Some Things Just Don't Translate Very Well.

This sign is for a food and gift shop in Danshui, in a lovely tourist district. I am not sure that I would ever buy anything in a Turd Baby Shop even though it looked cute and fairly clean. As we learn more Chinese language (so far only spoken and Pinyin), it is already apparent that this is a language for poets and storytellers. It is hard for the Westerner to understand and speak because it is spoken almost in a chant. Ma for example can take 5 different sounds or tones, each meaning something different. Items in the modern world just don't quite fit nicely into the melody sometimes. We have eaten in a restaurant called "Very Good Seafood". I avoid the restaurant with a picture on a buzzard on the sign. I am afraid that the name is roadkill restaurant but I confess that I don't know. It just doesn't sound good somehow.

See you Thursday in Chinese literally translated means "day 5 see you." I am happy though that the literal translation of Sunday is Sunday. Somehow makes it a special day.

I have also noticed that wearing clothes with slogans written in another language is a bad idea. Last Saturday I saw a grandmother walking her grandchildren to the park by our house. Her shirt said "too much sex can leave your vision blurry." I am pretty sure that she would have been horrified if someone had given her the literal translation of that shirt. But the shirt looked nice and was probably cheap. I doubt though if Grandmother would really want to project that image.