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07-31-2008, 04:45 AM
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#1
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 886
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Engrish.com
You can waste hours here.
Q. What is Engrish?
A. Engrish can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design.
Welcome to Engrish.com!
__________________
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07-31-2008, 10:58 AM
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#2
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,713
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Trek, yes, I can attest to the hours wasted. Fun, though!
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07-31-2008, 11:10 AM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7,746
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All your base are belong to us
Somebody set up us the bomb
best evar.
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07-31-2008, 11:17 AM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Lawn chair in Texas
Posts: 14,183
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Another source of bemusement would be the tech manuals that come from Japanese vendors...
__________________
Have Funds, Will Retire
...not doing anything of true substance...
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07-31-2008, 12:19 PM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Boise
Posts: 7,882
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I appreciate and enjoy this kind of humor.
But as someone who has spent some time and effort working on localizing an American product into other languages, let me just point out that our translations probably were similarly humorous and poor in numerous cases. Not to mention such technical embarrassments and errors as the text showing up in the wrong character set, in the wrong language altogether ("Swedish? I thought you said Finnish!"), or just being USA-centric and leaving stuff in English (It's easier for the company for the folks in the Czech Republic learn English rather than the company to fix the underlying technical problem).
Like I said, it's still funny, I only want to point out that looking foolish in other languages is not limited to the Chinese and Japanese people.
2Cor521
__________________
"At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough, and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may in fact be the first steps of a journey." Violet Baudelaire.
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07-31-2008, 12:32 PM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,713
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2Cor. I know.. I thought of that when I saw the example that seemed to be some kind of press-on lettering with some of the characters applied upside-down and/or backwards.
I wondered how many native English speakers could really do even that well with Chinese/Korean/Thai glyphs.
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07-31-2008, 12:44 PM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 13,566
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We pronounced the cyrillic letters on the beer bottles to the vast amusement of our Mongolian bartender as Optina, because that was sorta what it looked like. After the bartender replied that the beer was called Borgia, we ordered by pointing at the empty bottle to save future mortification.
The only cyrillic I can say I got right was yy means water, as it was on all the signs that said "put no tissue in toilet water".
__________________
“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching.”
Gerard Arthur Way
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07-31-2008, 01:07 PM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,713
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Italian Engrish
I think this gives the Asians a run for their money.
Foto taken by a friend. His accompanying explanation:
 Quote:
IT IS A MESSAGE FOR ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE ONLY.....
IN ITALIAN IT SOUNDS EXACTLY AS :"IN CASO DI NECESSITA' IL PULSANTE DI EMERGENZA E' DALL'ALTRA PARTE DELLA PORTA"
THE ENGLISH VERSION MAY BE NOT TOO ACCURATE BUT FOR SURE IT GIVES A SENSE OF TRUE EMERGENCY.
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It's supposed to say, more or less: "In case of necessity/emergency, the emergency/alarm button is on the other side of this door."
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07-31-2008, 01:21 PM
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#9
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Diego
Posts: 5,267
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FUEGO
All your base are belong to us
Somebody set up us the bomb
best evar.
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You are on the way to destruction.
What you say !!
You have no chance to survive make your time.
LOL
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07-31-2008, 01:27 PM
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#10
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 546
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laurence beat me! I was going to say 'You have no chance to survive make your time' (best line in that intense dialogue)
But, I will go with:
Captain!
Take off every ZIG!
You know what you doing
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As Mentioned in the Joy of Cooking Cookbook
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07-31-2008, 03:59 PM
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#11
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Leesburg, VA
Posts: 904
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As Mentioned in the Joy of Cooking Cookbook
A sign at a mid-west restaurant said "Steaks cooked to your likeness."
I love that one.
Don't get me started on:
loser/looser
there/their/they're
affect/effect
overuse of the word "amazing"
any use of the word "various"
Using a range as a point, as in "Up to ten to fifteen dollars." Up to ten? Or up to fifteen?
Oh, how I could go on.
Mike D.
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07-31-2008, 04:12 PM
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#12
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 362
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One of my favorites from engrish.com
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Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
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07-31-2008, 04:13 PM
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#13
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,764
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07-31-2008, 07:26 PM
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#14
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,765
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeD
Using a range as a point, as in "Up to ten to fifteen dollars." Up to ten? Or up to fifteen?
Oh, how I could go on.
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I constantly complain about ads that say "save up to 30% and more!" DW just tells me to shut up.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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07-31-2008, 07:27 PM
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#15
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,765
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Oh yeah, and Exasperate for Exacerbate. My boss used to say that 2 or 3 times a day. "That will just exasperate the problem".
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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07-31-2008, 07:33 PM
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#16
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,713
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Harley, the life of a pedant is a hard one; I can attest as much.
Back in the (waning) days of disco, there was a club that advertised constantly on the local radio stations, bragging about its "SUPERSONIC SOUND SYSTEM!!".
My favorite recent Engrish is a toss up between the animal vexing and (I'm leaning towards this one) the "get away from my bangolow.. I hate you" sign.
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07-31-2008, 07:51 PM
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#17
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 17,774
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A grocery store chain near us advertised "semi-boneless" pork chops a few years ago, translated from the English to the English 
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07-31-2008, 09:59 PM
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#18
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 678
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The Spanish people I work with like to say they are "sailing the Internet." I think that's real cute!
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07-31-2008, 10:31 PM
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#19
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,891
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oh, that's too funny! my friends and i love to read the stationary from korea & japan that have nonsensical engrish on it...usually something like, "happy day make me smile, have a banana...I love you"
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If i think of something clever to say, i'll put it here...
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08-01-2008, 01:11 AM
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#20
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,713
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GoodSense, yes, very cute! Italians say "I'm navigating" or the alternate "sto surfando" from the new verb "surfare" which they do "cliccando". They may also find themselves "chattando" or "linkando".
Also funny are phonetic compositions devised to engender an English phrase.. I've seen written near a cash register "Deng Chiu" or something similar.. (which you'd say "deng kiyu".."thank you"!). They have a hard time with "th".
Related NYT article on literary translations:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/bo...0A&oref=slogin
"Angry Raisins" by John Steinbeck!
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