Hello you're watching LetThemTalkTV or listening to the Zeitgeist Banana podcast my name is Gideon
I'm in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and I'm joined in London by Jon hello Jon hi everybody
how are you doing this is amazing well you're back again and are you ready for it we're going
to start straight away more signs wow yeah I had English I've been looking forward to this I mean
I really enjoyed the the other signs we did so you know more signs yeah amazing sign of the times I
just remind everybody who's watching or listening if you've got any signs of bad English I mean
unintentional mistakes that you've seen wherever you are in the world then do send them to me
and maybe we can include them in a future episode okay let's go so the next one it's a fish and chip
restaurant called God Save the Fish now let me ask you a question first of all do you think I
took that picture in England I would say no do you think they would ever call uh fish and chip
restaurant God Save the Fish just sounds so weird doesn't it it does sound very weird yes
and firstly if you want to save the fish why would you kill it and drop it into boiling oil you're
not saving the fish why and why would you invoke a deity to save the poor underwater creature
this is true they're doing the very opposite aren't they so yeah it's um I would say it's
not a very good choice in terms of the name yeah but it probably attracts attention though right
I think it doesn't exist any more I took it a couple of years ago I think the place doesn't
exist any more it's a very bad name and and also I think often you see when they have
put things in English in Paris maybe in other parts of the world they use like a phrase that
people know like I don't know in in cookies we trust because they say on a one dollar bill or
American dollar bills in god we trust so they they substitute that
with the name of the thing they're selling and they know god save the queen so they say god
save the salad or god save the fish because then people would recognize it that's a very typical
French thing maybe elsewhere too yeah that's curious so would the owners be French then
I'm sure there's no way I think no way English owners would would make a a restaurant called
that would they I wouldn't have thought so no but I think it's quite interesting that
French people would have a fish and chip shop I think now there are a few
yeah yeah I've noticed it appearing on venues here and there okay in Paris it's getting trendy
yeah because on on every French menu you have hamburgers and fish and chips you go to Paris
to get the French cuisine and you you see most people are eating hamburgers and fish chips
is not a popular one I think because you don't require you know great cooking skills you can have
somebody just you know whipping it up in the in the kitchen without a great deal of skill
yeah and I guess it's just a popular dish isn't it I mean it's it's a nice dish to have if the fish
is good then it's um yeah it's very tasty isn't it yeah I can't vouch for that I don't know why
I guess have you never tried it at all because you you don't have fish right you just have vegetarian
I'm I'm pretty much vegetarian yeah you never have fish at all very weak if I'm you know stuck
I um grudgingly will order the fish but I prefer not to prefer to be vegetarian okay no fair enough
yeah sure okay the next one might confuse you can you see it I can see it yeah it does confuse me
okay this is from London actually so I'm not saying it's an English mistake it's not but
it's just in a way it's just very clever it's the opposite I just love this sign
yeah I don't think the restaurant exists any more it's in Chinatown in soho in London and
can you read what it says what the English not the Chinese you can read where it says
Tai Ka Lok yeah because when you whenever you're walking through Chinatown the restaurant tours
the the way today they they pop out and I say come in take a look take a look take a look please have
a look at memory and then I noticed the restaurant is could take a look and no not funny is that I
might even find that funny I thought it's like brilliant but of course take a look that's what
they want to say come to our restaurant which is called take a look okay that's quite curious isn't
it I wouldn't have I wouldn't have seen that one though it's quite quite subtle isn't it do
you think they genuinely did that I want to know what the Chinese says I thought of just learning
Chinese so that I could understand that sign yeah well I think it's easier just to ask a Chinese
person I guess so or just learn that particular phrase but yeah it's uh that's an interesting
thing in a way it's quite brilliant if it works in both languages it says something in Chinese
and in English it says something take a look or this food is delicious or something yeah yeah
it works really well it does yeah I think it's quite clever maybe it's just very good business
okay so so thumbs up to that thumbs up to that one we like that one
I would go there I would recommend that restaurant I think it's no longer there so
right the advertising didn't work Jon again in Paris I don't know I thought it's just funny
because the guy who runs the cafe obviously he thinks three euros for a takeaway hot drink
is very cheap because he writes three euros exclamation mark exclamation mark exclamation mark
do you think it's a bit ridiculous it's just me I i just find that why why a triple exclamation mark
for three euro takeaway drink it doesn't seem very cheap though does it either that's the whole point
yeah is it maybe it's because it's super expensive he's mocking us making fun of the tourists maybe
yes or maybe everywhere elsewhere in the vicinity the takeaway drinks or I don't know nine euros
possibly that's a lot of money just getting the coffee to take away it's a lot of money
it is a lot of money isn't it yeah I mean perhaps there's a tax on having takeaway
coffees and normally they are expensive I don't know I don't know I don't know
so be use punctuation with moderation that's my tip to you indeed but perhaps so by doing this
he actually succeeded because you noticed the sign because of his exaggerated punctuation so
you wouldn't have noticed otherwise only me only you okay I think so he's just really excited he's
really excited about that sign yeah just three euros and you can have any any bad coffee you like
maybe it's very good coffee it's an excellent coffee I think in these touristy areas
very good that's another story for another day right sure
okay I've got a couple more from restaurants and menus you ready Jon when you look at menus
I mean it's incredible the English I mean I've got hundreds of examples of bad badly translated
menus I don't know why the the owner of the restaurant doesn't just check with a native
speaker get someone online to correct the English instead they just go directly to google translate
or wherever and just just a couple of examples of bad translations which really confuse the customer
is there a fish called an emperor I don't I don't really know to be
honest but an emperor would be Caesar for example so you're going to grill Caesar
exactly I think yeah exactly exactly I thought it was is it you grilling grill emperor Hirotito,
Napoleon, Atawalpa the last emperor of the Incas which emperor are they gonna grill
no I did check that and it should be uh merlin - marlin sorry not Merlin it should be marlin,
marlin yes okay yes marlin but it doesn't take much effort to find out that emperor in
English is marlin why did they get that so wrong emperor they checked a word for an emperor yeah
they they translated literally and you would have thought that that's quite a universal
English word as well that most people would know around the world anyway and the thing that I
find curious is instead of saying grilled they've said grill which seems strange because everything
else has grilled so why would you get it wrong it's an imperative grill the emperor him now
because also it's interesting grill actually has a different meaning doesn't it as in
you could say to interrogate somebody you'd grill them so oh yeah yeah yeah I didn't think of that I
didn't think of that I must say something about Chinese restaurants in Spain if any Spanish
people are listening to this because uh and I've been visiting for a long long time
for uh you know 20 25 years I've been visiting Spain and if you ever go to
a Spanish restaurant every Spanish every Chinese restaurant in Spain has the same
English mistakes I think back in the 80s one guy translated the menu and it spread
across Spain and it's always the same and one example of the error which we always have is
arroz con tres
delicias which they translate as 'rice with three delicious' why is it three delicious and
it's always like that rice would be delicious and I want to go in and say delicious what
rice is delicious what so what's it supposed to be uh delights I think delights
means delight price of three delights okay but they put in an adjective instead of a noun so
just confuses people I know it's a small thing but it's just you know everywhere and I want it to be
correct I want if you know when I shuffle off this mortal coil I want to left my mark and if there's
one thing I can do it is to correct that mistake on Chinese menus in Spain so please go out there
and tell the Chinese restaurateurs to make the menu right well perhaps when you retire that could
be your mission just to go around all the signs in the world and correct them you know kind of go in
offer to print them for them and and correct them properly I'd have to live for a hundred
billion years before they all get corrected we're just scratching the surface of the
iceberg just give me a couple of examples here of many I'll give you one more the my
point is that sometimes maybe the translation is correct but it just sounds so bad in English
and here's an example this is from Portugal I can't remember where I think here in Lisbon and
they've got salgado oil cake that doesn't sound very good and then they got
risotto
a piglet oil cake would you would you order something piglet oil cake would you ever
order that I don't think I would enjoy the idea of having a piglet oil cake no I mean
I can't think of any more disgust maybe it's actually delicious well I don't eat meat but
maybe it's absolutely delicious in Portuguese but let me tell you no that
doesn't work fine a better translation yeah I mean you just have a vision of a
small well a piglet on top of a cake covered in oil exactly he's like sinking yeah we're gonna
have nightmares tonight yeah it's something out for horror film isn't it yeah this even oil cake
why would you want to have an oil cake yeah it doesn't sound very tasty I'm just gonna cash some
oil yeah that's a cake with it because I i think the thing is with that I mean I guess it would be
what would it be though I mean obviously they used some kind of oil but would it be olive oil
I mean even if you added the word olive it would make a difference I don't know I was guessing it's
something like a doughnut but maybe nothing to do with that okay a viewer or listener can let us
know what are oil cakes yeah I do and send us one in the post but Jon Jon will leave your address
Jon will leave his address and he sent him some piglet oil cake and then we can show it on on
the camera next time like uh yeah I'll send a picture you can send a picture of us yeah
yeah I don't know I said the nightmares they come to haunt us
yeah that wouldn't be nice yeah even meat puff that's a bit closer but it still sounds a bit
strange specialities what's speciality you can't just say specialities because it's what what is it
would you like a speciality well not until I know what it is
special it's really special yeah I know but I want to know maybe it's not a speciality for
for me it's not you know yeah but I have seen above it they did did actually say croissant they
didn't say an increasing so that's good yes that's true but they they it does look as if no no that's
Portuguese that's the Portuguese side yeah that is what they put in English I didn't know well
on the English side it looks as if they've just put butter something so that so that looks like
a mistranslation as well well also one thing you may not have noticed is that especially special
dad is uh number 473 on the menu so I mean there are 472 other items yeah it is a long
video it takes an hour just to go through the menu yeah that's a huge menu isn't it and yeah
that that's curious though isn't that I suppose you could so you could say instead of saying
I would like an oil cake you could say I would like number 470 please yeah now Jon sometimes you
know I'm always correcting English mistakes but sometimes I just I just see a sign which goes what
even if it's in a foreign language and it's just so wrong so we're not talking here about
grammar mistakes but this one I saw in Paris and it's McDonald's actually they had a sign
again I think the sign's gone now this is a couple of years ago and it says the sign says
open 24 hours a day open 24 hours a day and there's a little asterisk said
except between two and four am soft now call me old-fashioned call me old-fashioned but if it's
if it's open 24 hours a day it's open 24 hours a day you can't have it's open 24 hours a day but
not between two and four that's terrible isn't it especially from McDonald's I think that's
very poor McDonald's would never lie would they um no they're a very honest and lovely company
yeah yeah yeah yeah so as I said that's nothing to do with English it's just
uh one of the strange ones that I what was that at three o'clock in the morning
no I was trying to get in uh it wasn't at three o'clock in the morning but
um you would be rather upset if you were there at three o'clock in the morning though wouldn't you
yeah I think so this one's open it says it's open 24 hours a day oh it's not 24 hours
very disappointing very disappointing I was in Mumbai Jon okay and they speak English in Mumbai
but some of the signs should we say are unnecessary or they give you too much information
everywhere too much information and this sign here maybe you'd like to read it sure
dear guest please add water before switching on the kettle thank you I feel
I feel that that size not really necessary I guess they they may have had a few people
switching it on without water in it but why you go to you go into the hotel room and you
think oh there's a kettle there I think I'll switch it on okay and yeah I like s I like what
kettles which are on oh it has a function oh you meant to eat water with a kettle oh
I didn't know that no it just seems there were always unnecessary signs and this is one of them
yeah that's the curious one I mean maybe it's because you know there are countries that don't
have kettles do they I mean I guess that's quite a British thing isn't it to have a kettle so maybe
that's why but why would you switch it on I don't know I don't know perhaps you would think it was
a heater or something I've got a theory about this and I think that there are a lot of people
who have jobs who have to justify their job and they're the sign writer and they don't have much
work to do so they just write signs it seems to be like that in Mumbai that it's just signs
everywhere unnecessary well it might be true yeah I mean you know I guess the sign writing union is
very strong so they probably have to do at least 10 signs a day to keep in business right yeah
exactly please put on your trousers before leaving the hotel room honestly
it's always unnecessary things really okay I didn't never thought of that
please don't worry yes exactly exactly so I i don't know I think it's just too too much yes
going too far isn't it really and Jon now's the moment you can tell everybody who are you
and we have a podcast English with Monty so you can find the lovely Gideon on that too
and um very worthwhile well worth listening to I would say probably possibly better in some ways
thank you so listen to English with Monty listen to Zeitgeist Banana and I'll see you next time bye