Watch as the English language gets abused around the world with these
weird, hilarious, and strange misspellings and mistranslations
The search for the globe's funniest language howler continues apace. As
with his two previous volumes, Charlie Croker has trawled hotel foyers
in Kazakhstan, South Korean supermarkets, and Argentinian airports,
plucking from the mistranslation tree only the very choicest of fruits
for your delectation. There is the French hotel advising that "pets are
not allowed in the breakfast." The bar in Rome requesting that you "use
the arse-tray for your fags." And the bookshop in China boasting a
section titled "sports and hobbits." Who can tell what the Japanese
camera manufacturer had in mind when they included "beware the weatherly
swell" in their instructions? Who would brave the Barcelona hotel where
the pillows have "firmness to take care of your cervicals?" Who could
resist the Austrian restaurant offering "Saddle of Rabbit in a vortex
sheet?" This delightful book is an affectionate trawl through the gems
that arise when people all round the world graciously indulge English
speakers' shunning of any language but their own. In fact, some of the
gems are home-grown: a Hertfordshire restaurant warns that "any person
consumed in the restaurant without paying will be prospected." So eat
some "chicken soap" in Bulgaria, drink "Jack Denials" in Italy, stay at
the Budapest hotel offering "non-sliding mates for the bathtubes. . ."
and find yourself utterly lost in translation.
