-
English signs abroad
Here are some signs and notices written in English that were discovered throughout the world. You have to give the writers an E’ for Effort.
In a Tokyo Hotel:- Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such thing is please not to read notis.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:- The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
In a Leipzig elevator:- Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
In a Belgrade hotel elevator:- To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
In a Paris hotel elevator:- Please leave your values at the front desk.
In a hotel in Athens:- Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.
In a Yugoslavian hotel:- The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
In a Japanese hotel:- You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:- You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday.
In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers:- Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:- Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.
On the menu of a Polish hotel:- Salad a firm’s own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people’s fashion.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:- Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
In a Bangkok dry cleaner’s:- Drop your trousers here for best results.
Outside a Paris dress shop:- Dresses for street walking.
In a Rhodes tailor shop:- Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
A sign posted in Germany’s Black forest:- It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.
In a Zurich hotel:- Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:- Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.
In a Rome laundry:- Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency:- Take one of our horse-driven city tours – we guarantee no miscarriages.
Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand:- Would you like to ride on your own ass?
In a Swiss mountain inn:- Special today — no ice cream.
In a Bangkok temple:- It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.
In a Tokyo bar:- Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:- We take your bags and send them in all directions.
On the door of a Moscow hotel room:- If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:- Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
In a Budapest zoo:- Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
In the office of a Roman doctor:- Specialist in women and other diseases.
In an Acapulco hotel:- The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
In a Tokyo shop:- Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are best in the long run.
From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:- Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.
From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:- When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.
Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:(1) English well talking. (2) Here speeching American.
Other translations are not much better…………..Cracking an international market is a goal of most growing corporations. It shouldn’t be that hard, yet even the big multi-nationals run into trouble because of language and cultural differences. For example…
Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American ad campaign: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect.
Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, “ko-kou-ko-le,” which can be loosely translated as “happiness in the mouth.”
In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” came out as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.”
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “finger-lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off.”
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, “Salem – Feeling Free,” got translated in the Japanese market into “When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty.”
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that “no va” means “it won’t go.” After the company figured out why it wasn’t selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe.
Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for “tiny male genitals”. Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” However, the company mistakenly thought the spanish word “embarazar” meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that “It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the spanish market which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of the desired “I Saw the Pope” in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed “I Saw the Potato.”
Chicken-man Frank Perdue’s slogan, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” got terribly mangled in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”
Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in slang, means “big breasts.” In this case, however, the name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno mag.
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
Japan’s second-largest tourist agency was mystified when it entered English-speaking markets and began receiving requests for unusual sex tours. Upon finding out why, the owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist Company changed its name.
In an effort to boost orange juice sales in predominantly continental breakfast eating England, a campaign was devised to extoll the drink’s eye-opening, pick-me-up qualities. Hence the slogan, “Orange juice. It gets your pecker up.”
The PC company WANG had unveiled their new slogan a few years ago in Australia. The slogan was unveiled before the employees…. “WANG CARES”. The aussies almost died laughing because, said fast, it sounded like “wankers”.
-
0 Replies
Sorry, there were no replies found.
Log in to reply.
