English is a dreadful thing

I give all manner of props to people and businesses in foreign countries who make an effort to communicate with English speakers. Ours is a hideously convoluted language with ridiculous rules and even more ridiculous exceptions. Cripes, our own citizens can’t master it, so how can we expect others to do so?

Still — and I’ll probably reap bitter karma for this — I died laughing at some of these. From the Cheezburger Network people, photographs of signs in non-English-speaking countries:

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Tee hee. Juvenile chicanery from the Fink. I am ashamed of myself.

OK not really. :P

Hey, guess what day it is. Wahooty-hoo.

10 thoughts on “English is a dreadful thing

  1. Mavis

    “..so you put the words in a hat, see..” HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! You is be hysteria, Fink. heheheha! Thanks for the laugh, Bird!

    Reply
    1. Rat Fink Post author

      HA – I is be now at school, but looky forward to have coffee and cluck on you tomorrow. Goodbye??

      Reply
    1. Rat Fink Post author

      Right! And I particularly like this one:

      A woman without her man is nothing.
      A woman: without her, man is nothing.

      Punctuation indeed. :-)

      Reply
    1. Rat Fink Post author

      I actually laughed out loud at a bunch of them — I don’t do that very often while sitting in my parlor alone!

      Reply
  2. Kay

    We see very strange translations here in Slovenija too!!! Sometimes I can read a tourist brochure and understand every single word and have no sense of the sentence. Seems impossible when everyone speaks wonderful English, but to translate written sentences literally is impossible and just adds to the confusion especially when there is profound fondness for sentences that travel the path of the dictionary all over the world. :)

    Reply

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