Unintentionally funny translations

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Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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English being a world language - one of the consequences is that while hundreds of millions speak it, many many more THINK they can speak it.

Unfortunately these same people all seem to throw themselves into producing tourist brochures, menus and now - websites!

Some posters here have been having a giggle about some of the inadvertently funny turns of phrase on a website promoting a resort, and this led me to wonder:

What are the funniest signs, menu items, brochures, etc. you have seen in English in the DR?

Chiri
 
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XanaduRanch

*** Sin Bin ***
Sep 15, 2002
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OK, Chiri, I remembered one!

There is a sign for a beauty salon along the highway on the east side of Sosua. The name of the salon is "Licealot". I still laugh everytime I drive past that. Finally explained it to Alba a few weeks ago and she had a fit.

Yes. Definitely. I want to go to a HAIR salon that has LOTS of LICE.

Sorry, girlfreind if that's your name, but you should have named it something else!

Tom (aka XR)

P.S.
OK Chiri! Where are YOUR remembered examples? :: smile ::
 
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Orlando

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Feb 28, 2003
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I saw a sign entirely in Spanish in front of a little bodega in either Moca or Salcedo this summer... can't remember which.... beside a Brugal sign. But part of this sign was in English and it said: Deli: Our Meat Cant Be Beat" and had this picture of a HUGE sausage hanging from a man's forearm. Weird!
 
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Cleef

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Feb 24, 2002
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Brugal Road Signs

No one seems to make a big deal - probably because it isn't - but what about all the highway signs being sponsored by a rum company.

Imagine the highway workers with shirts reading "If I'm not wasted, the day is".
 
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XanaduRanch

*** Sin Bin ***
Sep 15, 2002
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I hadn't remembered that!

When I was first in the country I didn't know what 'Brugal' was. I saw all the road signs, and wondered, but didn't think anything of it - until I realized! Ohmigod! That's a company that sells alcohol! And their name is on every road sign! How funny!

Welcome to paradise!

Tom (aka XR)
 
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MrMike

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Mar 2, 2003
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The advertising on highway signs etc. is because the government charges a yearly tax for signs.

Road signs and school signs are exempt, so companies put up road signs like crazy so they can advertise for free.

Here in Santiago, newcomers occasionally ask me why every street is named "El Encanto", or if I've ever been to a little town on the way to Puerto Plata called "Brugal".
 
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MrMike

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On the subject of funny translations, (OK these are misspellings) I sometimes get a kick out of the conchos driving around with signs where their license plate should be that say:

"Peydida"

Spanish has got to have the easiest spelling rules of any language in the world, but it's still too complicated for concho drivers. No surprise, they can't figure out the red-light, green-light thing either.

I've seen signs along roads that say:

"No votar basura"

Doesn't seem like anybody pays attention to these signs, either the intended meaning, or the literal one.

There was alot of spray painting going on last year I saw on a few different walls in Santiago saying:

"Que renuncie JCE perredeista"

Somehow the political-vandal managed to figure out that JCE was an acronym, but didn't know PRD was.
 
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quaqualita

Member
Feb 4, 2002
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pet chop

in the main street in Sosua is a fairly new store, where you can buy food and accessories for dogs, cats, fish, etc.
The big sign out front says "PET CHOP" .

... I really would be worried if there would be a butcher next door.
 
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Jane J.

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Jan 3, 2002
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"Que renuncie JCE perredeista"
Click to expand...
While you won't find 'perrede?sta' in the dictionary (I don't think), you will find it in all the newspapers. My favourite, however, is 'pepehachista'...
 
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Jane J.

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Jan 3, 2002
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My friend and I used to amuse ourselves by noting any t-shirts worn by locals with English slogans or expressions on them.

The only ones I can remember:
  • An old man in a t-shirt with "World's greatest Mom!" on it.
  • A 10-year-old girl whose t-shirt said: "Try me -- I'm easy." :surprised
  • A very drunk guy with a t-shirt that said "We're not all drunk Cajun wackos..."
I recommend t-shirt watching as a passtime...
 
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Cleef

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Feb 24, 2002
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Or license plates

I saw a New Hampshire license plate this morning. By no means the first one either.

I've seen a t-shirt from a hole-in-the-wall bar in my college town being worn by a youngster in the Colonial zone - there "might" be a thousand of these t-shirts in total.

I've seen a football team jersey from Agawam, Ma. on a youngster running around Mirador.

People watching has always been a great past time of mine (I used to live in Harvard Square), but T-shirt watching here is right up there.
 
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calamardoazul

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Jul 29, 2003
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What about this one...

American Beauty soplay the actual inscription on the sign of a beauty parlor's supplier....:beard:
 
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trina

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Jan 3, 2002
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I'm a T-shirt Watcher too!!!

By far the funniest I've ever seen:
A MAN in Barahona wearing a T-shirt saying,

"If you think I'm an ugly bitch, look at the ugly bastard I'm with!!!"
and it had a hand below this pointing to the right.

I nearly fell over laughing, and he laughed too. He must've thought, "I don't understand this shirt I'm wearing, but it must be funny, so I'll wear it all the time," because we saw him 2 days later, wearing the same shirt.
 
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Doreen

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Jan 29, 2002
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I passed a translation bureau in Boca Chica (Los Coquitos) that had a sign outside "traducimos Espanol - Inglish" - they probably saw me and my friend laughing about it because the next day it was changed to "English".

In Las Terrenas I saw an old man with a t-Shirt saying "Aged to perfection" Very funny...
 
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arturo

Bronze
Mar 14, 2002
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Seen on a Shanghai billboard last spring...

A highway billboard advertising a new luxury condo complex had an English tagline: "High quality tenement living."

A local explained the Chinese think "tenement" means "townhouse."
 
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Carol

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Jan 2, 2002
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The funniest comment I ever had was from a Puerto Plata cab driver who told me he had seven sons and three of them were daughters.

Carol
 
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