Language Chaos Roundup, #11–20
More fun with accidental, creative, and just weird uses of language
Dear subscribers,
As you may recall, back in January, I started a series of Notes on Substack called “Language Chaos”, in which I showcase surprising, bizarre, or unfortunate communicative choices made by people all over the world. Often, but not always, these illustrate what can happen when you use a language you know pretty well but not quite well enough to foresee potential problems.
After ten Language Chaos notes have been published, I send out a “roundup” for those who haven’t been following along in the Substack app or website (which I highly recommend—it’s leagues better than Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook). The first roundup came out in March. Now it’s time for the second.
To read the full text of any of the following notes, or see more than one photo, you will have to click on it so that it opens in your browser. Then you can also see the comments, which are part of the fun.
I hope that these will brighten your week just a bit.
Cheers,
Gregory
These signs made me chuckle - thank you! The first one from Japan reminded of my parents' experience living there. They noticed that businesses seemed to be in love with English words but put them together in a random way that didn't make sense grammatically. So, what service does We Be Parsley offer?
‘Hotel Hotel’ had me in tears. Sometime it’s the simple things!