french translation help needed (words on my new scarf)

Parent Cafe
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<p>D and I love to shop in Little Tokyo and Chinatown here in LA, we always keep our eyes open for products that have bizarre “Englishy” sentences. Our favorite purchase–a backpack with the phrase. “The coolness of your aspect is a friendliness present!”
And candy with the claim that–“upon taste, you will have the experience of a lovely lady on a spring day”</p>

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<p>^ Those are great!</p>

<p>In his book, “When You are Engulfed in Flames,” David Sedaris notes some funny translations he encounters during his sojourn in Japan. (In fact, the book’s title comes from the helpful safety instructions posted on his hotel room door.) Some of his favorites:</p>

<p>

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</ul>

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<p>My personal favorite for semi-translation into English: On a flight to Hanover, via Frankfurt, we were told by a German airport official, “You will become your luggage in Hanover.”
(Uh, no thanks, I think I’ll just stay here in Frankfurt.)
Although I have to admit, once I told a hotel receptionist in Frankfurt that I hadn’t divorced yet, when I intended to say that I hadn’t decided yet (entscheiden/entschieden).</p>

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<p>My kids will never let me forget that one time I wrote a note to a hotel maid (whom I knew was a Spanish speaker because she and her colleague were speaking Spanish in the hall) that said:</p>

<p>Puedo estar mas bolsas de te, por favor?</p>

<p>Which means, if your Spanish is as good as mine: ‘Can I have more tea bags please?’</p>

<p>NO IT DOESN’T! It says:</p>

<p>Can I be more bags of tea, please?</p>

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<p>May you float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!</p>

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<p>Here’s the mother of all online translation service errors: <a href=“http://danspira.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2008/08/translateservererrorrestaurant.jpg[/url]”>http://danspira.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2008/08/translateservererrorrestaurant.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I saw a music notebook once - made in Thailand or Japan, I believe - with a cover that read, “to produce music is also in a sense to produce children”.</p>

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<p>May you enjoy your burqa.</p>

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<p>phantompong, that is hysterical! :)</p>

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<p>I used to have a whole book devoted to bad translations of menu. The one that has stayed with me, being a translation of French, of course, is “raped carrots” for carottes rapees (shredded carrots).
Ann Landers had a column of travelers’ encounters with bad English. Seen in a Japanese dry cleaning store: “You may drop your pants here.” In a French hotel:" Guests are welcome to complain from 9 to 11."</p>

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<p>maybe ‘prend la prise’ has something to do with ‘accept change’ or ‘take it.’ or could ‘la prise’ be a noun?</p>

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<p>Being French I can understand both of these sayings. Yes the first one has a spelling mistake it should be —Aimer la vie = love life</p>

<p>Laisser le vent de changement prend la prise des vos ailes de papillon. —Laisser le vent de changement vous portez come les vents porte un papillon.
The second one has a few other problems but I have heard the saying many times and what it translate to is-- Let the winds of change carry you like wings of a butterfly. in other words not to get flustered by change or fight it but instead to go with it and enjoy.</p>

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<p>Translations aside…I am fascinated as to what would resurrect this thread after 11 months?</p>

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<p>it got caught on the wings of butterflies on the road to life, of course.</p>

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<p>^^ my CC laugh of the day ;)</p>

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<p>The mangling of languages is often really, really funny. Here is a link to a NY Times article from last week about Chinese/English. Take a look at the embedded slide show! It’s a real hoot!</p>

<p>[Shanghai</a> Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish - The New York Times”>Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish - The New York Times)</p>

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<p>I know a person who years ago bought an old kimono in Japan. Had some writing on it. He had the words on it translated and it turned out to an ad for a store.</p>

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<p>There is a website called Engrish Funny. People send in photos of funny English translations. Mostly from Asian countries occasionally from other countries.</p>

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<p>Ellen deGeneres has a cute thing on her show where viewers send funny photos. One lady sent a photo of her local paper’s grocery insert. You know, the ones which show pictures of tomatoes and the sale price, or meat, whatever.</p>

<p>One grocery insert, from an American newspaper, had a picture of bananas with the following description:</p>

<p>“Yellow curved fruit on sale today.”</p>

<p>You have to wonder about the nationality of the insert copywriter, lol.</p>