Bad English Used In Advertising

[LooseCannon]

Lighten up why don't you?

Unfortunately with these types of topics it does long take for the d*ckheads to come out of the woodwork & start slagging off the Thais.

By post #12 with had this moronic comment - "Oops, I forgot that common-sense and logic don't exist in Thailand."

Come on, be fair. I think that in a court of law he would have a good chance of winning his case.

- with a jury of his 'peers' (disgruntled sexpats with failed marriages, failing businesses & rapidly depleteing funds, who have made a series of very poor 'life style' decisions & now blame Thailand for all the perceived injustices that have rained down on them) - in which case I am sure the the case would be promptly thrown out of court.

"I'd say the biggest insult to Thais that rears its ugly head with these topics is those who assume that Thais need protecting from some light-hearted ribbing."

The Thais certainly don't need to be protected by me or anyone else, the fact is it was an idiotic generalization & only serves to make the poster look stupid & ignorant.

But of course this web site has a long history of 'light-hearted ribbing' by certain members when it comes to bagging Thailand & all things Thai, so when I do point out their ignorance it will always be in a 'light-hearted' sort of way so they should not get offended.

[rixalex]

The Thais certainly don't need to be protected by me or anyone else, the fact is it was an idiotic generalization & only serves to make the poster look stupid & ignorant.

His comment about Thailand lacking common-sense and logic was indeed a generalisation but one i think you'll find was made tongue-in-cheek.

I also think you'll find that the majority of foreigners here have at least once had a feeling that some things happen without enough common sense or logic being applied. Not that that doesn't occur everywhere else in the world of course, but perhaps here more than where some of us come from.

LooseCannon, you show me someone who has lived here and never had these thoughts, and i'll show you a liar. The world, and in particular this forum it would seem, is full of pure people who would have you believe negative generalisations about others never pass through their minds.

Anyway, with your comments about sad sexpats who have failed in life, you're yourself obviously not above making "idiotic" generalisations, so why make the exception when it comes to Thailand?

[dave111223]

Lighten up why don't you?

Unfortunately with these types of topics it does long take for the d*ckheads to come out of the woodwork & start slagging off the Thais.

By post #12 with had this moronic comment - "Oops, I forgot that common-sense and logic don't exist in Thailand."

Come on, be fair. I think that in a court of law he would have a good chance of winning his case.

- with a jury of his 'peers' (disgruntled sexpats with failed marriages, failing businesses & rapidly depleteing funds, who have made a series of very poor 'life style' decisions & now blame Thailand for all the perceived injustices that have rained down on them) - in which case I am sure the the case would be promptly thrown out of court.

"I'd say the biggest insult to Thais that rears its ugly head with these topics is those who assume that Thais need protecting from some light-hearted ribbing."

The Thais certainly don't need to be protected by me or anyone else, the fact is it was an idiotic generalization & only serves to make the poster look stupid & ignorant.

But of course this web site has a long history of 'light-hearted ribbing' by certain members when it comes to bagging Thailand & all things Thai, so when I do point out their ignorance it will always be in a 'light-hearted' sort of way so they should not get offended.

Agreed, it only took 27 posts for them to come out of the woodwork.

[kmart]

I do enjoy the odd smug chuckle to myself when i see some full page ad in one of the English dailies advertising some condo / apartment block or other, in horribly pretentious Engrish. "Your Superior Lifestyle Ingratiating Itself Pompously" or somesuch twaddle falling over itself to sound swanky.

[a2396]

Thais don't care about this. Why are you fretting about it?

[Richb2004v2]

Sometimes generalizations are legitimate. If I generalize that men are taller than women and you refute the fact because you have seen women that are taller than some men it does not make my generalization incorrect. It may offend some women and some of the PC crowd but it is still correct. There are generalizations made on here, and there are currently some generalizations running through other posts, but in many cases, just like my example, they are probably correct. I’m sure that if I generalized that ferang are bigger physically than Thais there would be a rush to condemn me as a Thai basher, and to say it’s not true. People just don’t like to hear some generalizations.

[toptuan]

[brahmburgers]

I caught a program about 10 months ago on TV.

It showcased the Thai Royal family's cordial relationship with Denmark and its people.

The subtitles were some of the strangest pseudo-English I've ever seen. It's as though they ran the dialogue through various digital translators, the last being Latin. Every sentence had one of two Latin words in it, and the sentence structures were painfully contorted. Very odd.

Another consideration is the types of learning material that Thais are exposed to. Two examples:

I leafed through a scholarly looking English-Thai dictionary, and every page had some archaic olde English words. The type of words that were old in Shakespeare's day, and remote as well. examples: guncotton, whilst

In another book, sold for beginners, each page had about five English sentences, and on each page there were between one and seven glaring errors - of spelling and grammar. There wasn't one error-free page in the whole book.

oops, almost forgot: I once bought a respectable-looking CD for Learning English. I got it for some Thai kids I know. Before giving it to them, I previewed it. It had numerous mistakes and such a heap of unnecessary drivel, that I chucked it in the waste bin. Perhaps not surprisingly, all the names of the 'writers' were Thai.

Edited September 20, 2008 by brahmburgers

[jumnien]

I caught a program about 10 months ago on TV.

It showcased the Thai Royal family's cordial relationship with Denmark and its people.

The subtitles were some of the strangest pseudo-English I've ever seen. It's as though they ran the dialogue through various digital translators, the last being Latin. Every sentence had one of two Latin words in it, and the sentence structures were painfully contorted. Very odd.

Another consideration is the types of learning material that Thais are exposed to. Two examples:

I leafed through a scholarly looking English-Thai dictionary, and every page had some archaic olde English words. The type of words that were old in Shakespeare's day, and remote as well. examples: guncotton, whilst

In another book, sold for beginners, each page had about five English sentences, and on each page there were between one and seven glaring errors - of spelling and grammar. There wasn't one error-free page in the whole book.

oops, almost forgot: I once bought a respectable-looking CD for Learning English. I got it for some Thai kids I know. Before giving it to them, I previewed it. It had numerous mistakes and such a heap of unnecessary drivel, that I chucked it in the waste bin. Perhaps not surprisingly, all the names of the 'writers' were Thai.

That explains it! I've always wondered about the spelling and grammar of many TV posters. They must have learned English using this CD!

[JetsetBkk]

I suppose when you've paid for a few dozen of the signs, you just have to use them...

Edited September 20, 2008 by JetsetBkk

[womble]

From the business point of view, the upside and downside of considering hiring a native speaker to proof read an ad is easy to calculate. Risk of language error in ad with meaning of said ad still communicated (and which can be measured as inconsequential for ads that aren't targeted towards an *insignificant* minority) vs. no errors in ad + added cost of said ad, not to mention the richer cultural significance of keeping another "native speaker" from realizing some financial revenue (however minor). It's perhaps easier to compare the feelings involved to how much you care that the signs in Spanish and Vietnamese are grammatically correct at your local driver license office in the US for example.

spell check is free and those signs are designed on computer. Thai friends of mine are graphic designers and make loads of mistakes, if they took 5 mins to spell check it would be beneficial as there's nothing worse than going to print and then seeing the error, looks unprofesional.

I agree though that it's only important in business......

[JetsetBkk]

spell check is free and those signs are designed on computer. Thai friends of mine are graphic designers and make loads of mistakes, if they took 5 mins to spell check it would be beneficial as there's nothing worse than going to print and then seeing the error, looks unprofesional...

Oh, the irony. Again.

[fire2rescue99]

I sincerely hope that the engrish faux pas' live on. It would be so boring if everything was perfect all the time.

[LooseCannon]

The Thais certainly don't need to be protected by me or anyone else, the fact is it was an idiotic generalization & only serves to make the poster look stupid & ignorant.

His comment about Thailand lacking common-sense and logic was indeed a generalisation but one i think you'll find was made tongue-in-cheek.

I also think you'll find that the majority of foreigners here have at least once had a feeling that some things happen without enough common sense or logic being applied. Not that that doesn't occur everywhere else in the world of course, but perhaps here more than where some of us come from.

LooseCannon, you show me someone who has lived here and never had these thoughts, and i'll show you a liar. The world, and in particular this forum it would seem, is full of pure people who would have you believe negative generalisations about others never pass through their minds.

Anyway, with your comments about sad sexpats who have failed in life, you're yourself obviously not above making "idiotic" generalisations, so why make the exception when it comes to Thailand?

I disagree, the tone of his post comes across as condescending & patronizing, & at the end is just plain insulting. I think if it was tongue-in-cheek it would have been written differently.

Of course everybody has these types of irrational thoughts, & that is exactly what they are - 'irrational thoughts', for the most part they are the product of anger, frustration or some other negative emotion, that fleetingly cross our mind & are immediately dismissed as being totally illogical & senseless. If these thoughts last long enough that you then go & articulate them on a public forum I think that it is quite reasonable to expect an adverse reaction.

"Anyway, with your comments about sad sexpats who have failed in life, you're yourself obviously not above making "idiotic" generalisations, so why make the exception when it comes to Thailand?" - that was the exact point of it. I am sure that the OP would resent being labelled a 'sad sexpat' as much as any Thai would resent his comment made about them.

[popmybubble]

I caught a program about 10 months ago on TV.

It showcased the Thai Royal family's cordial relationship with Denmark and its people.

The subtitles were some of the strangest pseudo-English I've ever seen. It's as though they ran the dialogue through various digital translators, the last being Latin. Every sentence had one of two Latin words in it, and the sentence structures were painfully contorted. Very odd.

Another consideration is the types of learning material that Thais are exposed to. Two examples:

I leafed through a scholarly looking English-Thai dictionary, and every page had some archaic olde English words. The type of words that were old in Shakespeare's day, and remote as well. examples: guncotton, whilst

In another book, sold for beginners, each page had about five English sentences, and on each page there were between one and seven glaring errors - of spelling and grammar. There wasn't one error-free page in the whole book.

oops, almost forgot: I once bought a respectable-looking CD for Learning English. I got it for some Thai kids I know. Before giving it to them, I previewed it. It had numerous mistakes and such a heap of unnecessary drivel, that I chucked it in the waste bin. Perhaps not surprisingly, all the names of the 'writers' were Thai.

That explains it! I've always wondered about the spelling and grammar of many TV posters. They must have learned English using this CD!

[Goshawk]

where's the advertising standards council when you need them ?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

It's not only in advertising... i once had name cards made, as i was leading the IT department of the company then... and i got this:

"Manager Computor Department"

And similarly i see very often (specially on these colourful "factory buses":

"Moter Sport"

And how many car ads list this item as an accessory:

"Terbo"

Wanna buy a second-hand crane?

"For sale: Potain city crain" (ad must have been taken over the phone)

Best regards.....

Thanh

[petitechevre]

best place to find them is to buy dvd,s on sukhumvit.

Watch all your favorite movies with subtitles on and laugh your ass out..

One of the best was napoleon dynamite.

[eyebee]

This is from a hotel in Macau.

I wonder how many of their customers tried to?

[Moonrakers]

I am always amazed here in Thailand at the continual bad English that is used in advertising, printed on instruction guides and goods.

Like the apartment buildings in Chiang Mai, big sign outside saying: Apratments for rent.

Give us your examples, can do with a laugh.

Please no personal phone numbers, emails or addresses of private individuals, keep the thread going.

Below is a classic example from an ad I discovered on line 3 years ago:

Hi,

Maybe you forget that Chiang Mai is in Thailand ?

Can you speak and write Thai ?

Thai and English are very different languages : letters, conjugation, expression of thought. Many phonemes can't be pronounced by thai people.

It's not easy to write what you can't hear.

When you hear "khao" in Thai, do you understand white, or nine, or mountain, or rice... And kai is chicken or an egg ?

<deleted>!!!! Were you born missing a humour gene or something? Do you really mean that or did you just want to have a moan for the sake of it?

Anyway, this one is bizarre:

[Groongthep]

From the business point of view, the upside and downside of considering hiring a native speaker to proof read an ad is easy to calculate. Risk of language error in ad with meaning of said ad still communicated (and which can be measured as inconsequential for ads that aren't targeted towards an *insignificant* minority) vs. no errors in ad + added cost of said ad, not to mention the richer cultural significance of keeping another "native speaker" from realizing some financial revenue (however minor). It's perhaps easier to compare the feelings involved to how much you care that the signs in Spanish and Vietnamese are grammatically correct at your local driver license office in the US for example.

1.) From a business point of view there is no need to hire a proof reader for simple advertisements. If the advertisers would simply ask a native speaker of English to proof read their adds I'm sure someone would gladly do it for free just for the pride of not seeing the language butchered or the advertiser embarrassed. I know I would.

2.) No comparison. There are millions of native Spanish and Vietnamese speakers in the US, many of whom work at the different state's Departments of Licensing, therefore everyone is relatively certain the Spanish and Vietnamese on the signs and forms is correct because the people who make those signs and forms take enough pride in their work to make sure a native speaker writes them (or at least proof reads them). If there were mistakes and a Spanish or Vietnamese person were to complain, someone would be held responsible. Not so in Thailand. No one cares and so one takes responsibility. It's just "Mai bpen rai".

[rixalex]

My local Ford dealership recently had a big sign put up. It read "Pre-Ouuned Cars". They replaced it a few weeks later. Easy enough to see how that mistake happened, but amazing it got all the way to the stage of being put up before anyone clocked it.

[Ski_Goong]

My local Ford dealership recently had a big sign put up. It read "Pre-Ouuned Cars". They replaced it a few weeks later. Easy enough to see how that mistake happened, but amazing it got all the way to the stage of being put up before anyone clocked it.

My local Ford/Mazda dealer only has 1 very large English word on their windows ---- "WELLCOME"

No. It is not the name of the dealership.

[Boater]

From the business point of view, the upside and downside of considering hiring a native speaker to proof read an ad is easy to calculate. Risk of language error in ad with meaning of said ad still communicated (and which can be measured as inconsequential for ads that aren't targeted towards an *insignificant* minority) vs. no errors in ad + added cost of said ad, not to mention the richer cultural significance of keeping another "native speaker" from realizing some financial revenue (however minor). It's perhaps easier to compare the feelings involved to how much you care that the signs in Spanish and Vietnamese are grammatically correct at your local driver license office in the US for example.

1.) From a business point of view there is no need to hire a proof reader for simple advertisements. If the advertisers would simply ask a native speaker of English to proof read their adds I'm sure someone would gladly do it for free just for the pride of not seeing the language butchered or the advertiser embarrassed. I know I would.

2.) No comparison. There are millions of native Spanish and Vietnamese speakers in the US, many of whom work at the different state's Departments of Licensing, therefore everyone is relatively certain the Spanish and Vietnamese on the signs and forms is correct because the people who make those signs and forms take enough pride in their work to make sure a native speaker writes them (or at least proof reads them). If there were mistakes and a Spanish or Vietnamese person were to complain, someone would be held responsible. Not so in Thailand. No one cares and so one takes responsibility. It's just "Mai bpen rai".

1 ) I have to agree here as well as simons comments... last time i went to the UK, i visited the doctor, only to see 1 NHS leaflet in 10 different language's, and i can bet for sure there where no spelling or grammer mistakes there.. but this is english PC

2 ) Also , there is so many Native speakers, it makes sense to ask one!!!! ... even the one sign from the police in Samui, why not ask a tourist polce officer to proof?

3) There was a mention of graphic designers, i have 3, and not 1 check grammer or spelling!!... but i have learnt it is a country problem.....

to conclude, i think it is a face issue, as Thai people HATE to be corrected on mistakes.... I have lived here 4 years and work with alot of Thais, and it seems to be the same ....

[chakatee]

Boater,

When I do a quick count, I see about 19 "rapes" of the English language in your post. I hope this was your way of being ironic :-)

[JetsetBkk]

where's the advertising standards council when you need them ?

I don't think she won a competition.

It's more like an instruction to prospective visitors to Thailand.

[InVinoVeritas]

From a sign in Pantip Plaza: "We Sell Retail Sale and Whalesale" They corrected it a month or two later

BTW many people can laugh at their own mistakes and those of their compatriots, it's no big deal

[Heng]

From the business point of view, the upside and downside of considering hiring a native speaker to proof read an ad is easy to calculate. Risk of language error in ad with meaning of said ad still communicated (and which can be measured as inconsequential for ads that aren't targeted towards an *insignificant* minority) vs. no errors in ad + added cost of said ad, not to mention the richer cultural significance of keeping another "native speaker" from realizing some financial revenue (however minor). It's perhaps easier to compare the feelings involved to how much you care that the signs in Spanish and Vietnamese are grammatically correct at your local driver license office in the US for example.

spell check is free and those signs are designed on computer. Thai friends of mine are graphic designers and make loads of mistakes, if they took 5 mins to spell check it would be beneficial as there's nothing worse than going to print and then seeing the error, looks unprofesional.

I agree though that it's only important in business......

There is the time cost as well as monetary. The main issue is that these errors are inconsequential.

[Heng]

From the business point of view, the upside and downside of considering hiring a native speaker to proof read an ad is easy to calculate. Risk of language error in ad with meaning of said ad still communicated (and which can be measured as inconsequential for ads that aren't targeted towards an *insignificant* minority) vs. no errors in ad + added cost of said ad, not to mention the richer cultural significance of keeping another "native speaker" from realizing some financial revenue (however minor). It's perhaps easier to compare the feelings involved to how much you care that the signs in Spanish and Vietnamese are grammatically correct at your local driver license office in the US for example.

1.) From a business point of view there is no need to hire a proof reader for simple advertisements. If the advertisers would simply ask a native speaker of English to proof read their adds I'm sure someone would gladly do it for free just for the pride of not seeing the language butchered or the advertiser embarrassed. I know I would.

2.) No comparison. There are millions of native Spanish and Vietnamese speakers in the US, many of whom work at the different state's Departments of Licensing, therefore everyone is relatively certain the Spanish and Vietnamese on the signs and forms is correct because the people who make those signs and forms take enough pride in their work to make sure a native speaker writes them (or at least proof reads them). If there were mistakes and a Spanish or Vietnamese person were to complain, someone would be held responsible. Not so in Thailand. No one cares and so one takes responsibility. It's just "Mai bpen rai".

1) An excellent idea. A non-profit organization for grammar and spell checks... but you still have to pay for your own work permit.

2) Silly assumptions all around.

[mahtin]

I leafed through a scholarly looking English-Thai dictionary, and every page had some archaic olde English words. The type of words that were old in Shakespeare's day, and remote as well. examples: guncotton, whilst

I used archaic Google and found a lot of whilst.

Here's one

Shave whilst you squirm: Would you use the Womaniser Vibrator?

http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2008/08/shave_whilst_yo.html