Government abuse chicken

[webofevil]

strictlytrue beat me to the punch with this story... but I can be magnanimous.

“The mistranslations arise because many Chinese words express concepts obliquely and can be interpreted in multiple ways, making translation a minefield for non-English speakers.”

Given that English isn’t nearly so oblique, and that the badly-translated signs are usually trying to communicate something pretty straightforward in the first place, I’m not sure that constitutes much of an excuse.

However, the example on the right appears to have qualified as faintly “oblique” even before the local translator got his hands on it. Why exactly did this person want a description of a chess victory on their tombstone? Maybe it’s loaded with symbolism, a quotation taken from an ancient and famous Chinese text, but without any context it just looks like crowing; “Needless to say, I had the last laugh...”.

Comments

[chiller.livejournal.com]

I am going to start using the word "gland" for "glad". It makes everything sound ... so much HAPPIER.

On the basis of this gravestone I have decided to have the following carved on mine:

IN YOUR FACE

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

Although that is truly a fantastic example, I must ensure a wider audience is granted to:
a chocolate snack cake whose slogan promised: "This tastiness cannot be carried, even with both hands."

(from Alia in Austin TX)