Bad English Sightings...

Warning, bad language contained in this post...

While in Indonesia... in a letter to their guests at the resort in Bali:
"Please just sit back and enjoy your time with us... we will do everything we can to relax and DISTRESS you..."

Here in KL... "An absolute must see... the Twin Towels!"

Oh what a difference one letter makes... Amazing how one letter can completely change the meaning of a word, often to it's opposite... Usually, it is well enough understood what the person actually meant, as in the above examples... But consider how one little letter can actually set off an International incident (article from Reuters, MSNBC website):

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A stenographer for the U.S. Congress generated alarming headlines in the Sudanese press this week by giving the mistaken impression the United States conducted nuclear tests in the African country in 1962 and 1970.

The Sudanese government asked the United States for an explanation and began its own investigations into a Web site report that a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee had talked about the tests in Sudan.

But Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, who had summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires on hearing the news, said on Thursday it turned out that the word Sudan was merely a typing error for Sedan, the name of a nuclear test site in Nevada.

Make no mistake about it, language can be very dangerous...

KL is actually not too bad for bad English, by comparison to a lot of Southeast Asian countries I've visited. But once in awhile you spot something so peculiar... Such as this:

A few months ago I was at a monorail station, waiting for the train, when I spotted a Chinese girl on the opposite platform in a construction zone orange shirt. Written across the front and back in four inch bold black letters, it simply said, "I Masturbate". WHAT!?!?! I SO wish I'd had my camera phone at that moment... A strange sght in any country, but especially in straight laced Malaysia... Asia abounds with such oddities though... In Indonesia I saw the ever popular shirt that simply says "F*CKER" across the front. I have no idea if these people actually realize how offensive that is... I assume not... If you think I'm making this up, check out engrish.com. Most of it's sightings come from Japan, where they slaughter the English language like nowhere else on earth.

I get a laugh out of all of this for a few reasons... 1) It IS funny, 2) I spend my days here slaughtering someone elses language and probably saying the same kind of random oddities without knowing it... (though I'm quite sure I'd make sure I knew what a shirt said before I wore it...) and 3) Don't people do the same thing in the West? Decorating their homes, clothing, and bodies with Chinese characters that they scarcely know the meaning of?