Zoo Engrish

This Engrish picture today comes from Forumosa, a popular meeting and discussion place for expats and Taiwanese.

At first it seems rather incomprehensible, but thanks to some of the Chinese speakers at Forumosa, it was quickly decoded.

The first sentence means “No destruction of property.” The second sentence is really odd, but it’s just a simple misspelling. The Chinese means “No graffiti” and the “scrabbling” is obviously a misspelling of “scribbling.”

Finally, the last sentence in Chinese means “Let us enjoy the zoo.” How they got “Let us zoo in” is beyond me.

What’s interesting is that it is apparently a use in the Chinese of a subjunctive or imperative tense, so really, as one of the forum posters pointed out, a suitable translation would be one of the following:

No vandalism and no graffiti makes things more enjoyable for us.
No vandalism and no graffiti affords us enjoyment.
Without vandalism or graffiti, we can better appreciate [the zoo].
A zoo without destruction and graffiti
is a zoo we can all enjoy and appreciate.


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