By all means translate things into English, but please don’t pretend it’s an official language.
Sorry, but I just noticed this at the weekend as I went past that new bike rental station down by Taipei City Hall Station.
No offence or anything, but WHAT THE EFF??? Seriously, “FUN THE CITY”??? And this isn’t some wee shop we’re talking about that doesn’t have the money to properly translate stuff; this is government sponsored (correct me if I’m wrong). How hard would it have been to ask some native English speaker to check that this expression was OK? Huh???
Again, by all means supply translations into English, government-types. It’s honestly much appreciated. I would be lost without those translations. But seriously, if you’re going to create a slogan in English that is going to be plastered all over “international” Taipei, get it right.
Would you say the problem could be pride, icon? I know I’ve definitely encountered more than one high-up person who refuses to admit that their English could possibly be wrong.
Would you say the problem could be pride, icon? I know I’ve definitely encountered more than one high-up person who refuses to admit that their English could possibly be wrong.[/quote]
[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“TomHill”]Christchurch, where time is pleasant.
Stupidity with English is global.[/quote]
Marking?[/quote]
Wakarimasen.
Irishstu, they don’t care if it is accurate or not. It is just for show. They probably paid someone to make it wrong, so that you’d talk about it more. Those canny Taiwanesers!
[quote=“TomHill”][quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“TomHill”]Christchurch, where time is pleasant.
Stupidity with English is global.[/quote]
Marking?[/quote]
Wakarimasen.
Irishstu, they don’t care if it is accurate or not. It is just for show. They probably paid someone to make it wrong, so that you’d talk about it more. Those canny Taiwanesers![/quote]
No, irishstu has it right, although in this case “face” is probably a better term.
Would you say the problem could be pride, icon? I know I’ve definitely encountered more than one high-up person who refuses to admit that their English could possibly be wrong.[/quote]
Someone gets a job on the back of having say they have study the Master degree marketing in Engerlan or USA. Have fluency English and study the marketing. This is the result. If these people then say ‘Erm, we need to pay a foreigner to check it/do it instead’, then that person’s face and basis for being employed in the first place is on the floor. No-one’s going to pipe up in this economy, I guess.
I don’t see why it’s such a big loss of face to get waiguoren in to do stuff like that though; you can have great foreign language skills and still not be up to copywriting ad campaigns. A lot of native speakers would have problems coming up with something snappy.
Is it more stupid to put out a badly worded sign, or to live in a place where you feel that its inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic?
[quote=“TomHill”]Is it more stupid to put out a badly worded sign, or to live in a place where you feel that its inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic?
Ooh, get me. :p[/quote]
I don’t believe that Taiwan’s “inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic”, if that’s what you’re implying. However I do think that badly-worded English slogans make fools of the people who write them. I would never consider writing a slogan in ANY language other than my own without getting a native to check it.
Simple. It was originally “fun in Taipei,” but some arsehole local mouthbreather thought it would be “cooler” and “more hip” to abbreviate in a coolly fun Englishee stylee. And they’re fucking TAIWANESE! So it MUST be rightee-ho, what-what? And the offending moron is on city cooncil staff, therefore has the old iron rice bowl, so it doesn’t matter if its right or wrong, it takes Taiwan plunging – PLUNGING – into the 21st Century as a beacon of all that is good and fucking HOLY in this world.
Would you say the problem could be pride, icon? I know I’ve definitely encountered more than one high-up person who refuses to admit that their English could possibly be wrong.[/quote]
Someone gets a job on the back of having say they have study the Master degree marketing in Engerlan or USA. Have fluency English and study the marketing. This is the result. If these people then say ‘Erm, we need to pay a foreigner to check it/do it instead’, then that person’s face and basis for being employed in the first place is on the floor. No-one’s going to pipe up in this economy, I guess.
[/quote]
Just so, dollface, except it travels across the entire corporate tree, the guy who got the job can’t admit he’s shite, OR, he came up with something decent and his BOSS overruled it since he MUST know better or he wouldn’t be the BOSS, and the guy who HIRED the dude and/or the BOSS will lose face if it comes out that NOBODY knows shit, all the way up to the entire system facing dis-creditation because if the GOVERNMENT of the biggest city in Taiwan can’t generate a single proper English slogan, what the fuck good are they???
As for you, laddie,
[quote=“TomHill”]Is it more stupid to put out a badly worded sign, or to live in a place where you feel that its inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic?
[quote=“irishstu”][quote=“TomHill”]Is it more stupid to put out a badly worded sign, or to live in a place where you feel that its inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic?
Ooh, get me. :p[/quote]
I don’t believe that Taiwan’s “inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic”, if that’s what you’re implying. However I do think that badly-worded English slogans make fools of the people who write them. I would never consider writing a slogan in ANY language other than my own without getting a native to check it.[/quote]
I am not suggesting you think that.
Given that badly worded signs have been around for years you are going to have to draw a conclusion beyond those already offered. I really think that they just don’t give a monkeys toss if the English is correct or not. It doesn’t matter to them one bit. Nothing to do with face, or being lazy. It just is of little importance to them. And honestly, given the lack of respect most foreigners display towards the Taiwanese, who the hell could they trust and who the hell could blame them? I bet given the right foreign person that slogan could easily have appeared as ‘Shove it up your bike.’ Or ‘Bike = Bumfun in Taipei,’ with a picture of a bum on a bike.
Given that I didn’t enjoy Taiwan I left. I find it hard, not in this thread per se, to keep reading the Taiwan trashing that goes on here on a daily basis. Y’all seem to have very little love left for your adoptive home.
[quote=“TomHill”]Is it more stupid to put out a badly worded sign, or to live in a place where you feel that its inhabitants are idiots and their behaviours are idiotic?
