Sign Language （間違っている英語の看板） Archives - Page 16 of 44

Bag on down on the dance floor!

bag down

X Bag Down for a Better Ride

Tim says:

This photo was submitted by Noguchi-san, who lives in Singapore. From reading this sign, you might think that “bag” is a verb! “Please bag down!” I’m not sure what this means! Is that like in disco songs when they said to “get down”??

The problem is that there are two words missing at the beginning of this sentence. It would make much more sense if it said:

O Put your Bag Down for a Better Ride

周囲にある英語を見て、果たしてそれが正しい英語なのだろうかと感じる英語はありますか？「あの英語は絶対に間違っている」という英語の表記はありますか？看板の写真を撮って、Machigai.comに送りましょう！とんでもない英語だったら、このコーナーで出します！

Correction time!

opening time

X Opening time

Tim says:

I understand what they’re trying to say here, but “opening time” actually means the time at which the gate is opened (in this case, 4:50), not the entire length of time during which it is open. A “time” generally refers to a specific time on the clock; to denote a length of time, we use the word “hours“:

O Opening hours

Don’t pop too much time into trying to understand this!

pop your time

X Pop your time

Tim says:

Yes, Frito Lay is an American company. But sometimes the overseas branches of American companies will still come up with some strange English for their marketing.

“Pop your time”?? I really don’t know what this means. I can only guess from the context that it means they want you to enjoy your leisure time by eating their products. But ONLY by context. In a different context, I would guess a different meaning! It’s amazing that I can understand even that much, from such a meaningless phrase!

O Enjoy your time(?)

Make a graphic designer’s holiday happier!

happy holidays

X Ha ppy Holidays

Tim says:

Sometimes Japanese designers do things with English words that a native-speaking designer would never do. This is one example! You can’t just break a word in your design like this. Even putting a hyphen in the broken word would look bad — and even worse since words should only break between syllables, and the break in “happy” is after the first “p”. But broken words look bad in graphic design, no matter what. Even if you’re trying to make the words be shaped like a Christmas tree.

O Happy Holidays

A different slant on oysters

cocked oyster

X Cocked Oyster

Tim says:

The verb “to cock” means to tilt or turn something to one side, to hold it at an angle. The oysters are turned at an angle? Does that make them more delicious??

O Cooked Oysters

Bonus mistake: The dish at the bottom of the photo should actually be spelled “Oysters Rockefeller”!

Get your vitamin A out of “salada”

salda

X Salda

Tim says:

In Japanese you say サラダ, so it’s common to see English misspellings like “sarada” and “salada”. However, in this case, the writer has left out an “a”, but it’s the wrong one! It’s the “a” at the end that is unneeded in English.

O Salad

Mission: Accomplished

We are serious about making you smile

! We are serious about making you smile

Tim says:

This is not a mistake at all. It’s actually rather clever… except the cleverness seems to have been an accident!

“Serious” and “smile” seem like rather opposite things. Using them together like this sounds rather humorous. But the Japanese on this hotel brochure has no such cleverness to it. If it said something like 「真面目にあなたを笑させようとしています」, then I would think the cleverness of the English was intentional! But the Japanese means simply:

O To make you smile

Thanks to Taro O. for this photo!

I “maid” my way to the elevator…

Please take the elevator that way.

X Please take the elevator that way.

Tim says:

This sign seems to mean that you should get on the elevator and ride the elevator to go to the left. Sideways?! If it doesn’t go up, it’s not an elevator!

The writer of this sign shouldn’t have used “take” here. After you go that way, then you will get on the elevator. This sign should just explain the location of the elevator, and assume that, after you find it, you’ll understand what to do!

O This way to the elevator. O The elevator is this way.

Please don’t use it as a kitchen

Multipurpose restroom

X Multipurpose restroom

Tim says:

This sign is kind of funny. Doesn’t the restroom have basically ONE purpose??

「多機能化粧室」does directly translate to “multipurpose” or “multifunction”, but we don’t generally use these terms for restrooms. It sounds funny, but also unclear. What are these various purposes you could use a restroom for??

According to Weblio, a much clearer English term for 「多機能化粧室」 is:

O Wheelchair accessible restroom

How “incence-itive”

incence

X Incence

Tim says:

“Incence”? This sign is nonsense! It smells like this would be a good time to improve your spelling…

O Incense

Category: Sign Language （間違っている英語の看板）

Bag on down on the dance floor!

Correction time!

Don’t pop too much time into trying to understand this!

Make a graphic designer’s holiday happier!

A different slant on oysters

Get your vitamin A out of “salada”

Mission: Accomplished

I “maid” my way to the elevator…

Please don’t use it as a kitchen

How “incence-itive”

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