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froggy

froggy
Location
Portland, Oregon, USA
Birthday
June 07
Title
She Who Must Be Obeyed
Company
Yes please! Come on over. We'll have tea.
Bio
Mom, editor, writer, wife, traveler, dog owner, laundry wrangler, and superintendent of homework.

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Salon.com
APRIL 24, 2010 9:03PM

Adventures in Thailand #2: Engrish

Rate: 8 Flag

I love Engrish. If you need a good laugh, anytime, go to www.engrish.com. It's a fantastic site where people send in their photos of mangled English, mostly from Asia. These contributions are from me, in Thailand.

And I mean this with the best of humor. My Thai consists of about three words, and their whole alphabet is different from ours, and it's a language with five different tones, so a different tone gives words a different meaning. I can't imagine learning it as an adult! So many Thais spoke English that it allowed me to be a lazy American traveling the world. I know that their English is WAY better than my Thai.

But they're still funny. Enjoy.

Engrish 1

Engrish 2

Does Sue have anything to say about this?

(This was in a subway station, and Bang Sue was the name of the station at the end of the line.)

Engrish 3

I wonder if they have a SighHearing tour too?

Engrish 4

A good living for proofreaders in Thailand, especially in auto paint shops.

Engrish 5

This was I think a bag of cement.

Engrish 6

What NOT to do on a western toilet, if all you've used is the infamous

Asian squatty-potty.

Engrish 7

All the handcrafted tourist stalls had hand-carved soap, made into flowers and other shapes.

Engrish 8

And I'm froggy! Glad to meet you.

Engrish 9

We only have one ticket. And you must buy it.

Engrish 10

These dragons by the sides of temples (wats) really are called "Moms." It's a Thai word. I like it. I feel like that some days.

Engrish 11

It looked like a big vat of road tar.

Engrish 12

Not much of an ad campaign.

Engrish 13

Does being serviced hurt? Even if it's with safety?

Engrish 15

Nope, sorry, the bomb is out of order. You can't have one.

Engrish 14

If the print is too small to read, this says:

 "I can take to the skies. I can soar like a bird. With his heart full of song. Won't you color my eyes. I've been waiting so long."

I've never been quite so inspired by a hotel shower cap!

I brought it home.

 

Author tags:

engrish, thailand, frogs, family, travel

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Comments

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That was pretty darn ummm, different! Yep definitely different. Especially the potty one huh? More!
My favorite is still the shower cap. I've just never waxed poetic over a shower cap! It still makes me laugh.
The sad part is, this phenomena is actually worldwide, not just restricted to Asian countries. I've seen poorly written signs in Engrish in Europe as well, sadly
What IS with the shower cap? Wouldn't it be fun to hear how that came to be written on it?
Anyway, this is great. Can't wait to hear more about your trip.
(and I'd love to hear about a trip to Poland or Slovenia someday)
Actually, placebo... I don't really see it as sad. They're trying. It's unintentionally funny, but it's a bit rich of me to complain about someone else's English when I don't know a bit of their language, and I'm traveling in their country. We just get to be lazy because English is spoken around the world.

Caroline--the shower cap is wonderful. Truly wonderful. Why I need a shower cap to take to the skies, I don't know, but I guess I do. I wonder if I was supposed to wear it on the plane, or if it had magical powers like superman's cape?
I'm liking the IDEA of the road tar. Taken with sugar...
I wish I'd taken a picture. I also wish I'd tried it! Imagine deep black thick jello. Or maybe more like thick gelatinous grape jelly, only black.
I love engrish.com!!!

Rated for the laugh!! :)
Yup, Engrish is the best.

One guide we had 14 years ago was a little offended that we were laughing at the signs. He wanted us to correct them, and was very earnest about it. I felt a little bad. It was so hard to explain that we weren't laughing at them, and we knew they'd tried. But correcting them would ruin the fun for someone else, and it is delightfully fun. If all the signs were spelled correctly, I'd be in Topeka.

It made me be a little more careful about openly howling in the street at some of the hilarious Engrish we saw.
This is absolutely just SO delightful ! I love English made playful. Going to mark engrihs.com - thanks for pointing it out and sharing the ones you've collected. Please don't stay "blind and insane" (out of sight; out of mind)
Rated.
Hilarious! I love your captions!
Hey wait. I'm a proofreader...perhaps if I get to Thailand I will never come back...
;-)
Damn, these were really funny, but as you said, they do English a lot better than I do Thi.
Fusun--glad you enjoyed them!

spotted_mind--I'm an editor and proofreader too. I love these.

Torman--glad you liked them. I feel a little two-faced posting these, and hope no one from Thailand is offended. I am lazy and grateful that so many people in Thailand spoke English as well as they did. I can't even imagine the mistakes I would make in Thai!