Cryptic sign, but we all understand!

I spotted this sign at the supermarket. I have walked by many times but never paid attention to what it said, until that day. What language is this? Even SMS language does not have such abbreviations. Must be a unique combination of Singlish (aka "Singapore English) and fast typing.

The amazing thing is, we all understand the meaning. Wait a bit. The sales person will be back shortly to help you.

Happy shopping!

The fish lost his job

I was having a drink at a local food centre when I chanced on this dish called "Fired Fish".

The human brain is wired such that any normal person would have automatically read it as "Fried Fish". Unfortunately, I am not "any normal person". Years of proofreading work have caused me to pick up typo errors with alarming frequency. As I taught my Office Skills students, always ask someone else who has better language skills than you to check your work before you submit it. The person you choose must be detailed and meticulous, or your work will not be error-free. This picture is a good example.

In case you are wondering, I conclude that the fish lost his job (aka "got fired") through no fault of his own. Poor fish!

Happy eating!

Do you scare cockroach?

When I saw this question, I had a good laugh. The vast majority of humans are scared of cockroaches. I am not one of the majority. I get mad when I see a cockroach. My first reaction is, "How dare you invade my clean house?!" Then, I remove my slipper and whack it till it is dead. (A Hawaiian trait that I picked up after living there for three years.) I do not like cockroaches, but I am certainly not scared of them.

I have never seen a cockroach scared of humans before! The former English teacher in me proceeded to quickly correct the question. It should be:

Are you scared of cockroaches?

As I reflected on languages and translations, it dawned on me that the person asking the question was simply asking a question that is literally translated from an Asian language. In Chinese, the question would be, "你怕蟑螂吗？" (Literally "you scare(d) cockroach?) In the Indonesian and Cambodian languages, the English equivalent is exactly the same: "you scare(d) cockroach?" To make the question sound proper in English, you add "do" at the beginning. Hence,

Do you scare cockroach?

Of course, to the western mind, this would be ludicrous! If cockroaches were afraid of humans, they would not invade our homes and choose to make their home in ours.

Learning languages is fun. Learn to laugh at yourself. You will not forget the lesson.

Here's to exterminating cockroaches!

SMART phone or smartphone?

True story:

Me: Do you have a smartphone?
M: No, only Globe.
(Pause)
Ah! (lightbulb moment)
Hahaha. Yes, I have a smartphone.
(Still laughing)

Maybe only Filipinos will understand this joke, but with a bit of explanation, you will appreciate the simplicity of these few lines.

In the Philippines, the two biggest mobile phone service providers are SMART and Globe. Most Filipinos own two phones, one SMART and one Globe. Why? Use SMART to call friends who only have SMART service, and use Globe to call those on Globe. If calling a landline, use the phone that charges the least for calls to a landline. Then of course, there is always the issue of signal strength. Sometimes, you just have to use the phone that has a stronger signal in a certain area.

I was trying to find out from M if he had a smartphone so that we could text message for free using a chat app.

M does have a smartphone. We can chat for free while we are in our respective home countries.

Thank you, technology, for making our communication so simple.

Happy chatting across the world!

Please re-sting my tennis racket

I noticed this sign only after walking past it numerous times. Suddenly, it caught my attention. Of course, the grammar is wrong, but that is just minor compared with what they are advertising.

First, "sting" refers to an insect attack like that of a bee or hornet.

Second, a bee sting only happens once because the bee loses its ability to sting after one attempt. Therefore, there cannot be a "re-sting".

Third, tennis rackets cannot be stung. They are inanimate objects. They cannot feel pain.

A tennis racket, however, does need to get a new set of strings every so often when it is used frequently. This process is called "restringing". This is what the shop specialises in: restringing tennis rackets. Unfortunately, either the owner cannot spell or did not notice the typo error - for many years!

A minor error can mar a company's reputation for life. Let us check and re-check before it becomes "cast in stone".

Happy proof-reading!

An emoji speaks a thousand words

Congestion in the train (aka subway, metro) during the morning rush hours is a real problem in any big city in the world. Singapore is no different.

To help commuters in a hurry know how long they will have to wait to board the train or if there are any breakdowns on any of the lines, SMRT put up signs in every station to show this (pictured on the left).

The first signs had words only. Beside the name of each line (e.g. Circle Line), the word "normal" would show that the train service was running on normal schedule. However, some commuters cannot read English. To make the signs quickly recognisable, in came "emoji". Beside the word "normal" is a smiley face. Anyone in a hurry will catch this picture more quickly than words can.

If I can board the train quickly, I would be smiling too!

Emoji will be around for awhile yet.

:)

Do you speak Emoji?

A lament among older people is that young people today cannot string together a complete sentence. When asked a question, the young person will reply in a series of grunts and groans, peppered with a few words here and there. No wonder companies still invest heavily in public speaking skills for employees.

Let us now look at the written word. The majority of our communication today is by SMS or short messaging service. Whether you use a messaging app(lication) or conventional SMS, each piece of communication is probably going to be around 140 characters or less (Tweets included). It is bad enough that text language is a whole new field of learning, now we add Emoji, which is defined as:

a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication.

Contrary to popular belief, Emoji-speak is not the domain of the younger crowd. The people who send me emoticons and stickers are generally over 50 years old! While I do use some icons, I have yet to discover the whole lot of pictures and their meanings. I suppose there are so many puzzled people like me in the world. Hence this online Emoji dictionary!

Has Emoji-speak become a new language? I do not know, neither do I want to speculate.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Emoji could well be the epitome of this idiom! :)