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Funny Chinese signs and translation fails

By Felipe / Last updated October 15, 2024

A lot of people in mainland China don't speak English fluently. However, many establishments still want to provide an English translation of their menus or info signs. Many people also like to wear clothes that have some English written on them. The only problem is that the translations are often very inaccurate or have spelling mistakes.

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Over the years, I have put together a little collection of snapshots that I took whenever something like that made me chuckle. Today, I'm gonna share those snapshots with you. Keep in mind that it's all in good fun. I think it's commendable that people want to make it easier for foreigners to navigate a Chinese environment. The effort just gets lost in translation sometimes. It's like foreigners looking up the Chinese translation of some phrase they like and then getting it tattooed by someone who knows nothing about Chinese characters. So without further ado, here are my favorite ones!

A sign at a construction site, saying 'Tips: Construction will bring inconvenience to your life, Please forgive me'
If you translate the two lines separately, the translation is correct. I guess that's what happened. I forgive them though :)

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