"Aim straight and keep toilet seat fresh"
I saw this hilarious Chinglish phrase in action in a restroom stall in the Taiwanese airport. The original Chinese sign post original meaning wanted to notify the toilet users that they should it on the toilet seat rather than squat over it to prevent the toilet seat clean. The mistake in this particular translation happened when the Chinese term for "fresh" (which has two meanings--the first one being "clean", and the second being "recently added", just like in English) was translated directly into its second definition without regards to the context the word is being used in. This causes an awkward, but at the same time, amusing, glitch in the English translation of Chinese text. Personally, I found it really funny because in Mainland China, toilet seats always have urine all over them because people do not "aim straight" into the toilet bowl; and as I have only ever seen this sign in an airport, it was entertaining to see the extents the Taiwanese would go to to prevent people from affecting the public facilities of this clean region due to the habits and culture they've developed in the environment they grew up in.
No comments:
Post a Comment