My friend Juan recently brought this amusing use of Chinese characters to my attention:
The characters used are:
- 目: mù
- 鈕 (simplified: 钮): niǔ
- 器: qì
- 明: míng
- 員 (simplified: 员): yuán
- 管: guǎn
- 自: zì
- 開 (simplified: 开): kāi …
07
Sep
2011
2011
Chinese Characters for Servers
14
Jun
2011
2011
On Reducing TMD Syntactic Ambiguity
One of our teachers at AllSet Learning introduced a hilarious Chinese article to me on the grammatical usage of the phrase 他妈的 (often abbreviated as “TMD”). The most appropriate translation of 他妈的 in English is usually “fucking” (in the emphatic sense), so if that offends you, stop reading now.
The origin of this article is unclear to me, but it dates back to at least 2009 (here’s a copy). Anyway, I found the article both funny and instructional, so …
14
Apr
2011
2011
The Intel Tune in Chinese
You know the little 5-note musical tune that Intel uses everywhere their logo shows up? Yeah, you know the one. It’s very easy to remember. I just became aware recently that this little musical tune has a translation into Chinese. Here it is:
So the Chinese is:
灯！等灯等灯！
The English translation of this would be:
The light! Wait for the light, wait for the light!
This is amazingly appropriate, considering the “English version” …
12
Apr
2011
2011
Engrish Bookbag
I’m used to seeing Engrish on t-shirts and on signs, but this is the first time I’ve seen Engrish on a bookbag, apparently designed to be read by the people behind the wearer.
How about a closeup of that Engrish?
I have to admit, following this guy, I did enjoy the time in spring, and I appreciated to read it. I elected to skip the bathing, but this bag did bring a smile to my face.…
27
Mar
2011
2011
Da Admiral’s Mandarin Un-Learning School
I subscribe to SmartShanghai‘s email newsletter, less because I try to attend all the latest events in this city, and more because the man who writes it, “Da Admiral,” is pretty hilarious.
His latest newsletter, focused on “un-learning Chinese” definitely caught my attention:
Whenever I’m stopped on the streets, the thing I get more than anything is, “Oh Admiral, Admiral… you’re so knowledgeable and good looking and insightful about Shanghai life and society — I bet you speak perfect
…
26
Mar
2011
2011
More Machine Translation Menu Fun
OK, I know, it’s been done before, and it’s just so easy. There are many menus in China with bad (and often hilarious) English translations. But even after all these years, this one stood out to me because (1) it is otherwise an extremely high quality menu, and (2) the errors are of a somewhat bizarre nature, rather than centering on horribly inappropriate mistranslations of the character 干 [more on that here and here].
Anyway, here are some samples …
11
Jan
2011
2011
Three-Penis Liquor: the Perfect Gift
On my recent trip home, I brought a few bottles of this stuff to give to some friends:
The name of this unremarkable-looking “rice wine” is 张裕特质三鞭酒. The part to pay atention to here is “三鞭“. That means “three penis.” We’re talking various types of animal penis here, brewed in the liquor to impart vitality to the drinker. If you read the back, you can find out which three it is: 海狗鞭 (seal penis), 鹿鞭 (deer penis), …
08
Nov
2010
2010
Those Census-Confounding Chinese Tones
Recently Micah retweeted a short Chinese comedy routine [original] that was clever enough to be shared a bit more. The setup is that a census-taker asks a resident how many are in his household. Confusion ensues:
“请问您家里是几口人？” [May I ask how many are in your household?]
“是一口人。” [It's one person.]
“十一口？” [Eleven?]
“不是十一口，而是一口人。” [Not eleven, but 1 person.]
“二十一口？” [21?]
“不是二十一口，其实一口人。” [Not 21. Actually, one person.]
…
17
Jul
2010
2010
The Pharmacy Count
While at the pharmacy the other day with my friend Chris, we came upon what seemed like a typical example of Engrish:
Funny, we thought… “the count” instead of “the counter.”
Only as we were leaving did we notice the guy behind the counter:
The Sesame Street character “the Count” is known for his rather clever name. Even a kid can get the pun. How does his Chinese name fare in terms of cleverness? Not too well, I’m …
16
Apr
2010
2010
Gag Chinese Documents (very official-looking!)
I was quite amused to stumble upon a whole array of fake (but humorous) Chinese documents last weekend. The documents adopt the official style of Chinese 证书 (official documents), but the names are a lot more fun. Here are the three I bought (for 5 RMB each):
The three types of documents above, left to right, are:
- 美女证 (Babe Certificate); “PLMM” stands for “漂亮妹妹” (pretty girl)
- 帅哥证 (Cute Guy Certificate)
- 白痴证 (Moron Certificate); “SB” stands for “傻屄 …
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