Language Log

From Francis Miller in Xi'an, China:

From Joel Martinsen:

From Bobby Shore:

From Diana S. Zhang, apropos of the recent post "Miscellaneous bacteria":

Jeff DeMarco spotted this menu item at the Splendid China attraction in Shenzhen:

From June Teufel Dreyer:

Here we go again.  With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics coming up, China aims to eliminate Chinglish, and all sorts of negative examples are adduced.  We've covered scores of them on Language Log, but here's one I hadn't seen before:

For the last few weeks, the New York Times has been running a hyped-up, gushing series of lengthy articles under the rubric "China rules". On a special section in the paper edition for Sunday, November 25, they printed this gigantic headline in Chinese characters — and made a colossal mistake:

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: