Interesting Uses of English Around the City

My first lost in translation moment came early in my trip. I was out having drinks with several Mongolian anesthesiologists which was a lot of fun. (One of them gave me a 1 Togrog note which is worth about 1/15th of a cent and kind of difficult to find). I was speaking with one of them who spoke pretty much every language but English. He kept telling me has was pathetic. He told me this over and over until someone else interjected and said, "I think he is trying to tell you he works in pediatrics." Then they explained to him what pathetic means.

There are plenty of great examples of poor choices of words around the city. My favorite part of the signs and t-shirts around the city is they are generally grammatically correct but inappropriate for the situation. Some of my favorite t-shirts have been:

Patronize your local merchant, he's your neighbor. While the message here is a good one, especially due to our current climate problems, I still wonder if the wearer knows exactly what is on their shirt. This shirt is also incredibly popular, I see it all the time.

No Paint, No Gain. Maybe they were trying to make shirts that said: No Pain, No Gain. Maybe they are paint ball enthusiasts. I will never know.

Honk If You Love Skateboarding. One of the doctors at work was wearing this. I laughed.

And as Kate reminded me, Some Call it Stalking, I Call it Love.