Inappropriate Clothing & More 👕 An Entry For ASEAN Hive's #Engrish Challenge 😆
From obscenity-laced shirts to questionable spelling and grammar, I've compiled some #Engrish from the past and present to share with you all.
A Very Disturbing Shirt
We recently went on a shopping trip here in Suriname for Srey-Yuu's birthday, and this more or less means going to Chinese-owned import shops. There is always a lot of #Engrish to be found on the clothing items in these shops, so I kept my phone ready to snap pictures of anything that caught my eye.
In the first shop I struck gold, finding the above obscenity-laced beauty. I haven't seen a more confusing shirt in ages, and couldn't really see the need to diss Canada, but perhaps I need to detox and take a trip.
A Less Disturbing Shirt
The above shirt is not inappropriate like the first one, but as an English teacher I couldn't help but noticed the #Engrish. I always wanted a "childhood theav" when I was a boy, but luckily my parents didn't give me one.
Move Over Calvin Klein
Obviously we bought some underwear, and I always love endless twists China takes on well-known international brands. I'm most puzzled about how to correctly pronounce this brand, but I won't be losing any sleep over it.
Cambodian Flashback
This was taken at least 8 years in Sihanoukville, long before it became a Chinese mafia casino town. I was smoking a joint when I noticed the sign, and had also been teaching indefinite and definite articles in English classes. "Smoke the joint" or "smoke a joint" would've worked in this case, but I like the simplicity of "smoke joint."
Just Don't Do It
This is also a blast from my Cambodian past, taken at a guesthouse swimming pool. I still don't know what is not permitted, but whatever it is, it's prohibited 24 hours a day.
Alright, that's all the #Engrish I've got for you folks. Thanks to @gabe.radke for encouraging me to keep this challenge alive. This challenge is open to all Hivers, and doesn't need to contain a Southeast Asian element.
ASEAN Hive Community Engrish Challenge |  |
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The first Tee shirt is something I wouldn't wear even if I was promised a few hundred $$$$
Sorry I didn't get the childhood theav 👀
The smoke joint looks like a shady place lol a thieves den of some sort.
Keep them coming.
Yes, I wouldn't wish the first shirt on my worst enemy. That shady "smoke joint" business used to rent tubes for swimmers and sell marijuana, but I think they sold more marijuana than they rented tubes. Thanks for stopping by my friend.
Can i just go ahead and declare you the winner... haha, great stuff!
I of course restrict myself from the prizes, but I was pretty proud of myself when I saw the first very inappropriate shirt. Thanks for stopping by.
Nice! I love me some creative Engrish! The shirts don't make much sense to me, but I believe CareoKin could have some potential as a name (if it didn't look so much like Calvin Klein). The smoke joint, out of all things, makes perfect sense (though probably not intentionally): Wasn't the place you were sitting in a smoke joint? You know, how you can eat ribs at a BBQ joint, and play billiard in a pool joint? The blue circle with the red edge and the stripe across means no parking in Europe. But at a swimming pool it seems completely out of place. Maybe they wanted you to keep moving once you enter the pool...?
Here in Mexico things are relatively tame, but I remember my year in Japan, where I saw new, funny, crazy, insane cases of Engrish almost every day. Most of those cases were obvious mistakes, but I'm sure the nifty Japanese must have caught on to the effects they have on native speakers, because there were stores specialized in weird Engrish (as well as Flench, Gelman, Itarian, etc.) I once bought a T-shirt there with this ominous message (in correct German): "Silence of the Night - The Holy Land". Here's a pic:
I love these terms you've used...
The "smoke joint" place fronted as a swimming tube rental business, but in reality sold lots of marijuana. I think their intention was to write "smoke a joint," because they had arranged a smoker-friendly seating area slightly off-camera.
I love that uber-inappropriate shirt, do you still have it?
Oh no! I got that shirt in 2007 and I wore it regularly until... well, until there was not much left of it. Being from Japan, it lasted amazingly long. I think I even had it with me when I moved to Mexico in 2012. Though now I miss it, and kinda wish I had turned it into a pillow case before it disintegrated on me.
Pee in the pool. This suddenly reminds me of an incident at the public swimming pool back in my hometown, whilst I was standing and chatting about with a friend, a lady walked pass and I felt a warming sensation around my thigh right after she stir some current through
I think the swimming pool owners are capable of mind-reading, so the message is different for each swimmer........but whatever you're thinking, it's probably prohibited. Oh no, looks like you got hot urined in your hometown, sorry for your loss my friend.