funny translations

[kaktus]

Inspired by Clare A and Graemer, i remembered some quite funny translations and some very poor english.

 

"I'm in the beginning of my period" the poor woman was trying to say that her term of office had just begun.

 

"We take your luggage and send it in all directions" sign in Copenhagen Airport

 

and one from the newspaper the other day, a Norwegian tv host is talking to an American who is complaining about slippery roads, and he answers     "But didn't you have pigs in your decks"                   I guess some explaining is in order for the last one, in both Danish and Norwegian a studded tyre is called a "pig d�k" where "pig" is a spike (studded) and "d�k" is tyre...

[Octavius]

Here's a few:

Zurich 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

Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time

Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man

Brochure of a car rental firm, Tokyo:  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. 

[ChocClare]

This is on a slight tangent, but when I worked in international research and we had to back-check translations (make sure that the English had been translated correctly into a foreign language by asking a native speaker to translate it back into English), the tag line for the ad we were testing -  "Out of sight, out of mind" - came back as "invisible, insane".

[flashpig]

I remember seeing something like "Only persons with consumption can use this toilet" on a door in Burger King, Barcelona.

[IndieSinger]

I've recently come back from Amsterdam, where I visited Anne Frank's old house, which is now a museum.

There is a notice located on top of a perspex box in the highest room. In said box lies open a page from the actual (allegedly) diary of Anne Frank. A sign on the top, addressed to tourists, says:

This is the real diary of Anne Frank.
It is not allowed to take photos.

Quite what the poor book's done wrong to warrant such restrictions I'm not sure.

[Clare A]

Sign in a Shanghai tailor's shop: 'Ladies may have fits upstairs'.

One I've actually seen, brought back from Hong Kong and proudly displayed in a local pub: 'Non-Smoking Seating Unavailable'