Language Log

Sign in a restroom at the Taipei Public Library:

biàn hòu suíshǒu chōng
chūnní liǎo wú hén

After relieving yourself, don't forget to flush,
So there will be nary a trace of "spring mud".

Tweet by Dan Okrent:

Menu translation, Hanoi pic.twitter.com/mDG3FH2Bd8

— Dan Okrent (@okrent) November 12, 2018

The Mexican City of… WHAT?
😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/CXmQR4wf3H

— Laura Martínez © (@miblogestublog) October 25, 2018

While passing through Hartsfield Atlanta airport a few weeks back, Neil Dolinger passed a piano located in a place where passersby could freely play it.  A sign nearby (see photograph below) encourages this in 12 different languages:

Photo taken by Ori Tavor in Beijing at the Bank of China next to Hepingmen subway station:

Zeyao Wu sent in this sign on a restaurant:

From Adrian Bailey:

Although Google Translate isn't too bad now for the big 8 languages, the results for other languages can still be quite bizarre and/or disappointing. I used to do some Hungarian-English translation 15-20 years ago, and the machine translation available then hardly seems much worse…

Engedjetek meg nekem a tegezést. Angolként bajom van a magázással.

Google's translation: Let me do the trenching. I'm an English guy with shit.

Actual meaning: Let me tegez you (ie. use the informal forms for "you"). As an Englishman, I have trouble with the formal forms.

I found this by chance while surfing on Pinterest:

From Zeyao Wu:

Adrian Bailey sent in this Yemeni restaurant menu from @wokeeth's Twitter account:

My mum just sent me this pic of a Yemeni restaurant menu. Come read the translations pls. pic.twitter.com/2vSgTJmIi1

— 🎈🤫 (@wokeeth) August 24, 2018

Menu items at the Asia Bistro, Marriott Hotel, Suzhou, China, courtesy of Thomas Malphus:

Zeyao Wu found this photograph on Weibo (a Twitter-like microblogging website in China):

From a menu in a restaurant in Oxford, Ohio: