When encountering non-English-speaking countries, there are obviously and quite rightly going to be things that are lost in translation. Far be it for me to criticise those trying hard to decipher a language so alien from their own, and I will not. However, it does make for interesting and sometimes hilarious reading. There are an innumerable amount of mistakes in everything from signs, tourist paraphernalia and menus. Take for instance an earlier blog referring to toilets in Asia. Now, it is hard to imagine someone actually standing on the rim of a western-style porcelain toilet and dumping from a great height as they might in squat toilets, but apparently this actually happens. Enough, it seems, for an educational and instructional sticker to be posted in the cubicle at eye level above the toilet. See photo attached. Talking of airports, we all despise being treated like terrorist cattle by all manner of staff whose perpetual po-faced and indifferent attitude leaves us with an experience that dampens our holiday spirit. Imagine our delight, then, at the unfortunate immigration official at KL whose name was ‘Arse’. Brilliant. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, there is no photo to accompany this one.
It is a long-standing myth that the English and French can’t stand each other. This myth also exists with Germans and probably a whole host of other nationalities, perhaps owing to histories that, for some reason, cannot be forgotten. However, we couldn’t help but laugh at a menu in a restaurant in Kuta, Bali advertising French Fries with the underneath description, ‘deep fried french people’. Hilarious, even if it is at the expense of the French. Most mistakes are obvious typos, which can easily be explained, but this was aneurism inducing - it just did not make sense, especially in a restaurant situated in such a heavily populated tourist area with a decades-long history of catering for westerners.
Then there are other mistakes that fall under a more common category. These orthographical errors are forgivable even if they are not understandable. They are, nevertheless, humorous. On a menu board on the island of Nusa Lembongan we were offered a No.7 Special pizza with various toppings and finished off with nothing less than Origami. Surely a pizza staple in Italy.
Signs can often also be blunt, perhaps in part due to limited English skills by those who write them. This, in turn, often results in a lack of the usage of words typically used to buffer a statement, command or advice. A temple on the southwest coast of Bali requested as politely as it could that women on their period stay away. We are still trying to figure this one out but I am sure there is a perfectly logical reason. Either way, it is almost refreshing that we are in a land less obsessed about its political correctness and one that is clearly not as worried about who it may offend.
It is a long-standing myth that the English and French can’t stand each other. This myth also exists with Germans and probably a whole host of other nationalities, perhaps owing to histories that, for some reason, cannot be forgotten. However, we couldn’t help but laugh at a menu in a restaurant in Kuta, Bali advertising French Fries with the underneath description, ‘deep fried french people’. Hilarious, even if it is at the expense of the French. Most mistakes are obvious typos, which can easily be explained, but this was aneurism inducing - it just did not make sense, especially in a restaurant situated in such a heavily populated tourist area with a decades-long history of catering for westerners.
Then there are other mistakes that fall under a more common category. These orthographical errors are forgivable even if they are not understandable. They are, nevertheless, humorous. On a menu board on the island of Nusa Lembongan we were offered a No.7 Special pizza with various toppings and finished off with nothing less than Origami. Surely a pizza staple in Italy.
Signs can often also be blunt, perhaps in part due to limited English skills by those who write them. This, in turn, often results in a lack of the usage of words typically used to buffer a statement, command or advice. A temple on the southwest coast of Bali requested as politely as it could that women on their period stay away. We are still trying to figure this one out but I am sure there is a perfectly logical reason. Either way, it is almost refreshing that we are in a land less obsessed about its political correctness and one that is clearly not as worried about who it may offend.
