The Taitung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday faced ridicule after the English-language translations of several public signs were found to be riddled with “Chinglish” and direct phonetic transcriptions.
The incident originated from a message posted by netizen Shih Wei-ting (施韋廷) on a Facebook fan page titled “Love Taitung” (就是愛台東) on Saturday, in which he said an English sign outside the office that was meant to caution people about a slippery floor on rainy days read: “Please careful day rain Lu Hua.”
Lu Hua (路滑) is the pinyin phonetic transcription for slippery roads.
Photo: CNA
Following the Facebook post, two more office signs were spotted with similar problems. A sign that is supposed to guide visitors to enter the office through side doors reads: “Please by both sides turnover.”
The other is meant to remind people to keep the doors closed because the office is air-conditioned, but instead reads: “The air conditioning opens.”
Some netizens urged public servants to retake English-language classes, while others said the signs might have been intended to amuse people going into the office, as most could be defendants in lawsuits.
In response, head prosecutor Ko Yi-ju (柯怡如) said the office was embarrassed by the signs and had immediately removed them, adding that it planned to examine all the other English-language signs in its building.
“English translation of the public signs was outsourced by the office’s general affairs section to an outside company. We placed too much faith in the company’s English proficiency to remember to thoroughly review the works and verify their accuracy,” Ko said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS