Engrish in software

[Tripredacus]

Is there anything more entertaining than finding Engrish in computer software or manuals? Mostly these are systems that come from Southeast Asia. I have seen such things with AOpen, MSI and ASUS. Do you know any good ones?

First I would like to note that most AOpen miniPCDuo documentation is full of broken English. The main example is a drawing of the world that they did. I will have to try and scan this so I can post the picture. It is a horribly rendered picture of the continents in the world. Also to note is the "plus" / + or "minus" / - shape screwdriver mentions. Or this gem:

"Take the chassis Module. Detach 6 screws of the CPU cooler by the "+Shape" screwdriver. The sequence of operationis 1-2-3-4-5-6."

"This socket supports FCPGA6 package CPU (Socket P), which is the latest Merom Core 2 Duo (Santa Rosa) package developed by Intel. Other forms of CPU package are impossible to be fitted in."

Also the term "anticlockwise"

IIRC the Digital Engine manual says to listen to "the click voice" when you put in memory.

These may be old classics... I may have even posted about them before. Today I found a new one. While trying to update the BIOS on a notebook, I was greeted with this message:

Filename is Fail!

I roffled.

[jaclaz]

Sure it can be either Chinglish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish

or Engrish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engrish

There are entire sites dedicated to it.

You must understand that speaking or writing English for a foreigner is anyway difficult and inevitably leads to some errors/mistakes, expecially if the author is someone that speaks and writes in several languages or comes from a country where a different kind of alphabet is used, this is particularly evident with native Japanese and Chinese, which do not have an alphabet at all, but rather ideograms or logograms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideogram

the actual mental way of dealing with this kind of writing is fairly different from the way westerners are used to.

However, should you have missed it, one of the best sources of laugh is "English as she is spoke":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke

Integral text:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Engli...he%20Is%20Spoke

One of the best Chinglish pages seems like is not accessible anymore.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.si...h/chinglish.htm

(unfortunately some images appears like missing nonetheless)

This one is my favourite:

http://web.archive.org/web/20061024063158/...lish/ching7.htm

jaclaz

[uid0]

Also the term "anticlockwise"

That's not Engrish, that's English

[Guest]

The proper word is "counterclockwise."

I'm surprised nobody has found the obvious URL:

http://www.engrish.com/

Edited June 3, 2009 by 5eraph

[jaclaz]

The proper word is "counterclockwise."

In the U.S., not in English (meaning British English):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterclockwise

The opposite sense of rotation is anticlockwise (the current British English term), counterclockwise or contraclockwise (now chiefly North American English and typically abbreviated CCW).

jaclaz

[Guest]

Fair enough, jaclaz.

[jaclaz]

Fair enough, jaclaz.

JFYI :

http://www.themonkeycage.org/2008/09/post_122.html

jaclaz