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Showing posts from June, 2016

When Kriol signs go right - and when they go wrong

2016 sign at Rapid Creek (Source: Facebook) When I shared th is Kriol sign on Facebook as an example of a bad Kriol translation, a first language Kriol speaker commented: Im nomo Kriol garjinga, bambai aibina sabi.   Which means:   It’s not Kriol for goodness sake, otherwise I would’ve understood it. My thoughts exactly. And also the thoughts of every other Kriol speaker I know who has s e en it. Poorly translated signage isn’t uncommon. Everyone is familiar with the hilarity of Engrish . But when translation is just a commercial novelty, it doesn’t matter too much. However, when government departments seek out translation services, you can assume that it is for an important reason. And when that goes wrong, it is more serious and more embarrassing. My favourite example of this is an English sign emailed off to be translated into Welsh. The resultant sign features an ‘Out Of Office’ auto-reply message in Welsh! Out of office message in Wel