Language Log

David Rowe took this photo of a sign on a market stall in Sydney Chinatown:

Nathan Hopson found this in a public bathroom at the Nagoya prefectural children's center last Monday:

Joseph Williams sent in the following photograph of a Japanglish sign that he took on a ferry traveling to the famous Itsukushima Shrine (also called Miyajima) in Hiroshima:

Sign on the front door at the Taitung County District Prosecutors Office in Taiwan (via Kerim Friedman):

This is from an article in Want China Times (4/21/15):

Photo taken on a lane leading from Beijing's Nanluoguxiang:

Sign in Guilin, China:

Another photo from Dean Barrett:

We have just emerged from a discussion of how to refer to dog excrement on public notices: "Scoop the poop" (4/15/15). The same sort of uncertainty surrounds notices concerning public urination by humans.  From a men's room in the West Beijing Railway Station:

From Mia in Shenzhen, China:

Nathan Hopson sent in this photograph of a package of cookies:

From a page at Chambers Wines about the VinItaly exhibition in Verona:

Caption: "Some translations are more successful than others".

But what, asks Francois Lang, is "Breath Clay" a (bad?) translation of?

From Gordon Old:

As Language Log readers are well aware, Jackie Chan recently became super famous for the amazing bounciness of his hair and the mystical syllable he proclaimed in self-admiration: "Duang " (3/1/15) and "More on 'duang'"  (3/19). Now we find that he has a bus stop named after him:

Computerized translation fail at Sichuan Normal University campus bus stop pic.twitter.com/NA1Q5iI0Qr

— Austin Ramzy (@austinramzy) April 3, 2015