Language Log

Photograph of a sign in Hangzhou:

I have received this notice from several sources in the last few days:

(Source)

An assortment of Chinglish signs and menu items from my files (I forget who sent them to me).  There are eight all together.  Before diving into an examination of them one after the other, I should note that the last two partially result from the perennial problem of not knowing how to deal with warnings involving the heart (xīn 心).  Since I've already devoted an entire post to this topic, it might be worthwhile to take a peek at that before proceeding further:

"Mind your head" (8/28/15)

xiǎoxīn 小心 (lit., "little heart" –> "[be] careful; look out")

dāngxīn 当心 (lit., "heed / regard heart" –> "be careful; watch out")

Ryan Kilpatrick has an interesting article in Hong Kong Free Press:

"Taiwan city promises to ‘correct’ simplified road sign after public outcry" (12/7/15)

It includes this photograph, which illustrates some of the problems:

The first public sign I noticed after arriving at Hong Kong last week was this one embedded in the floor near the  conveyor belt (visible at the top of the photo):

Zach Hershey sent in this photograph of a sign in Central Park NYC:

Andrew Herron sent in this photograph taken on Hospital Road, Hong Kong Island:

Sign outside an apartment in Taipei:

Posted on imgur by Jverne

JH Rand sent in this intriguing photograph taken in the Philippines:

The following photograph has been in my draft folder for about five years:

Multilingual sign near the entrance to a toilet at the Cologne Main train station, posted by Simon on douban, via Joel Martinsen: