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nice nails

By on Friday, August 12, 2005

nice nails, originally uploaded by malyousif.

typical of some of the hilarious signs we see all over the island, literal translation from Arabic or Indian which is harmless in the native language, but hilarious when literally translated into English!

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  2. anonymous

    nice nails

    Here are a few more funny signs

    There used to be a place called IQ Training (the answer to Bahrain’s problems) in Adliya where Berlitz is now.

    Also in Adliya, Gaylord Restaurant has died a well-deserved death (talk about being clueless). And who could forget Pussy Cat Supermarket, also known as Pussy Market, in Hoora.

    Also, the sign on the McDonalds Saar toilet reads ‘Comfort Room’ which I think is pretty funny.

    Any more? I was planning on writing an article on this subject but I couldn’t get enough material.

    There are also the funny T-shirts that people wear, although I cant remember an example right now.

    Tariq Khonji
    http://www.tariqkhonji.com

  3. anonymous

    Re: nice nails

    Regarding Chinglish …

    Reminds me of the pop-up messages you get when using some software products. So many of the IT developers working in the US are Chinese. So that’s what you get – english messages written in Chinese syntax.

  5. mahmood

    Re: nice nails

    conversational English is pretty much spoken by everybody. if not, I would say comfortably by 90% of the population.

  6. mohd

    Re: nice nails

    It is widely spoken, but you have to recall that for most people they know enough English to get around and it has its own distinct local flavor. To most of us, when someone with a rudimetary knowledge of English engages in dialog, what we understand is to most native speaker, gibberish.

    Last month, when I stopped by the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival in Washington, where they brought hundreds of artisans and performers from Oman, I found myself translating for some people. Not from Arabic to English, but from Aranglish to English.

    Most of the common pidgin varieties involve confusing prepositions and tenses. While most non-arabic speakers will constantly trip over these grammatical faux paz, I can usually tell what they are driving at. The most hilarious attempts are when a young gazelle wants to try and impress some pretty girl and is overconfident of his abilities.

    While most of you would be alarmed about a sentence that included the words hate, fock and beyd; somehow we would know that he was merely recounting the days weather…

  7. johndowne

    nice nails

    Plenty more

    My favourite was one spotted a couple of months ago in the fish market by my friend Patrock:

    “ARAB SHAT FISH”

    which, needless to say, was above a pile of file from the shatt al arab waterway!

    Johnster

  8. anonymous

    Re: nice nails

    That site is hilarious! Good find. I bookmarked it.

    My favorite was the “Sticky Buckle Head Belt.” LOL

    -onion101

  9. anonymous

    nice nails

    We Americans actually don’t need any help butchering the language. Spellcheck hasn’t helped any, but some of these predate spellcheck.

    Example:

    “63. The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.”

    http://www.jnweb.com/funny/church-notices.html

  12. anonymous

    nice nails

    Hi Mahmood,

    [url]http://www.engrish.com[/url] was always a good chuckle.

    Stan

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