Sunday, August 5, 2007

Silly Signs

One of the entertaining things about living in a foreign country is some of the signs that we see. English, although known by most educated people here, is still a foreign language which leads to some funny mistakes. I also think the British influence causes problems. Recently a new mall opened up nearby with underground parking. As you pass the security check there is a sign like this...


This has been a favorite of my kids and is always the cause of stifled giggles. We tried to get an actual picture, but alas, no luck. I noticed this week that they had written " CAR^ " in front of the word Dicky. This of course made me wonder what exactly some poor confused mall goer had opened.

Now there is a new favorite. Today is Friendship Day, so for the last week or so there have been several billboards around Delhi advertising it like this...





I'm not sure if this is supposed to represent mending an old friendship, or if "The Bird" means something different here than it does in the US, or if someone just really misunderstood what this gesture means. Either way, being flipped off by a 20 foot rainbow covered hand is down right funny in my book.

I know this is a short post, but I think I will start posting more examples of the language mess ups and culture confusion that we see. We always get a good laugh out of them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, the frienship billboard takes the cake. I laughed out loud, really loud, and all my family came running. They didn't quite get it, and it obviously wasn't as funny to them as it was to me, but what a great friendship billboard. I wonder if any of us ever feel like gesturing to our friends like that.

Hunnydu72 said...

Buahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa...the bird. *snort* I think they need that billboard here!

shauna said...

Oh, that's too funny! I'm with toni--the billboard is worth a thousand words (not quite sure what they'd say, but still...). I saw the same thing in Japan--but generally it was nonsensical stuff on t-shirts.

Keep 'em comin'!