Monday, September 29, 2008

English as she is spoke

Re the fractured translations into English, as exemplified in the "Lost in Translation" collection, my lovely Turkish correspondent Angit, who still prefers to email me privately rather than post comments to my blog (damn her!), wanted to know if there were any examples from Turkey. Very few, but here they are:
Hotel in Ankara;
Please hang your order before retiring on your doorknob.
{Oh my darlings, if only you had remembered the rule of adverb order: MPT = manner, time, place - and my mnemonic "My Poor Toes"....)
Hotel in Istanbul:
Flying water in all rooms. You may bask in sun on patio.
Nearly there, totally undesrtandable.
Restaurant notice, Ankara:
You are invite to visit our restaurant
where you can eat the Middle East Food
in the European ambulance.
Well, only one word went astray.

It wasn't in Turkey, but my all-time favourite was the comment on a hotel restaurant menu: "Our prices leave you nothing to hope for." There is always something to hope for....

No comments: