Rian wrote: "I love the restaurants with “No Food” signs on the door. Why don’t they just say “closed today”

There IS a coffee shop in taipei called CLOSED.

It must be from a Japanese sign company, because “Smorking” is very popular there.

Further evidence (and other fun “Engrish”):

Click here and here.

Ciao,

Joe Thanks

Here are some translations of “Keep off the grass” I saw in Wuyi Shan, Fujian Province, China.

Actually the Mandarin on signs was similar in its unusual expression of “keep off the grass”. So in this case the English translation was quite good, but the words still quite laughable. :laughing:

Opened the official website of the 2018 Keelung Ghost Festival (Keelung Chungyuan Festival) and was happily surprised that they have an English version… well…

I am so frustrated that after all those years (let’s say 30), it’s still so hard to find decent English information for events that are supposed to be “international” and attract foreign visitors. There are hundreds of qualified translators who could do a decent job with this. Either spend the money or don’t pretend to be “international”.

https://www.中元祭.tw and yes, Chinese characters in the URL…

Well, at least it’s a funny read…

Xianfeng three years (AD 1853), Monga broke out “top suburbs fight”, heavy casualties. Keelung gentry sense of the first year of Xianfeng (AD 1851) fights of the solution is not solved, trying to get rid of ruthless fighting the bad habits; and worry about Monga fights drifted to the cage, and want to overweight, anti-Western martyrs As well as fighting, crossing the sea, the plague of the ancestors of the dead, decided to follow the relationship between the blood relatives of the organization will be to replace the geographical concept of blood, comfort and immortal immortal immortal death from the landless master, agreed to follow the Central Plains vulgar, Held in July in the yuan Purdue rituals, by the name of the subject of the main general. The result of the drawing is made by Zhang Liao, Wu, Liu Tangdu, Chen Huoyao, Xie, Lin, Jiang, Zheng, He Lanhan, Lai, Xu and so on.

The scope of participation includes gold (gold bag, now thousands of miles, Jinshan two townships), chicken (that is, Keelung, this Keelung urban area five), mink (three mangling, today’s Gongliao, Sungai two townships and Switzerland Fang of a), stone (stone anchor, this level of Ping Township, Ruifang, Shizhi only one and Keelung City seven, warm two district) four Fort. Xianfeng five years (AD 1855) began to run in the yuan, by the surname of the surname of the main general, the other will be the main, the main altar, the main ritual called the four pillars of the contract, the beginning by the terminal " "Hard labor contractors, after the change by the Qing’an Palace bear.

The main church, the main ritual, the main ritual by the local industry shop divided into three districts respectively: grass shop tail, stone street, ash kiln for a district; Ford Street, Kan Tsai Top for a district; new store Street, oyster shell, fairy cave for a district, responsible for organizing. In addition to the main general, the other three pillars during the Second World War stop, never recovered.

The main general by the eleven surnamed to do, after the restoration of the city’s population structure changes, the Republic of China will join the ranks of forty-three years, that is, Lee, Guo, Wang, Yang, Zeng, Huang, Gao, Ke Cai, Qiu Qiu , Su Zhou Lian, Zhong Xiao Ye, Bai, Yu Xu Tu, Dong Tong and other fourteen members of the “joint name will be” to become twelve units. In the seventy years, Li, Huang, Guo and his name from the surname will join the ranks of the main line, so this total of fifteen units,

The Lord is calling for the integration of old and new clans to show the most important manifestations of social power. Clan will effectively change the Zhang, Quan dichotomy division, cover the same surname Zhangzhou people have Quanzhou people, to return to the name of the geographical distinctions, that is, to the relationship between the blood relationship to resolve the geopolitical relationship, so that each other can be a common fusion Mutual recognition, this is a very intelligent and effective practice, virtually to resolve the Zhang, Quan two roles both hatred, so that disputes disappear, more specifically the integration of Keelung regional relationships, which is the origin of the keelung Chungyuan Festival.

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I’d say that’s a machine translation, but a machine translation would probably be better. :hushed:

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Maybe a milk machine translation…?

If it wasn’t for bad translations like that I’d have no T-shirts to wear.

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I actually took pride in my work when I was in the translation industry, which is why I’m no longer in it.

You can use punycode version to visit it if you don’t have Chinese keyboard

https://www.xn--fiq08el77c.tw

I find that that is often missing on this island, not saying everyone is like that, but the lack of pride in one’s own work is not a rare occasion.

Does not work when the address appears in print, does it?

In this case, I’d say it’s more likely to be the work of some entitled civil servant who considers himself an “English expert.”

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Like the “No Smonking” signs I used to see at train stations?

Another problem is that a lot of sign makers have non-existent English, and turn what was originally a coherent message into gibberish. But I could use a good smonking right about now.

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Green Island duty free pick up. It’s a sign telling you which boat they are currently servicing for, which was translated as “At the moment”! Cracked me up.

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I’ve recently started a series of videos on laughably bad translations, mostly just from public notices like the ones you mention. This is the latest video:

:sweat_smile:

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It all started with this KMT city councillor insisting she used this sentence correctly

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I think in general, lot of people in Taiwan are obsessed with English, learning it in certain ways, forcing children to talk to strangers, thinking it’s important to learn a certain accent, being frightened to make even minor mistakes. It’s all so stupid and unnecessary. Relax!!!

There are tons of examples of powerful people in the world whose English is really bad or who speak with a real strong accent.