http://www.apechild.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668
Funny food labels.
The only ones I’ve come across in Taiwan is Collon (I think it might be Japanese) and of course Pocari Sweat - ugh!
http://www.apechild.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668
Funny food labels.
The only ones I’ve come across in Taiwan is Collon (I think it might be Japanese) and of course Pocari Sweat - ugh!
“Love Milk” ?
My cock’s a leekie, so I might as well just make soup with it.
Hey don’t forget another classic name for a Taiwanese sports drink: Spunk. You don’t see that stuff around much anymore… (I’m resisting the urge to attempt a play on words here…)
What ever happened to “Sod Inducer” ? can’t find that anywhere anymore…
In Nei Hu I saw a sign that said “Auto Heck Shop” that was good for a laugh! When I get around to buying a camera I’ll post it here. “Your car has been banished to Auto Heck”
I just love the English-like spellings, phrases, etc… you see in Taiwan. Sometimes they are so close… yet so far off.
I was at a spa once and saw a sign that said, “Put you tower here” with a sign pointing to a big basket full of dirty towels. Just last week, I saw a sign referring to a new apartment building that would “bring yoor pleasure.” And, yesterday, there was as store selling “youth and hippy fashtions.”
What amazes me most is when they can have the same word next to each other and spell it wrong one time and write the next.
Like in Eslite I once found myself looking through the “Tarvell” section, only to step to the next shelf and now be in the “Travel” section. Or the section on “Food & Bevfrages” next to a shelf on “Food & Beverages.”
[quote=“QuietMountain”]Like in Eslite I once found myself looking through the “Tarvell” section, only to step to the next shelf and now be in the “Travel” section. Or the section on “Food & Bevfrages” next to a shelf on “Food & Beverages.”[/quote]Is that next to the “Sports and Hobbits” section they have/had in one ?
[quote]I was at a spa once and saw a sign that said, “Put you tower here”[/quote]Well, did you ?
Anyone seen Osama crayons ? (I think it’s crayons)
The Taipei City office, Zhongshan District has “Computers for Serving the Net” right by the front door.
If the arrow had been pointing to some other… ah… recepticle (sp?) I might have tried.
As it was, it was only a mispelling.
Aha, it’s let’s make fun of the stupid natives time again. Sheesh!
I’d like to see what we do if we had to post all our post in Mandarin. Leave these guys alone! They’ve got enuf problems just learning 25,000 characters when they are kids. So what if they don’t know their abc’s. I don’t know their bopomofo, do you?\
They shoot experts, don’t they?
[quote=“QuietMountain”]
Like in Eslite I once found myself looking through the “Tarvell” section, only to step to the next shelf and now be in the “Travel” section. Or the section on “Food & Bevfrages” next to a shelf on “Food & Beverages.”[/quote]
Until now, the name “Eslite” is still a mystery for me. Don’t mention anything inside.
Travell / Food & Bevfrages
Sounds like musik, foto… Is it possible that they are certain languages? :shock: The one no body knows.
I hear that some people are pushing a universal language. Probably,it is.
I love the way it has become standard (at least in Taichung) for shops to have a sign which says
[color=blue]DRINK TEA [/color]
to mean closed and [color=red]
TO RUN BUSINESS
[/color]to mean open.
[quote=“formosa”]Aha, it’s let’s make fun of the stupid natives time again. Sheesh!
I’d like to see what we do if we had to post all our post in Mandarin. Leave these guys alone! They’ve got enuf problems just learning 25,000 characters when they are kids. So what if they don’t know their abc’s. I don’t know their bopomofo, do you?\
They shoot experts, don’t they?[/quote]Formosa, if I ever wanted to make a sign in Mandarin, I would ask a Mandarin speaker to check it. Or do you think your Mandarin better than native speakers ? Just like some Taiwanese think their English is better than native speakers, that’s why they don’t ask us to check, and we are easy to find…
Exactly. At my last job there were a couple of managers who would ask me to proofread and edit important emails that they sent out from time to time. Both of them had pretty good english skills, but they knew they still were not as good as a native speaker. Took me a couple of minutes each time, and their emails ended up looking reasonably polished.
Of course there were many others at the company who thought their English skills were adequate and regularly sent out incomprehensible messages to their worldwide peers. A wise man knows his strengths and limitations and asks for help when needed.
A certain large chain school in Taiwan has issued Christmas cards with “We thank you for all your sincerest concern / To see your child’s English be perfectly learned” and an invitation to a Christmas show stating “We would like the please of your company”.
I estimate there are over 100 native speakers of English working at this chain. Do you think any of them are ever consulted ? Of course not. The prevailing attitude is “ah well, it’s only English, any auld shite will do”.
Fine for a little coffee shop in the sticks, but it says a lot about a certain “American” School !
Fluffy’s point is valid: I consider my Chinese to be pretty good, but I wouldn’t even write a note to the milkman without getting the wife to check it first. If I have written gibberish and the wife corrects it, I learn something. Too many people here are so concerned with “face” and one-upmanship that they never have these learning experiences. Look at the crap that gets printed in the press here. It’s not because the copy editors are illiterate, it’s because they are constantly gainsaid by arrogant managers who think their English is better than those they have employed to edit, and who cannot resist any opportunity to assert their authority.
We are labouring under the illusion that people want to learn proper English “as she is spoke”. The main reason for appending English to anything here is to create the illusion that one is more educated, cosmopolitan, or employable than the next man or woman. Any randomly arranged collection of letters or words will serve that purpose. In criticizing the use of English here we are missing this point.
HEX write; "We are labouring under the illusion that people want to learn proper English “as she is spoke”. "
Hex, speak for youreslf. I have NEVER labored under this illusion in all my three years here as an English teacher. i KNOW that the reason the kids are coming to my school, and the adults to my classes, is that they want to learn English as a second language, imperfectly, sometimes incorrectly, often lazily, but at all times wtih one main goal: to learn to communicate (read write listen speak email) with people in other countries. They do not, and have never, and never will, want to learn English as she is bespoke, Hex. They just want to communicate, however poorly and however ungracefully.
And I give them full credit for trying. It’s the same in any country, with most learners of a second language. Truly madly yesly.
Don’t get started on mistakes made by schools Hexuan. Even if Giraffe don’t have a singl;e native speaker in their head office, you’d think they could use their resources of 100s of foreign teachers working at their franchises to come in and fix their 100s of grammatical and spelling mistakes in their textbooks
brian
But Brian, why FIX something that aint broke?
You wrote: “Even if Giraffe don’t have a single native speaker in their head office, you’d think they could use their resources of 100s of foreign teachers working at their franchises to come in and fix their 100s of grammatical and spelling mistakes in their textbooks .”
The mistakes are SUPPOSED to be there. They always will be. This is not an English speaking country. For me, all the mistakes and typos and errors I see every day all around me are part of the landscape that make this Alice in Wonderland country so silly and weird and yes, in the end, real.
I never hear the local people complain about this. Why? Because they cannot spot the bloopers, and it’s a good thing too.
What’s wrong with this picture? NOTHING.
[quote=“formosa”]
I never hear the local people complain about this. Why? Because they cannot spot the bloopers, and it’s a good thing too.
What’s wrong with this picture? NOTHING.[/quote]
And if one tells them the truth, they are still numb with it.
But, optimistically speaking, the more blooper, the more gold mines here. For example, I have to find tutors to fix my broken English. So there are more mistakes, I need more time, tutors will earn more. It’s good, right? At least for teachers.