Fetch Lost In Translation: Misadventures In English Abroad Drafted By Charlie Croker Copy
Nairobi, Kenya:
Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager,
Chinese sign:
Little grass is smiling slightly,
please walk on the pavement, . This has had us in tears of laughter, Its about how English is misused abroad, e, g. on signs, instructions and marketing on packages, China and Japan are the worst repeat offenders, but there are hilarious examples from all around the world, Croker has divided the book into thematic chapters, so the weird translated phrases and downright gobbledygook are grouped around topics like food, hotels and medical advice.
A lot of times you can see why the mistakes came about, through the choice of almostbutnotquiteright synonyms or the literal interpretation of a saying, but sometimes the mind just boggles.
Two of my favorites were in an Austrian hotel “Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension” and on a menu in Macao “Utmost of chicken fried in bother.
” A fun read with the title most apt overseas countries translate our English into all sorts of rubbish but I wonder if we could do any better in, say, Swedish, Portuguese, Chinese etc Well at least we would make every effort to get it right, unlike many of the examples in this enjoyable book.
At least a Chennai, India, newspaper does itself proud with its announcement 'Our editors are colleged and write like the Kipling and the Dickens', unlike the CV mishap which stated 'I am a rabid typist'! And the person applying for a job who stated 'The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers.
' Oh, yes!
Who would want to be offered a donkey ride in Thailand 'Would you like to ride on your own ass'! And don't expect a quick laundry service in Indonesia as the notice reads 'Someday laundry service'.
Do be cafeful of drinking the water in Mexico as 'The manager has personally passed all the water served here' oh, no! And if a new occupation is wanted in Paris, this is the shop to go to 'Dresses for street walking'!
There are plenty more fun mistranslations but one in a London restaurant reads 'Openhours exceptam toam'.
. . so we can get it wrong as well!
Hilarious, This book is a lightread that shows readers the importance of language, terminology and the common mistake of doing literal translations from one language to the other.
I don't think it means to offend the people of the country for this mistakes, If I saw signs like these in my own language, I would cry laughing too!
A fun, relaxing read for anyone that had a bad day! I read this whilst sat waiting for a flight so it felt like a very appropriate book!
It was a bit of a mixed bag really.
Some were so funny I found myself laughing out loud and getting some very funny looks off people, Others weren't that funny.
I didn't think the cartoons added anything and I would have preferred it had the book been pictures of the signs, rather than just a written description.
I'm also not sure whether this book is relevant anymore since we can find this kind of thing easily on the internet now.
A funny book but
not one I'd look at again, A collection of funny translation errors from around the world hard to give a rating really as its not the authors skill in writing, its a collection of other peoples mistakes.
. . but I did enjoy it, It made me laugh tears at times and made for a great hour of reading, but it's not without its faults, Inappropriate. Hee hee. This book was an amusing enough read but not nearly as funny or hilarious as the reviews said it was, What really bothered me is that the book contains quite a few inaccuracies there's no such city as Algericas in Spain, it's Algeciras, translation mistakes of its own "pâté de maison in France", I don't think so! and that some of the supposedly "hilarious" translations are only funny if you're ignorant of the culture amp uses of the concerned country the fact that no children are allowed in maternity wards in Kenya it's the same in France isn't funny at all, it's to prevent the spreading of bacteria, viruses, etc to newborn babies.
It's quite ironic that a book written to make fun of others' mistakes can boast quite a few mistakes of its own, . .
SUCH GREAT FUN!
Borrowed and consumed cover to cover in an hour or so oops!, The warning about not reading on public transport is very apt I was actually laughing out loud on a number of occasions, Very simple premise, but completely brilliant, Here are a few of my favourites there are lots more:
CHINESE temple: Please take one step forward and crap twice.
Hotel in JAKARTA: Please tell the public not to kill themselves on hotel property if they want to die, It only confounds us. They can do it in the river for example,
Road sign in JAPAN: STOP, Drive sideways.
SWISS hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
Menu in JAPAN: Buttered saucepans and fried hormones
Strawberry crap
There are many more, not sure I've chosen the best ones.
It's split into sections like menus, road signs, hotels, instruction manuals etc and it would be a great book to read on a long journey, even with the impropriety of laughing aloud.
.stars.
How are you supposed to rate such a book It's exactly what it's supposed to be a book about weird, funny translations found all around the world.
Although, I didn't laugh, some were worth a smile I guess, "Kyltti vuokraautossa Tokiossa, Japanissa: When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn, Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor, "
Niitä harvoja kertoja, kun toisten mokille on ihan ok nauraa vedet silmissä, Please note that because Charlie Croker's Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad is ABSOLUTELY THE SAME with regard to the presented and featured "bad translation" examples as his Screwed Up English: Twisted Translations of the English Language from Around the World, I am simply going to be using one review but of course with the corresponding titles and with Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad being a bit shorter for both books for heck, if Charlie Croker can be lazy, so can I.
And no, I will also not likely ever going to bother with either Croker's Still Lost In Translation or his Utterly Lost in Translation: Even More Misadventures in English Abroad either, as I am seriously thinking that there will not likely be anything even remotely original or interesting presented in Still Lost In Translation and in Utterly Lost in Translation: Even More Misadventures in English Abroad, but just rehashings of Charlier Croker's prior tomes.
Charlie Croker's Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad most definitely starts out as being majorly fun and entertaining.
And yes, I certainly was and remain laughing and often even rather loudly snorting at the oh so many strange and ridiculous translations of the English language from around the world I have encountered in Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad, but with me furthermore also very much appreciating that Croker has equally even if not as all encompassingly included examples from the United Kingdom and the USA, that Charlie Croker clearly shows in Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad that those of us who speak English as our first language our so called mother tongue still and also have the tendency to mangle English and to say and write ads, warnings, texts that can only be considered as being at best bloopers.
And indeed, this fact in my humble opinion totally and thankfully renders Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad and of course also Charlie Croker himself as being much more inclusive than similar translationthemed tomes which basically often only seem to focus on "foreigners" horribly translating their languages into English and thus always for and to me feel even when I am finding the presented examples amusing and engaging denigrating and insulting.
But even though the examples provided by Charlie Croker are funny and often really massively so, the fact that Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad basically provides just lists, lists and more lists of weird and screwy translation examples and nothing more than that, this does at least for me get a bit tedious and dragging.
And while I read the first fifty odd pages of Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad in about half an hour, for the rest of Lost In Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad I was finding the similarity of the examples everything being same old same old often totally boring and as such not all that much a reading pleasure.
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