• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $23,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $23 Million dollars
  • Wish you could meet up with other TUG members? Well look no further as this annual event has been going on for years in Orlando! How to Attend the TUG January Get-Together!
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Funny (sort of) Word Mix-Ups and other Abuses of the English Language

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
29,166
Reaction score
18,448
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
On a trip to China a few years ago, there were so many signs all over that were just translated literally or from an English/mandarin dictionary. I thought about offering my services as a native English speaker to edit their fractured English signs. I didn't do it but someone should have. One sign that stuck in my mind was above a low ceiling over a staircase: "Be careful your head." There was a sign out in a lawn where we would use 'Stay off the grass', but their sign was a paragraph of gibberish about how the little shoots wouldn't be fulfilled into adult grasses and the ugly ground would show or some such.

I also have to think about implicit and explicit.

Jim
 

ronparise

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
12,665
Reaction score
2,140
On a trip to China a few years ago, there were so many signs all over that were just translated literally or from an English/mandarin dictionary. I thought about offering my services as a native English speaker to edit their fractured English signs. I didn't do it but someone should have. One sign that stuck in my mind was above a low ceiling over a staircase: "Be careful your head." There was a sign out in a lawn where we would use 'Stay off the grass', but their sign was a paragraph of gibberish about how the little shoots wouldn't be fulfilled into adult grasses and the ugly ground would show or some such.

I also have to think about implicit and explicit.

Jim

Thanks for the memory...I remember visiting my grand parents home. The ceiling in the basement was just 6' from the floor, and various pipes and heat ducts hung lower than that. As Pap-Pap was just 5'4" it worked for him, but not for everyone, so he painted warnings on the low hanging ducts "Watcha you head"
 

pjrose

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
8,739
Reaction score
15
Location
Central PA USA
I've been pouring over this thread for my favorite blooper, but I finally had to provide it myself.

Ha ha - very good one Dave!

I spotted it right away and at first thought, "oh, this is just a typo or misuse and I don't want to embarrass the poster," till I got to the end and realized it was intentional :)
 

pjrose

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
8,739
Reaction score
15
Location
Central PA USA
Thanks for the memory...I remember visiting my grand parents home. The ceiling in the basement was just 6' from the floor, and various pipes and heat ducts hung lower than that. As Pap-Pap was just 5'4" it worked for him, but not for everyone, so he painted warnings on the low hanging ducts "Watcha you head"

Too funny - and what a great memory!
 

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,791
Reaction score
8,832
Location
Mucky Toe, WA
From the police blotter:

The Associated Press
SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Police have arrested a 39-year-old man in a child sexual abuse and pornography case that has stunned authorities in the close-nit town of Snohomish.
Nice to know that the lice in Snohomish all get along together so well.
 

KarenLK

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
1,427
Reaction score
52
Location
near Buffalo, NY
I can't remember where in Puerto Vallarta I saw this sign, but instead of translating to "bathing suits" the sign says "suits of bath"!!
 

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,791
Reaction score
8,832
Location
Mucky Toe, WA
I can't remember where in Puerto Vallarta I saw this sign, but instead of translating to "bathing suits" the sign says "suits of bath"!!
That's just a translation miscue, most likely from a machine translation or from someone who who speaks limited English. In Spanish, bathing suits are "vestidos de baño", which literally translated is "suits of bathing".
 
Top