h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know we should'nt take the mick, since they can probabily speak more English than I Chinese, but nethertheless:

http://www.engrish.com/

...no, dear...

it's your spelling that is atrocious.

alec.

*Goes and cries in the corner*

*hands the admiral a hankie*

...and whilst you are there, do try and improve your punctuation.

alec.

**Throws a at Alec.**

Bully!!!

Now now . . .

I got quite a chuckle out of Admiral's link, though with a niggling sense of it being a bit unfair to only focus on the translation errors of one particular group.

Bill Bryson, in his splendid book Mother Tongue, makes fun of everybody! Well okay, he points out some very hilarious wonky English-isms, but from all sorts of other languages.

To quote a bit from this book:

"In Hong Kong you can find a place called the Plastic Bacon Factory. In Naples, according to the Observer, there is a sports shop called Snoopy's Dribbling, while in Brussels there is a men's clothing store called Big Nuts. In Japan you can drink Homo Milk or Poccari Sweat (a popular soft drink), eat some chocolate called Hand-Made Queer-Aid, or go out and buy some Arm Free Grand Slam Muns ingwear."

In Sarajevo: " In the Europa Hotel you will find this message on every door: 'Guests should announce the abandonment of their rooms before 12 o'clock, emptying the room at the latest until 14 o'clock, for the use of the room before 5 at the arrival or after the 16 o'clock at the departure, will be billed as one night more' "

He wrote about a Japanese eraser that said on it 'Mr Friendly Quality Eraser. Mr Friendly Arrived!! He always stay near you, and steals in your mind to lead you a good situation'. On the bottom of the eraser is a further message: 'We are ecologically minded. This package will self-destruct in Mother Earth.'

On a packet of fast-food from Italy: 'Besmear a backing pan, previously buttered with a good tomato sauce, and, after, depose the cannelloni, lightly distanced betwen them in a only couch'.

And so on . . .




az

I have a little tin which used to contain some very nice Japanese tea.
The instructions on the side of the tin say:

"How to make a really cup of fine tea"

The phrase has passed into everyday use in our family, as in :

Would anyone like a really cup of fine tea?

alec.