From Grits to Chopsticks

It’s time for another blog about funny English and unique things that we find around our city.  We understand that there are probably equally “interesting” translations from English to Chinese in America, so these comments are not intended to be critical – just fun.

We ate lunch with some of our students two weeks ago at a semi-western cafe downtown where they had this exciting menu item:

Although Susan didn’t intentionally select the “bacteria fried rice,” she must’ve gotten its close cousin based on her quick trip to the bathroom.  Speaking of restaurants and restrooms, we’ve yet to eat at the “modern toilet restaurant,” assuming that there might be a good reason for the added measure of convenience:

Since I’m on a roll with potty humor, the following full-size poster in a nearby shopping center may have chosen the wrong word:

There is a much broader variety of food flavors here in China.  We would not normally use the word “numb” to describe chips in the West:

Nor would kids flock to ice-cream trucks filled with pea-flavored cool-pops:

The owners of this store couldn’t decide if they wanted to spell its name correctly or phonetically:

We bought these felt-tip markers a few weeks ago for our students to use when coloring Easter Eggs.  We assume that this statement is an attempt at some form of warranty:

One of my all-time favorite signs (at almost every bus stop) features a cute baby:

At first glance, you might think that this is an advertisement for a daycare or a baby store.  But the baby’s position makes more sense when you realize that it is actually advertising the city’s proctology hospital.

One of the more popular brands of cleaning supplies tries to get you excited about being homely:

Here’s an interesting choice of words on a sign in the park which forbids climbing of trees:

Finally, here’s a misspelled sign that caught my attention while exiting a subway:

This sign is interesting due to its location – I shot this picture over the holidays in Washington, DC.  I just hope that it’s not near the Department of Education.