Weird and Wonderful Words
Wit and wisdom from around the world
I was very pleased to see the theme for this month’s challenge. During my various travels for work and leisure, I have collected images of numerous signs. Some carry messages to inspire thought, but most were funny, possibly due to a “lost in translation” effect or for some other reason not anticipated by whoever created them.
I have always tried to imagine the story behind each sign, or the reason for it to exist. For instance, that hand-painted sign on the whitewashed wall of an eating and drinking establishment near Accra, Ghana, that proclaimed that it was the “Don’t Mind Your Wife Chop Bar”. Probably the place to have a cold Club or Star Beer along with your fufu or kelewele if you’re in the doghouse at home…
And then there was the sign on a small container-based enterprise near Takoradi, in the same country. “Christ Sake Electrical Engineering” makes you wonder if it was named in memory of what some long-departed boss would exclaim after an employee short-circuited something!
Some signs in Ghana managed to be funny and meaningful at the same time.
Ghana is indeed a treasure trove for anybody who admires signage. Not only the beautiful hand-painted ones advertising hairdressing “saloons” and combined barber shop — car wash services, but also a wide range of medical and other advertisements, sometimes in very creative combinations:
If you think that we only have these strange signs in Africa, think again. I’ve also spotted some weird notices in Europe.
Signs like that do make you wonder whether the persons responsible for them ever consider whether it might be useful to consult native speakers of the languages that they plan to use. Or maybe they just think “to hell with it, they’ll know what we mean”.
The latter is usually true, I guess. Consider the following examples from China, a wonderful country to visit, and not only for funny signs:
Sometimes it appears that consulted Yoda they did, to get the wording exactly right.
But let’s move to another place entirely, to beautiful Madeira, a fantastic island in the Atlantic Ocean, great for wonderful and expansive views over green valleys and steep hillsides, lovely walks to waterfalls, grand views of volcanic geology, and more. (I’m running out of adjectives here.) Similar to China, this part of Portugal is clearly concerned about the welfare of wandering visitors. Witness this inviting sign along one walk to a waterfall:
After all those attempts to be funny, let me leave you with a more serious final image from Kenya, bearing a message that we can (or should!) all agree with:
You should of course also visit other stories on signage. For instance, Simon Whaley’s well-illustrated post to guide us all through the various types of signs that guide us along footpaths (and other paths) in England and Wales:
Erie Astin shows us signs that were carved thousands of years ago, from so far back that we can only guess at their meaning:
If you’ve liked this story, feel free to chuckle, or to LOL, or to think deep thoughts. But whatever you do, I would really appreciate your feedback.
