Seinfeld: "A Good-Hearted Tween Comedy" Or Why Engrish is Funny

One of the joys of living in Kathmandu is the abundant supply of pirated DVDs and CDs. I don't even think it's possible to buy legitimate versions as everything is either a burned copy or produced in China almost certainly without permission. Aside from being able to get the complete seasons of most shows for less than $10, which is nice, the packaging alone is worth the money. The amount of spelling errors, made up lines and English to Chinese to English Google translations can make for some very funny reading. This Seinfeld box set I picked up for Kim yesterday is one of my favorites yet.

"A Good Hearted Tween Comedy" -San Francisco Chronich

At first it's easy to miss the absurdity that lurks on these covers as the graphics and fonts look correct, it's not until a close inspection of the actual words that you start really laughing. Seinfeld was a lot of things, but a tween comedy it was not, and I wonder if there really is a paper called the San Francisco Chronich. 

Emmy? Award Winning Season!

The top paragraph in black is only slightly awkward. While the second paragraph in red can only be the unfortunate result of a bad Google translate. it reads as follows;

"The story of four of Manhattan's old youth: a Seinfeld his own speech, is a less successful comic dialogue actor; one of his former girlfriend, now common friends, and the third was his high school classmates, Start a bald head, but Yan Fu is not shallow, and the forth was his door neighbor, God Tao Tao, there are a lot of quirks. There is a quarter of the program is to sell to television stations say that they did after the play been called the most funny scene in the play, at least proved one truth: the story behind the film and television industry more exciting than the foreground, more winding paths the plot ... ..."

Special Features- Higher Definition:OneLestThing... Episode

And always worth a chuckle are the warnings in fine print, often warning about copyright infringement if you copy these discs. This one also warns against allowing minors to watch this show and its use of punctuation is kind of funny. Also this DVD set can't be hired.

"WARNING: This article contains material. which may offend and may not be distributed, circulated. sold, hired, lent, shown, played or projected to a perso under the age of 18 years The copyright propeter has licensed the film (including its soundtrack)comprised in this video disc (including laser disc and video cassette tape)for home use only All other rights are reserved. The definition of home use excludes the use of this video disc at locations such as clubs coaches, hospitals, hotels, motels, oil rigs, prisons and schools. Any unauthorized copying duplication, editing, renting, exchanging, hiring, selling, lending or any other kind of trading, public performance or transmission by air, cable diffusion, and/r broadcasting of this video or anrt part thereof is strictly prohibited and any such action eslablishes, is an infringement and may result in legal liability."

"The Show About Nothing Turns Out What May Be The Best Dvd Release Yet."

Lost in Translation- Lhasa Edition

If Lhasa is any indication of how bad the English translations are in China, then I need to visit Beijing in the not too distant future. There were shirts that were literally making us laugh out loud as we passed them. I've captured two of them here, but it seemed like the cool thing to wear here was a shirt with random English words on it. I regretfully did not get any images of menus that depicted such elegantly described dishes as Yak Tongue with Edible Fungus. Mushrooms works just fine folks, edible fungus doesn't do the same job. Without further ado, here are some of the more comical translations of Lhasa.

Goldfish Rickshaw?

Lost in Translation- Tibet Edition

Until I get my GPS data in order and I have any idea where I was I'm going to put off any serious discussion of Tibet. Until that time I'm going to have some fun with what is some of the worst English I have ever come across. While Nepal may get some English wrong, the Chinese elevate horrible English to an art form. Shirts we came across in Lhasa and other places were literally a mash of random words that made no sense together. There were so many signs, shirts and other labels that made us laugh that I have to split my pictures between Lhasa and the rest of Tibet. This section will cover the stuff we ran into outside of Lhasa.

  

"Becarful!!! Please dont urine here

100 RNB Charg

BECARFUL!!!

These are the kind of signs we don't usually need back in the states, unless you have the misfortune to live next to college kids. In Asia on the other hand, signs like this are needed, especially when your town is over run with Hindu pilgrims from India on their way to Mt. Kailash. 

Lost in Translation- Part 4

So it has been a little while since I posted some pictures of signs with questionable translations. This by no means indicates that I am coming across them any less frequently. Menus, billboards, and store signs continue to be a constant source of entertainment. Unfortunately I often don't have my camera, but when I did I got the following pictures;

When talking about brains and intelligence it is best to get the sentence right. This one just doesn't do that.

Lost in Translation- Part 3

Just got back from a great weekend in Nagarkot, despite not having any Himalayan views due to the dust in the air. I'll go ahead and do a post on that when I have a bit more energy. I did however upload pictures from that hike and my other pictures from this month to the "Nepal Pics- March" on the left side of the page. For now I thought I'd put up my latest collection of signs in Nepal that didn't quite get the English phrases right.

The sub tagline "We need trade not aid" is an apt one and is a good sentiment. Declaring yourself "a total handicrafts" however is somewhat humorous.
I have no idea what "visit yourself" is supposed to refer to when dealing with pizza, or anything else for that matter.

Feel the new taste is definitely an interesting tag line to choose.

Nepali's seem to have a little trouble with the word "the" they add it where it doesn't go or, as here, it is omitted from where it should be. There were a couple of these rocks painted up by the army training grounds outside Nagarkot, the others can be viewed in the March Photos on the left hand side of the page.
There's actually nothing wrong with this one really, and yet it's quite funny. Abercrombie and Fitch watch out.

Lost in Translation- Part 2

So here are a few more pictures I've taken with signs that have English of questionable translation. On more than a few instances I've wished I had my camera with me to take shots of some menus. Menus seem to be the leading offenders. For instance one proudly stated; "Your opinion is our motto!" Some menus list cheese as chis, so it might be called a chis burger, another common mistake is calling french fries, french fried. Every time I go out to eat I get a little chuckle.

I Have no idea what a Nepali Test is. I am thinking that maybe it's a "taste" but even that doesn't really make too much sense.

I'm thinking that Hoarding is not quite the word that they were looking for. What surprises me here is that this is clearly a marketing campaign with some bucks behind it. This is a very large billboard visible from King's Way in central Kathmandu. Heh.

I'm still not sure what exactly this is referring to. At first I thought maybe a hospital, but the hospital is in the opposite direction. This is at the end of a small road just south of where I am staying in Lazimpat.

LOL- in case you were looking for a quickie!

Something else that I find really funny, but can't share, is that almost all the commercials are in dual language on the Indian and Nepali stations on TV. So the whole commercial will go by in Hindi lets say, and then right at the end the tag line will be delivered in English. I find this really odd, and more than once it has gotten a laugh out of me.

Lost in Translation- Part 1

Well my first set of pictures are up, and you can see a preview on the left of the page here under "Nepal Pics-January".

I've taken some pictures that reflect the sometimes very funny translations that occur in places where English is not the first language. There will be plenty of these, so I'm sure this will be a recurring theme on this blog. Here are some of the ones I spotted today.