Saturday, April 16, 2011

Typo

Having done way too much copy editing, it kills me to see typos in printed material or signage.  But in a non-English speaking country, I find these mistakes charming.


On the other hand, hasn't the SNCF heard of Google Translate or Babelfish?

For more examples of creative use of English in France, check out Ann Mah's hilarious post Signs of the Times.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh that's pretty bad.....
My favorite mistranslation is on almost all Asian restaurant menus where they called légumes sautés "jumped vegetables". hehe!

Starman said...

I find the mistakes in English amusing, but the meaning is clear and I do appreciate that they tried.

Amy said...

I'm a chronic proofreader, too. These are hilarious!

Anonymous said...

I find such mistakes within Europe all but inexcusable, especially in the post-Internet era. It's not so difficult for the French to find English speakers -- England is a short distance away, and English is widely spoken within the country. Too, despite the many "faux amis" that sometimes hilariously trip up the well-intentioned, the languages share more in common than not.

However, I do think such mistakes are more understandable in poorer countries, and the Far East, where the resources aren't as rich and the languages are so different. The site "engrish.com" comes to mind...

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