Mistranslated Signs

Here are some signs and notices written in English that were found in different countries:

In a Bucharest hotel lobby:

"The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable."

In a hotel in Athens: "Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 am daily."

In a Paris hotel elevator: "Please leave your values at the front desk."

In a Japanese hotel: "You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid."

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across an Orthodox monastery: "You are welcome to visit the cemetary where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursdays."

In a Bangkok dry cleaners: "Drop your trousers here for best results."

Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop: "Ladies may have a fit upstairs."

In a Rhodes tailor shop: "Order your summer suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in a strict rotation."

In a Copenhagen airline ticket office: "We take your bags and send them in all directions."

On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: "Our wines leave you nothing to hope for."

In a Tokyo Hotel: "Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such a thing is please not to read notice."

In a Leipzig elevator: "Do not enter lift backwards, and only when lit up."

In a Belgrade hotel elevator: "To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order."

In a Yugoslavian hotel: "The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid."

In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers: "Not to perambulate the corriders during the hours of repose in the boots of ascension."

On the menu of a Polish hotel: "Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck

let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion."

Outside a Paris dress shop: "Dresses for street walking."

From the Soviet Weekly: "There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 150,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years."

A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest: "It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose."

In a 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."

In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: "Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists."

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

In a Czechoslovakin tourist agency: "Take one of our horse-driven city tours - we guarantee no miscarriages."

Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand: "Would you like to ride on your own ass?"

In a Swiss mountain inn: "Special today -- no ice cream."

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

In a Tokyo bar: "Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts."

On the door of a Moscow hotel room: "If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it."

In a Norwegian cocktail lounge: "Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar."

In a Budapest zoo: "Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty."

In the office of a Roman doctor: "Specialist in women and other diseases."

In an Acapulco hotel: "The manager has personally passed all the water served here."

In a Tokyo shop:

"Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find they are best in the long run."

From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel A/C: "Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself."

From a brochure of a car rental firm in 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."

Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance: "English well speaking" "Here speeching American"

A sign in a convenience store window: "If you write bad checks, we will prostitute

Moral of the story is... Be careful with your translations!

Mistranslated Commercial Slogans and Product Names

Cracking an international market is a goal of most growing corporations. It shouldn't be that hard, yet even the big multi-nationals run into trouble because of language and cultural differences. For example...

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."

Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."

In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."

The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem - Feeling Free," got translated in the Japanese market into "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."

When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" means "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe.

Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals". Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.

When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato."

Chicken-man Frank Perdue's slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," got terribly mangled in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused."

A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick.

Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in slang, means "big breasts." In this case, however, the name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious French porno magazine.

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

Coors' "Turn It Loose" slogan was mistranslated into Spanish as "Drink Coors and get diarrhea."

Chrysler Corporation's message to Spanish speakers, "Dart is power" in English, implied that impotent men would be cured by driving this model. This slogan did not adversely affect the strong sales of the car.

When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside since most people can't read.