Language Log

Boris Johnson started a recent interview segment this way:

Sign on a toilet door:

Source:  "In the first flush:  China’s toilet revolution remains in full swing", Week in China 453 (5/24/19)

Seen on an entry door in San Francisco:

From Stephen Hart (the object pictured is a camera attachment for microphones, lights, and the like):

From Charles Belov:

While restaurant hunting in the East Bay, I happened upon these dishes with the intriguing English names of "Mr and Mrs Smith" and "Boiled Omasum with Chili Pepper." Omasum turns out to be an obscure name of a variety of tripe, but I'm puzzled as to how the Smith family made it into Chinese cuisine.

A learned colleague observed:

A few days ago, a Chinese military spokesperson was criticizing U.S. Department of Defense budget priorities.  The spokesperson said, "We have noticed that the U.S. defense department always likes to play 'small abacus' when seeking military budgets, in an attempt to gain more benefits for itself by rendering the threat of other countries [sic]."

From China.org and Xinhua.

The colleague went on to ask:

That must have sounded better in Chinese.  What did he mean by that?  Does it refer to lowballing budgets?  Is it like "penny-wise-pound-foolish?"

Zeyao Wu found this picture on Weibo:

From frequent commenter bratschegirl:

Seen backstage on a locked storage cabinet.

Pedro J. Silva just returned from his first trip to China, bringing with him two charming specimens of Chinglish.  The first one is from Beijing Capital International airport (terminal 3, international departures):

From Yixue Yang:

Jane Skinner received this from a friend who saw it in Chengdu, Sichuan:

This is a full length martial arts action movie (English title "Sword Master"). You probably won't be able to stand watching much of it, and you have to put up with some pretty atrocious fighting scenes, but if you stick around for a few minutes of the Chinglish subtitles, you'll find them to be quite bizarre, although most seem to be just poor automatic translation.

https://youtu.be/ImsxMek2XgI

Happy and healthy year of the Pig!