Sign Language: Travels in Unfortunate English from the Readers of The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Books)
£2.70
A hilarious tour of the state of our mother tongue, from the people who brought you Am I Alone In Thinking . . . ?, Sign Language is a collection the most inappropriate, confusing, poorly translated and mind-bogglingly bizarre signs from around the world.
Few things amuse and appal Telegraph readers as much as the abuse, misuse, mistranslation and outright mangling of the English language. So, for the past three years the Telegraph has run a weekly feature inviting members of the public to send in photographs of menus, health and safety warnings, road signs, adverts, headlines and personals columns – anything in which the language has gone egregiously, hilariously and, usually, unintentionally wrong.
Entitled Sign Language, the published selection of the very best images has become one of the newspaper’s most popular features, attracting over 300,000 online visitors every week and attracting thousands of submissions from around the world.
Now, we present the very best of Sign Language – both seen and unseen – and offer a timely warning about the imperilled state of modern English.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Aurum Press Ltd (1 Oct. 2011) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 160 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1845137159 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1845137151 |
| Dimensions | 13.34 x 1.91 x 19.05 cm |
by Maggie from Devon
A great book and hilarious. A good read and great fun. Should be in everyone’s Christmas stocking. Bought it for a Christmas stocking but had to read it first and glad I did, otherwise I would have missed a good laugh. Highly recommended as a good bit of light relief.
by Brendalicious
There are some great signs in here, some like others have said are just mis-translations but that doesn’t stop them from making you have a good giggle, like the grilled paving slab, that one had us all giggling. I just had this image in my head imagining the ridiculousness of it all, going into a restaurant and some massive piece of slab being plonked on my plate and trying to cut into it with a knife.
However its over almost as soon as its begun which is shame because I love this sort of thing.
by Mrs S.
I gave this book to 3 men one Christmas and they all enjoyed it. It is well presented and a very nice small gift.
by Ann Keates
Bought as a gift for a neighbour as I was given one last Christmas. Consists of photos from around the world of signs (road signs/shop signs etc) with comic or bad English connotations. Slightly risque for maiden aunts!
by Mrs. P. O’toole
This book was given by me as a christmas gift, so i cannot rate the book, but i was pleased with the price and condition.
by Malcolm Parkin
Unfortunate English is alive and well and in the pages of this hilarious book that would make an ideal present after reading, as once told a joke is not funny the second time out.
My only downside comment is that there are too many of the usual foreign cross meaning and translation jokes, and not enough of the home grown variety.
Anyway, buy it and laugh! Delivered with classic Amazon speed and efficiency, by the way.
Malcolm Parkin
by IM
Bought as a gift for my dad and he loves it!!
by Eveta
A good giggle, his laughter on Christmas day was making us all laugh although we did not know what we were laughing at ……. He did!