Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Engrish signs

It's been long since I've visited Engrish, it's still fun.

Pascal said:
"Me, fail Engrish? That's unpossible!"
"Engrish" comes from Japanese pronunciation, since in that ranguage L and R are exactry the same retter. But the phenomenon extends to a far wider part of the Far East, as illustrated by the notoriously "creative" translations of instruction manuals, usually in China. I had begun blogging precisely about this, but then as usual I got carried away in some utterly pointless chatter. So just cast a glance at the cool asian image (I am have doned it by my own self), and skip the boring text altogether.

You know, Eo? I think you like Engrish for the same reason you like some spam e-mails with random text. Because for some freaky reason, it becomes eerily fascinating

That's surely part of it. Like Dadaist poetry, or Lewis Carrol. I'm just reading his work, in full for the first time, he was a genius.
It's surprisingly hard to be creatively illogical.




The ones below just say it all.

8 comments:

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"Me, fail Engrish? That's unpossible!"

"Engrish" comes from Japanese pronunciation, since in that ranguage L and R are exactry the same retter. But the phenomenon extends to a far wider part of the Far East, as illustrated by the notoriously "creative" translations of instruction manuals, usually in China. I had begun blogging precisely about this, but then as usual I got carried away in some utterly pointless chatter. So just cast a glance at the cool asian image (I am have doned it by my own self), and skip the boring text altogether.

BTW, "Thank you for your visite again" isn't Engrish! "Visite" is very proper French. Absolument, Monsieur.

Ah. So the original civil name of R.A.F. is Jalan Raja Omar. Nice to finally be introduced officially. :o)

You know, Eo? I think you like Engrish for the same reason you like some spam e-mails with random text. Because for some freaky reason, it becomes eerily fascinating, like some failed cloning experiment on a platypus-ostrich-triceratops-tasmanian-devil monster hybrid experiment.
Reminds me of that morbid reflex fascination most of us get when passing by a road accident wreck.

"Hullaballoo"? Is that local slang for gynecological examination? ;-)
Surely, it cannot be allowed in public; but did it NEED a sign???
"Do you smoke after sex?
- I don't know, I've never looked."

Alex said...

If you want to see a lot of Engrish, try the 1988 anime, Appleseed. It's a good story, and though drawn cell animation still carries the essence of Masamune, but boy, the misspellings were incredible.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Arex,
"All your blog are belong to us!"

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

What does the new latin up there mean?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

It's a "watin" sign meaning, according to wiki:

Vi veri universum vivus vici is a Latin phrase meaning: "By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe."
The phrase may also be written Vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
This quote is often attributed to Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, where it appeared supposedly as Vi veri ueniversum vivus vici, however no direct citation has been found. Note that v was first the consonantal u, and was written the same before the two forms became distinct, and also after in many cases, when u and v were both capitalized as V: thus, Veniversum. Also, universum is sometimes quoted with the form ueniversum (or Veniversum), which is presumably a combination of universum and oeniversum (two classically-attested spellings)[citation needed]. The 'V' sounds are properly pronounced as English 'W' sounds in Classical Latin pronunciation. Ecclesial Latin uses Italianate pronunciation, retaining the English-style "v" sound.
Aleister Crowley took this phrase as his magickal motto as a "Magister Templi".
The phrase has recently been made popular by the motion picture V for Vendetta, where the phrase is embossed onto the surface of a mirror in V's house, and in the original graphic novel where is above an archway in the house. In the movie version, the main character credits the phrase only to Faust. In the original graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, on which the movie is based, the quote is attributed to "a German gentleman named Dr. John Faust."

Anonymous said...

LOL! THe second one is from the country where I live, Malaysia.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Better watch your back then Anurag: our Resident Anonymous Flamer lives there and wrote that sign, so be careful you don't get "verbally assaulted" on the streets! ;-)
And whatever you do, don't ask frenchmen in castles where the Holy Grail is. Trust me.

"from the country where I live, Malaysia."
In the country where *I* live, there's malaise, yo. A deep one.
SOMEBODY in high places is providing support to Al-Qaeda groups, but everybody's accusing their political opponents of it, while bombs keep exploding.
We must be the only country I know of, where the world financial crisis is the LAST topic on the TV news, instead of being the first and making up 80% of all bulletins.

My countrie am unick! Velkom toorists, please stay and enjoy.

Hunh? Where has the turrests take flight? Fire works diss play was a bout to strut.

Anonymous said...

How about this one.