Bored of? Bored from?

I have seen this poster a few times and felt uncomfortable with the phrase in the bubble: "Bored of waiting?"

I kept wondering why I was uncomfortable. It has something to do with the preposition "of". We say "tired of waiting" to mean that we do not want to wait anymore. We can also say "tired from waiting", explaining that I am tired now because I had to wait earlier. "Tired of waiting" refers to the present, while "tired from waiting" refers to the past.

However, with the word "bored", we do say "I'm bored of eating the same food everyday", or "are you bored of doing the same thing every weekend?" I suppose it is not wrong to say "bored of waiting", but it does sound strange. Some things in English may be correct but do not "sound right". That does not make it wrong, just different.

The English language contains many inexplicable phrases and usages. To this day, I am still learning something new, as with the phrase above.

Here's to lifelong learning!

Can tables move on their own?

I wondered what this sign meant until I read the Chinese text. What is the restaurant management trying to say?

"Please do not move the tables around"

To "shift" something means to move it. However, "shifting" something infers that the object in question, in this case the tables, move by themselves, without human intervention, as in "shifting sands". In the latter, the sand moves about on its own from movements beneath the surface of the earth. Tables in a restaurant do not move themselves unless there is an earthquake.

When living in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual country like Malaysia (where I spotted this sign), we do end up with mastering one language over another, even though we are supposed to be proficient in both. In this case, the manager or owner who typed up this sign is obviously better at Chinese than English, hence the funny English phrase.

While English is not an easy language to learn, it does help to ask for help before putting up signs that embarrass yourself and display your lack of understanding of the language. Learning is lifelong. Let us take every mistake as a learning experience.

Have fun with English!