"A funny thing happened in Asia the other day..." Vol. 1 Ed. 2

This edition was sent out in a mass e-mail 19 Sept. 2008

The Vietnamese like to use Western characters for decoration, kind of like how we Westerners decorate our dorm rooms or tattoo our bodies with Chinese characters: because they look pretty--not because we know what they mean. As you can imagine, this leads to many semantic accidents. English phrases often pop up in the most surprising places. Here are some of the most whimsical examples I have come across:

-My thermos has a picture of a circus elephant and the words "Happy Time Ability"
-My bathroom trash can depicts a Roman Centurion, complete with chariot and war gear, who decrees: "Happiness to everyone!!!" (or else)
-On the chopsticks bin: "Work is glory!"
-On my host-sister's shirt: "Smoking glue doesn't keep families together."
-On many, many "sporty" t-shirts: ATHLENTIC GREAR
-And my personal favorite, the following t-shirt


Poor guy. And of course, since there are two sides to everything, let me give you a sampling of what I sound like to the Vietnamese: "Hello...Mr...can help me...um...Bach Mai street where?...um...repeat?...mmm (vigorously nodding)...

mmm (confused look)...thank you very much." Repeat again five minutes later. Eventually I find my way.

That's all for now! I hope you have enjoyed edition 2 of "A funny thing happened in Asia the other day..."
much love,
Hannah