Funny Thai signs
This country has a lot of charming attributes and the signs that almost get it right is one of those things. I'm not making fun of people for getting it wrong and I am quite certain that if i was in charge of translating to written Thai that it wouldn't be as funny... it would be nonsense that no one would understand let alone laugh at.
That being said, you don't have to look for very long to find some truly butchered translations in this country.
This one is not funny at first glance but if you can read a bit of Thai it becomes so. In Thai it say that it IS dangerous to swim in this area and then says the opposite in English. It says "Dangerous!, swimming prohibited in this area" in Thai.
Looking at the calm water I don't know if I believe the danger claim but I probably wouldn't take the advice of a sign on whether or not a place is safe in this country anyway.
This one I can not read entirely (in Thai) but I know what they are trying to say. They are trying to say that you are not allowed to wash your feet in the sink which was a real problem, believe it or not, with any Chinese visitors for a few years. I don't know why they felt that it WOULD be ok to wash your feet in a hand sink, but it happened. I wonder what sort of translation app would have said "pedal" though.
This one is more sad than it is funny since it is in an airport. Also, while many translations apps or programs struggle with translating complex sentences they are normally pretty accurate when translating a simple, single word. If you listen to the way that a Thai person with limited English capabilities says "toilet" is does in fact sound like "toilest" and I can only presume that one person spoke to another person who was making the sign.
I kind of expect better things from something as expensive and official as an international airport though.
I am sure these sorts of funny signs exist all over the world and I am very grateful that this country makes an effort to translate their signs into English at all. I have been to many countries where they do NOT translate into English and I for one would much rather have a poorly translated version of my native tongue than have none at all. When I was in Japan for example, once I got out of Tokyo, nothing was in English and this made for some very complicated getting around!
good stuff. I think the 2nd one is my favorite.
mine too, i can't imagine where they would get "pedal" from in that translation though.
Every now and then a sign would be so butchered in English that it takes some time of staring at it and looking at your surrounding to really even make out what it is that they are trying to say. That first one is a bad cock up for sure. I think this happens because Thai people are generally too proud to ask a native speaker if what they have written is accurate or not.
a friend of mine was telling me just the other day about a friend who offered his services to the government for free if they ever needed to make a sign. He spoke Thai very well too. They never took him up on it and continue to make nonsensical signs all over town. I think he was just trying to score some govt. connections but you might be right. They probably think it would be lowering themselves to a certain level if they admitted that a native speaker would be better at this than they are. Who knows?
that's pretty funny but a bit more forgivable because it is a 2nd language. There are frequently misspelled signs in my area but normally improper use of They're /there /their and they are never put there by the state just some redneck that is selling something. Oh "strawberry's" is one we see a lot or some attempt a pluralization of whatever they are selling.
if you happen to see any of those any times soon i would like to have a peek at them.