I get annoyed when I open a menu in a restaurant in mainland Europe and find that it has been translated into truly execrable and sometimes incomprehensible English. Ten out of ten for effort though. Few English restaurants (well, almost none of those I frequent) bother to put the menu into any other language than English. It's just rather a shame that some of the European ones have not had their efforts checked by a native English speaker or at least an expert before going to the printers.
Shop signs with glaring errors also arouse my indignation. So you can imagine how pleased I was to come across this sign as I ran through Greenfield in the rain this morning.
Presumably the florist wanted to make her establishment look a little exotic or sophisticated, while at the same time trying to incorporate the name of the village into her shop name. Splendid idea but incorrectly translated and grammatically wrong! If you plan to be clever, especially in foreign languages, make sure you have it checked before you go public.
Sometimes, of course, a deliberate misspelling is part of the charm. In Vigo there is a shop called "Mi Leidy" which sells ladies' clothes. If you say the name out loud according to Spanish spelling and pronunciation rules, then the shop's name is "Milady" of "My Lady". Now, I think that works. And, besides, the Spanish have a tradition of "hispanifying" foreign words.
Hairdressing salons are the best for clever shop names. I know of a ladies' hairdressers called "Shear Perfection". Above it is the gentlemen's barber shop called "A Cut Above". My all time favourite though has to be "Curling you Softly"!
There's just something about hairdressing that lends itself to a certain amount of playing with the language.
All these are the kind of thoughts that go through your head when you go running in the Saddleworth drizzle!
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