Signs and labels that make you go ‘Oops!’
September 21, 2012I was in Bali recently. English is their third language, so I tried not to notice awkward English text and phrases or odd spellings. However, a couple of pieces of text made me whip out the camera and take a photo.
The first was on a menu at an Italian restaurant (no, I don’t know why we went to an Italian restaurant in Bali either!). Seven of the menus at the table listed ‘grilled aubergines’, but one had this:
The drinks menu where we were staying had this:
Signs seen along the road included these:
I’m still not sure how you can make ‘antique’ furniture to order!
And then there was this road sign of an exclamation point — I’ve never seen one before, and most of the ones I saw in Bali didn’t have any text below them like this one does — anyone know what this sign means? I assume it’s a danger or warning sign of some sort.
You must’ve felt right at home with that first offering (grilled Aussies!) [?]
Thanks! Matt. (Matthew M. Hinkle) http://www.linkedin.com/in/dochinkle
So you are fond of the exclamation mark!
You shouldn’t be surprised then to learn that there is a whole blog devoted to excessive exclamations. I think it is run by a professor of English.
While visiting the blog you can also find a recommendation to an apostrophe abuse blog.