Language Log

Unfair, but funny:

This is a sequel to "Tibetan –> Chinese –> Chinglish " (11/11/15).

(‘Alone, Popecity’ 独克宗, a street sign on National Highway 214 at the entrance to Shangri-La, 2015. Photo: William Ratz)

One of my graduate students sent me the following picture (click to embiggen):

Jenny Chu sent me this photo of a simultaneous interpretation device she came across at an event in Shanghai today:

The blogger of "The Wanderlust Diaries" has a post called "What China is This?" (10/17/15).  In it, she includes the following sign as an example of the elusiveness of " correct English spelling and translation" in China, though she recognizes that there are now many Chinese who speak English fluently, in contrast to when she first went to China in 1994:

Arika Okrent, "Translation Error Announces 'Clitoris Festival' in Spain", Mental Floss 11/2/2015:

The town of As Pontes in northwestern Spain has held a festival to celebrate the local leafy green delicacy of grelo, or broccoli rabe, since 1981. This year, visitors who went to the festival website hoping to find useful information were surprised by the announcement of a "Clitoris Festival" and the claim that "the clitoris is one of the typical products of Galician cuisine."

Municipal spokesman Monserrat García explained that the mistake was the result of automatic Google translation from the local language of Galician into Castilian Spanish.

Posted on Facebook by Aaron Gerow (Yale):

Sign on the front of an audiovisual equipment supplier in Pudong, Shanghai:

(Source of photograph)

Peculiar ad for a portable charger from AliExpress:

I happened to be walking past the Abramson Cancer Center this afternoon, and this reminded me that every day last summer in Paris, I walked past the Institut Curie, whose building was adorned in several places with the slogan "Ensemble, prenons le cancer de vitesse" — as on the home page of their web site:

The first time I saw the slogan, I only caught the "… le cancer de vitesse" part, which seemed like part of an appeal to slow down and smell the roses, so to speak, avoiding the metaphorical cancer of excessive dedication to speed above all. But then the first couple of words came into my visual field, and I briefly thought that it was a prank or a protest or something, meaning "Together, let's get cancer quickly".

We had just a taste of the wonders of Thai English in "Cabbages & Condoms" (10/13/15).  It turns out that Thailand also offers a rich banquet of what I'll christen as "Thailish".  Here's a sampling, the last of which is this mystifying sign:

I forget who sent this photograph to me, but it is a prime specimen of first-class Chinglish:

In the 10/4/15 issue of the Chicago Tribune, Eric Zorn has a sympathetic look at Chinglish:  "Cultural sensitivity lost — and found — in translation".  He offers the following sign at a museum near Datong as a prime specimen: