Saturday, February 4, 2012

I would happily volunteer to proof-read....

 One quirky thing we've discovered in our travels is that Asian cultures are as obsessed with English writing as we are with Chinese characters. So they really, really like to put English on signs, banners, labels, cards and pretty much anything else they can think of and they almost always get it wrong. Now before you judge, think about how many people you know that have a totally "edgy" tattoo with a Chinese character or Sandscrit or some other unreadable language because it looks cool. I guess English looks as cool to their eyes as theirs does to ours.

One of the most glaring misunderstandings the Koreans have with English is the misuse of the word "Story" at some point the word got mistranslated and the whole country latched on. EVERYTHING is a "story".
 We have integrated this into our daily lives.
    Me: "Dude! What's all this smoke in the kitchen?"
   Jeff:  Ahh... burnt pancake story..."
 Jeff: "How come you're not running today?"
Me: "Sore hamstring story"
So if your store is Organic it's not just Organic, it's a "Green Story"...
 Oh no, Wait......
So that's one small example of something we see every day. Then there is just a total weirdness of use and or phrasing. So you get greeting cards that say "Each one lovers the others forever!" and T-shirts that say "My charlie" and even worse THIS FANTASTIC EXAMPLE. (Mom, I am not linking to a swear word, I am linking to a Type-O).

   They also love to link things with human life. Very relative things. Like Banking?
Now an apple I can kind of understand. I mean an apple a day keeps the Dr. away right? Choose wisely.....
 Then there's the ones that just make you feel like you're in a parallel universe. This place was a chaucy hot-dog stand. See where it says "Delicious Life! Wellbeing Life!"? Yeah, it gets better.
Here's the official slogan for the Dog King:
 I would totally volunteer to proofread all of this stuff for them BTW. I mean they've got a compound full of Expat trophy wives here who would LOVE a part-time job fixing their little hallmark slogans and signs. But no one ever asks for my help. And the Koreans forge bravely onward. Here's some window stickers for the next global pandemic:
 Kind of makes you wonder how many Americans are walking around with Chinese characters on their shoulders that REALLY say "total doofus" or "smack me".

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