I’m teaching a class. As a minor part of the class, I asked the students to turn in a copy of their resumes. Many of my students don’t apparently understand what an appropriate “objective” on a resume is–hint: it isn’t “to get a job in an exciting, fast-paced industry” Be specific!
Anyway, one student’s objective read "to peruse a job . . . "
I looked at that, and looked at that, and finally wrote “persue” next to it. I looked at that, and looked at that, and finally, as I went to hand the resume back to the student, borrowed a pen, crossed out “persue” and wrote “pursue”.
I was absurdly happy to have figured out the correct way to spell the word.
There must not be such things as “plural nouns” in some Asian languages. Many Korean-run businesses in NYC will advertise (often on professionally done signs) that they sell “HAT, CAP, WATCH”, or that there is 'SEATING UPSTAIR".
I used to use wierd as a matter of choice, just because it looked a little…wierd. That don’t fly here, of course.
I might have posted about this a while back, but reminds me of the large chain department store (well, at least the branch I worked in all those years ago) that has this sign on the doors of all the “employee-only” areas:
“Employes Only”
Sheesh. Couldn’t get this mega-million-bucks company to shell out a few bucks to replace the signs. Seriously. Purchasing didn’t go for it. :rolleyes:
I am truly glad for you, Eureka, but I will never get ‘pursue’ right. When I leave here and have to write that word in, say, an e-mail, I will have to pause to mull,"…per or pur…oh crap, I’ll use a synonym I’m sure of."
My current favorite gripe is the Army and Air Force Exchange Service’s motto:
Every time I encounter one of the managerial staff, I point at the sign and ask them why they have a misspelled motto. I’m nice about it, too. I even explain why the correct version is
Deer have nothing on these folks for vacant looks.
Oh man, I love this thread in general, but AHunter3 and Beware of Doug with the ATTENTENT’N made me laugh so hard I cried and woke up my boyfriend. No exaggeration at all.
I have a few that aren’t that funny, but I’ll toss them in to be more on topic.
There is an Internet cafe near our apartment which advertises WORLD OF WARCRART.
There is also a Vietnamese place which offers Vietnamses food. (Gollum: “Myyyy Vietnamses! We loves them, yes we does…”)
And this one doesn’t really count as Fun with English, more like Fun with Misinterpreting Vietnamese: There also used to be another Vietnamese place called PHO BICH NGA. You can imagine what people actually called this.
I was watching the Miami Ink marathon yesterday and saw the guy get his "Get Busy Livin’ or Get Busy Dyin’ " tat.
It was a gorgeous skull and cobra. I couldn’t see the whole of the last word but I could swear it started “die”. I can’t find it in the galleries but I got two looks at it and did not see a “dy”. And that’s permanent, dude! :smack:
I got one worse than that. A friend of mine told me this story. He and and not very bright friend of his were drinking and NVBF decided to tatoo the words “Judas Priest” on his forearm himself. NVBF showed my friend his work when he was done. My friend told him that he had spelled it wrong. NVBF goes to work with a lighter to try to burn the “ie” in Priest off of his arm.
He had tattoo’d “Judus Priest” and all he would have had to do was put a line across the “u” to make it an “a” - he had spelled Priest correctly. Now, and for the rest of his life, he has
"Judus Pr(big nasty scar)st on his forearm.
Maybe I’m getting whooshed here, but that’s the way the sign is supposed to be. It’s a joke, albeit not a very good one. What is the church missing? U (You). Get it?
The medical magazine I work for had a classified ad that ended with the line: “Handicappers welcomed.” It took me a few seconds to realize what they were stabbing at – we’re an equal opportunity employer and people with disabilties are encouraged to apply. I wrote to the classified manager to let her know that according to the dictionary a handicapper was someone who set the odds on a horse race, but she insisted the client wanted it that way. Sheesh.
When I lived in Austin there was a sign on a junk shop on that read
AUNTIE PONUERS
After about the 30th time seeing it I finally figured out what they meant: entrepreneurs.
I had a boyfriend once who hand wrote me a long (10+ pages), impassioned letter after I broke up with him. Everytime he wanted to emphasize something, he put it in quotation marks. I briefly considered marking it up with red pen and sending it back to him (the letter was all about the many, many things wrong with me, you see), but didn’t want to continue the interaction at all.
