This morning NPR carried a light-news filler about one of the many ways Beijing is sprucing up for the Olympics:
Beijing is preparing for Olympic visitors by changing the names of dishes that don’t translate well. “Beef and ox tripe in chili sauce” might not be the snappiest name, but it may be an improvement on “husband and wife’s lung slice.” And ask for “steamed pullet” instead of “chicken without sexual life.”
The story brought to mind a contest The Washington Post held more than a decade ago asking for examples of fractured English. Readers sent in the following gems:
On a menu in Ljubljana, Slovenia:
“Beef broth with home-made insertion ... 30c”
“Serbian spit ... 65c”
Under Fish and Seafood selections on a menu of the Bae Lu Restaurant in Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of China:
“Juicy Yellow River Crap”
A sign on a cable car in Fengdu, China:
“For your safety the following people don’t take the cable car please:
“1. Drunkard.
“2. Neuropath, idiot and easily dizzy people.
“3. Very old and deformed man whose action is unconvenient.”
From a doorway in Seoul:
“NOTICE: No more whore house! In the future we try to be laundry house. Thank you.”
From a menu at a Chinese restaurant in Italy:
“Chopped Suzy.”
Outside a Freiburg, Germany, bakery:
“Get your buns in here.”
From the YMCA in Huntington, W.Va., circa 1980:
“Please do not leave stools in showers.”
P.S.—Check out Engrish.com for many, many more examples of things that get lost (or found) in translation.
Reader Comments:
Then there’s the story (perhaps apocryphal) that when Coca Cola was first introduced to China, the Chinese characters to be printed on the cans, chosen purely for the way they sounded when spoken (the desire was for it to sound as much like “Coca Cola” as possible"), meant either “female horse fastened with wax” or “bite the wax tadpole”.
http://tafkac.org/products/coca-cola/coca-cola_chinese.html
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