So if your wipers aren’t working you also shouldn’t switch the headlights on?
He also apparently believes that your headlights should be on if you are wiping a bug off your windshield in the middle of the day.
Sign seen upon entering a certain city:
It’s not the use of English that’s bad, but rather your understanding of English that’s bad.
It would be inappropriate for me to stand in a public park and say, “I hate black people”; but it would NOT be prohibited.
It would be inappropriate for me to show a scary movie to a 5 year old, but it would NOT be prohibited.
And by the way, not all vehicles are authorized to use public roads; a vehicle has to be registered and insured before it can be legally driven on a public road.
Using the word bad when one means poor. You did mean poor english, right? Bad english must be punished.
I’ve had this happen in two different workplaces. A particular item (let’s say a water pitcher for a coffee machine) needs to stay stored in a particular place. Someone writes on the item: “Keep Pitcher Here.”
Very helpful, genius.
Actual English-language wording of a sign I saw at a picnic ground near a waterfall in Laos: “Please keep cleaning.”
Actual English-language wording of a sign I saw at a rest stop during a Kathmandu-Pokhara bus trip in Nepal: “Sleeping and fooding good here.”
I believe the wording has been changed, but there used to be signs at the foot of escalators on the London Underground saying “Dogs must be carried”.
Despite the signs, people went on the escalators even though they were not carrying dogs.
Bad English or proves the world is doomed - telling people they shouldn’t visit something they already know is inappropriate means we don’t have much faith in the computer lab users.
To play devil’s advocated, where would be an appropriate place to express such a sentiment?
Lord only knows what you’re going to do when you learn of the existence of laws against murder.
I can’t stand when someone says something like “you don’t want to overdo it” or (especially when arguing) “You always think you’re right.” Duh! If I overdid it, that’d be bad by definition! If I thought I was wrong, I’d change my mind so that I’d be right again!
Sometimes I wonder if these signs are intentionally written this way so that people who just barely speak English can understand it. Are you more likely to know “good here” or “permitted on the premises”?
nm
It could be an enforcement requirement. As an example, in our city the police won’t allow the owner of a store or parking lot to tow away vehicles parked in a no parking allowed area unless there is a sign of appropriate size stating that parking is not allowed, using a particular and exactly copied phrase, plus the number of the section of the municipal code giving them the right to post such a sign. They won’t ticket the cars, either, without the sign. And the letters have to be at least a certain size.
So trespassing may be illeagal in the area, but an owner may not be able to call for enforcement if the area isn’t posted, and posted in a specific way. On the other hand, the added words may be there for decoration. You know, to make the complaint look more official. Because jerks have been wandering through like they thought they belonged there if they hadn’t been personally invited to bug off.
We keep several reference books at work.
One day a supervisor stuck a label that reads “for reference only” on each reference book.
mmm
ISO xxx requirement?
I’m not a librarian but my understanding is that this phrase is used to distinguish between books that are to be kept for quick reference in the immediate area, and books that may be borrowed for long periods of time.
In other words, what the supervisor was saying, shorthand, was:
"For fck’s sake people, do not be an inconsiderate a$#hole by borrowing this book semi-permanently while the rest of us tear our hair out trying to find it when we need to look something up!"*
I take it that you speak grammatically perfect Nepali, then?
Grammatical errors in a foreign language are not particularly amusing unless they substantially alter the meaning of the sentence.
Of course we don’t. A computer lab open to a general populace will get, say, 10% wonderful people, 80% schmoes, and 10% terrible people (you can tell by these percentages what a Pollyanna I am). The sign is intended for the final 10%; its implication is that if they act terribly in the computer lab, there will be consequences for their terrible behavior.
Your psychologist’s couch.
Your examples seem to demonstrate to me that you’ve never learned how to read the subtle connotations of language, that you read things only on the most superficial level. That means you’re missing out on the bulk of the communications that humans do on a daily basis. The “Bad English” in this case is yours, but it goes deeper than a single language.
So I’m the only one who now has “When I See You Smile” stuck in my head?