Immediately after I published my last entry on Shanghai Engrish, a couple of people have e-mailed me photos of Engrish they’ve spotted around China.
Spotted on the box of a massage chair:
Instead of helping you relieve the fatigue, this massage chair wants you to RELIVE the fatigue!
(Submitted by Sim Teong Chuan)
From a hotel toilet in HangZhou, China:
Be careful of wet floor!
(via Leonard Png, who got it from an e-mail)
From a restaurant menu in a Chinese three-star hotel:
“Picks” = chop
“Three texts cure” = sandwich
God knows what the hell they meant by “many privates”.
(More Engrish at Leonard Png’s Flickr set)
Of all the Engrish restaurant menus I came across, this one really takes the cake.
(via Weddy’s War Zone)
(More Engrish at brendyweddy)
I just watched Survivor: Guatemala for the first time just now. Why is it that every season, they pick the same mix of people on the show? For crying out loud, all the female contestants look like carbon copies of contestants from the last few seasons.
Beijing 2008.. Here we come!
lolz!!! sooo farni!!
hey i gotta talk to u more on msn
i figured “many privates” means toast (mandarin: tuo si)
funny, really funny…
I think I know what their “f*ck” means. Direct translation from dry (gan) probably straight from an electronic dictionary cos my friend was selling this product where all the English on the packing is horrichible vegetable standard like “Wipe f*ck your face”
I think the f_ck and landslide things are super funny.
First off, let me just say, I laughed my ass off with the “Engrish” man!!!
wahahaha….
And secondly, I agree with you about the Survivor thingy. I stopped regularly watching the show after season 3 when i too made that conclusion..
Cheers
First off, let me just say, I laughed my ass off with the “Engrish” man!!!
wahahaha….
And secondly, I agree with you about the Survivor thingy. I stopped regularly watching the show after season 3 when i too made that conclusion..
Cheers
I remember reading this from the newspaper during World Cup 2002!!!
In Korea, in some hotel, they offer message taking or something. Instead of putting “Take your message here” or something, it reads “Take your massage here” and caused some confusion among the Koreans and the foreigns!!! Hehehe!!!~
Hahaha this post is simply hilarious!!
just tot mite also point out that you have an ATOM Feed….
at http://KennySia.com/atom.xml
lol.. farnee~~~ parsely fucks the silk.. hahaha..!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v518/mimosaiba/PICT0279.jpg
check this out so where’s the automation?
kenny! your ID photo so hamsap!! aeuiheiuhriae eh.. i mean handsome!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA
san wen zhi(sandwich)= three text cure
hahahahhahahahahah brilliant!!!
Obviously the language translation software they use was really ‘lurus’ and ‘word by word’.
The fuck is GAN as KAN in KNN. Hahaha…
And I thought ‘Batang Ria’ was funny enough already…
that is damnnnn hilarious!!!!!
For crying out loud! That is so funny!!! These people are so lost!! Hahahaaaa….
‘many privates’ = the ‘privates’ probably is directly translated: (shi) is a foot soldier/cadet in chinese chess.
HAHAHAHAHAhahahaahhahahhahaa *gasps* *chokes* he…lp…
Holy hell the last part make me laugh so loud i nearly died!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like the last part. It’s amusing how the China nationals try too hard to translate their language into English..
HAHAHAHAHA THEY DIRECTLY TRANSLATED CHINESE TO ENGRISH WORD BY WORD!
NO WONDER THERE ARE MANY PRIVATES AND THE GARLIC JOSS STICKS HAVE TO FUCK TO FRY THE MILK!!!
LOL I SPIT OUT MY RICE WHEN READING IT
ok information overload. 😛
Although come to think of it, why can’t they just use “dry” for the å¹²?
Shows what “clean” minds the China people have…
wow,is this like for real? amazing
the words for sandwich and toast is a common one used by the Hong Kong ppl long time ago. If u go to HK and have breakfast or tea or watever you can see it everywhere.
sandwich = sam man zhi (cantonese)sounds like sandwich
toast = sai doe si (cantonese) means western toast
doesn’t mean anything.. just the sound of the words put together.
The gan for f*ck is a very common mistake in china/macau. Seen it before. you guys are right. It’s a direct translation.
hello, somebody should go to china and work with them to make proper signage! must be good money and im sure the gov. will be glad to pay???
check it out!
david
usa/singapore
Sometimes I wonder hor.. scali our textbooks are teaching us the rude words all the while, and people elsewhere might be laughing at our engrish instead.
but baby, this one cracked me up. 🙂
you evil you Kenny! laugh at your own Chinese fellows! hee!
“France Many Privates” = French Toast (translated based on what’s written in Chinese)
Tuo = Many
Si = Si Ping (Soldiers) = Privates (lowest ranking soldiers)
Tuo Si = Many Privates
Super hilarious..
i think they went through the dictionary and translated it word for word 0_o
yea, mistakes in translation to english in asian signs are pretty funny… but wouldn’t it be interesting to see a reverse of the “engrish” bashing? and voila!! here it is!!
http://www.engrish.com vs. http://www.hanzimatter.com
here’s a sample in case you’re wondering…
look at image here: http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A51003/high/bmegl144166.jpg
“Granted the character was done correctly, but the question still remains: What is the purpose of having ? (excrement; feces) tattooed on one’s leg?”
Yeah G’NA, U remind of my friend’s ang mo friend, who wanna get a tatoo “In God We Trust” in chinese characters. Guess what my friend gave him in chinese. “Wo Sin Seng” in chinese character. LOL.
the beauty of direct translation?
if sandwich= three text cure is true,
toast = many privates,
Dry (gan) = fuck??? wtf…. LoL…
That was fucking funny. ahahahaha, kan in mandarin means fuck. but don’t they know it’s offensive?
i just showed my China friend your entry and he told me that restaurants in China (excluding Shanghai and Beijing) uses the online translator to translate chinese character to engrishhh. No wonder they have the privates as sandwiches. LOL.
I simply love the landslides…
hilarious…
shld call it shit slides…or may be ‘Eeware of drowning in shit’ LoL…
Oh… dear… god… Hillarious! XD
I remembered that there was one dry cleaner somewhere with the sign outside, saying:
“Drop your pants here for best results.”
and a sign outside a japanese hotel (i think):
“You are welcome to take advantage of the chambermaid.”
Misleading, yes? XD
the ppl there must be wondering how come tourists like to take pictures of their menu…
hahahaha.
oh no… three texts cure. X))
once in a small place shoppin complex near guangzhou
instead of writing “mind your head”
they directly wrote “xiao xin peng tou”
my mum who knows no chinese had to ask me what it means..
:/
OH MY GOD!!!
But really, pity them because (according to what I know from China friend) they actually, started learning English in secondary education
you made my day! XD
no lah kenny ! you need to follow the whole series of survivor in order to appreciate the dynamics of the particular game. and they don’t all look the same please, take it from this survivor fan. (:
wa lao kenny sia u make me laugh until i stomach pain la
I think the 2 ‘fucks’ menus were not real. They were done by computers.
TreVesco – it doesn’t look like they actually learn English at all. All they seem to learn is the word fuck and then use it any which way they can..
DArn Hilarious!!! Esp the ” å¹²” transalation.. gee!!! No words to describe.. *lol*
omg?
fuck?
don’t they KNOW? that’s a universal language that they’re speaking!
the first menu.. i like how when u’re at lost for words, u just use a mandarin one that no one understands anyway =_=
it shud be parsley mixs to fuck the silkworm to produce silk leaves
it shud be parsley mixs to fuck the silkworm to produce silk leaves
AHHAHaAHA that kept me rofl for a longggg time!!! =D
How leh like that??? Beijing Olympics coming soon mann…
http://weblogawards.org/2005/12/best_asian_blog.php
why dont have kennysia.com?i want to vote kennysia.com
You shouldn’t have explained the first two errors. Otherwise, funny stuff 🙂
I saw one the an SMRT bus that said –
Please press the bell in advance before alighting at your destined stop
Just dropping by a line to add on opinion about Asian Weblog Award 2005. I am not good reader but occassional reader to read entertaining and interesting elements in blogger’s website especially Kenny, Xiaxue and Scarlett Ting. I noted Mr Brown has got a huge of voters compared XiaXue’s voters. Mr Brown sometimes put the link of Asian Weblog Award 2005 in each of his entry to hopefully gain voters whereas Xiaxue didn’t put the link somehow. That could explain why Mr Brown has got a rise in the number of voters? Looks like Xiaxue never plan strategy but let it be natural. Salute with the way she doing.
Last but not least, hilarious entries, Kenny. Keep the good work up. Hope you enjoy your trip to KL and have fun. Wishing you have a great season greetings.
p/s:I am not Xiaxue’s fan. Just pouring my opinion whatever is in my mind only. No offence, please. Or just in case for those who take the offence, I apologise.
Ah ha..I also have a few over at my site, come take a look.
yea…f*ck the Meat with them garlics
MUAHAHAHHAA!!! THIS REALLY CRACKED ME UP SO HARD!!! btw, the “privates” meant “soldiers” i suspect…direct translation from the chinese character stated lah! =D
Hi Kenny,
I’ve kena KennySia-ed!!! No wonder my traffic increased due to this post!!! Thanks alot, bro!
This is what happens when you use unqualified foreigners to do your work, no matter how ell they do at your interviews! Being native does mean they speak good native tongue, never invite trouble with allowing an American gardener applying for a job as an English teacher!
where the hell did they get the idea to translate it to the F word?
private = 士兵。。 哈哈哈
hello! tks for mentioning my post. i feel so honoured. no wonder i got a jumpstart in trafiic.
theres still one i remember ” qing bao chi gan jing” (please keep the are clean) and it was translated into “please keep cleaning”
many privates = toast
it’s in cantonese.
‘tor si’
they must got one of those electronic dictionary, key in word by word, and just assemble them in the same order
The ‘privates’ in “many privates” refers to the military rank. Duo = many. Shi = privates.
Noticed all the translations were literal. Probably they did individual word translation from the internet translation engine.
I pray that China nation will improve someday…
Infact, we should not have just looking at those mistakes, anyone ever thinks and admits that there are China people nowadays could speak English as well as the British or American? At least, even sounds much more better than so called, “Manglish” or “Singlish”.
HAHA!!!!!!!!!! O M G !!! so bloody funny!!!
Privates in mandarin are called “shi” as in soldiers.
ya…those stupid ppl in china doesn’t know how to translate….i believe there’s something called the “DICTIONARY” in china 2….through i’m also chinese….those ppl should learn more english…they swearing …how stupid…
Oh my goodness! Imagine they translate
Si Ham Kwai Tiu .. will be
Shit Cockerels Ghost Fuck?
chinks aree really stupid huh..i think its they eyes
hhaahaa.. Three text cure…. ? O_o!!
The 士 in 多士 also means soldier, pawn, so I guess a Private. So … Many Privates.
I take offense to the racist comment by ‘law’. “chinks aree really stupid huh..i think its they eyes”. Based on your mistakes-prone comment, it looks like you are the stupid one. I would refer your readers to http://hanzismatter.com which shows pictures and pictures of fools who know absolutely nothing about Chinese characters and yet have shit tattooed all over their bodies.
On a lighter note, this is what i discovered on my current trip to Fuzhou.
http://ktula.com/2006/05/21/take-that-all-ya-stds/
lol lol lol seriously!!!!!! are they for real? nooooo they must be kidding rite?? siao !!!!
totally hilarious man ! ! !
you have really made the day for some1
at least i get to continue living life to the fullest at other peoples expense !
While you laugh at the translation, just be aware non Chinese speakers who learn Mandarin make similar stupid mistakes when they translate from English to Chinese.
For those of you who are Chinese who think you are not, look in the mirror and you will see how disgusting you look.
I am Chinese Malaysian and proud of being a Chinese. I do not laugh at my own people. While the translation look funny, I laugh but I don’t judge. I always remember where my ancestors come from.
If you laugh and think you are somehow superior, you are laughing at your own incompetence and your own insecurity.
I saw one from an email, really ridiculars one at that too… The photo was taken in a supermarket, where they had this sign called “gan huo” meaning dried food stuff, but they directly translated in below the chinese words on the sign as “fuck goods”
man…this is classic. wtf.. 😛
Agree with you Chan.
Pioneering screenwriter Nigel Kneale, best known for the Quatermass TV serials and films, dies aged 84…
Hi Dude, i have bookmarked your blog after reading this articles! lolx!
haha..funny..but izt shame on china?haha
I think their government ought to do something so they won’t humiliate all the chinese in the world. Even me myself is feeling embarased to see all these.. craps…
omg ,this is f’in nuts lah…only in china:)
“Shi” in chinese can be said as soldiers, or in current terms, “private”, ever heard of “Shi bin”
Without the “bin” many people wouldn’t understand either.
This blog really make my day. Had a really good laugh which is rare these days. Thanks Kenny.
Anyway, after reading this, I was just thinking to myself, I wouldn’t want the Chinese translating 干妈. Just thought it’s gonna sound really bad.
These guys are not just poor in English. They are downright retarded. Imagine translating the Chinese rendering of toast (duoshi) as “many privates”. “duo” as many and “shi” as army private.
And the “pa” in pork chop is translated as pick as in pickpocket (pa shou).
Downright retarded.
LOL I like that ” Be careful of landslide ”