Portuenglishese

One of the interesting things about living in Brasil is reading signs in English. Rarely do we find a translation that is really well done. Something is usually misspelled or just doesn't make sense. As a former school teacher, it drives Benay crazy. The rest of us always get a really good laugh from it. We think we could make some good money working for the city government, hotels, etc. just being English advertising translators.

It's not just print advertising. Recently Bronwyn and Ansley were asked to do a voice over, in English, for a commercial that would be played in Brasil and also taken to the Cannes Film Festival in France. Benay went along and listened to what they were saying in the commercial. She finally couldn't stand it and told the director of the commercial that what they were saying in English made no sense. He actually argued with an American, English speaker about whether or not it made sense. He finally said, "It will be shown to an international audience. It will make sense to them." At that point Benay threw up her hands and gave up. Like I said, it drives her crazy.

We thought we'd share an example of my amusement and Benay's frustration. The following is from a breakfast card that was at our hotel on our recent trip. It was set in front of the food item and it was explaining, to those who speak English, what the food item was.

Here it is:

Any ideas? Here's what it is.Still don't know for sure? It's our hotel's version of French toast.