McDonald Germany's New Asian Themed Ads

Reader Jenny G. emails:"Today, I came across a new McDonald's ad running in Germany. Apparently, they have come up with an asian-themed menu for Asia Weeks there in Germany. My problem is that they have managed to make a shape on the top of the sandwich buns that looks a bit like the kanji for 'Strength', but not quite. So I was hoping you could help...

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Only the Ones Asking for Tattoo

I get many emails daily asking for translation help. Some of them are very specific questions that deal with Asian history/language and usually are very in depth. Even though, they would take me hours to do background research and eventually come up with concise results, they are very intellectually enriching for me. On the other end of the...

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Wrong Country, Avril Lavigne

My pal Randall from Hong Kong emails me:"Hey Tian! Avril Lavigne was recently promoting in Hong Kong for an one-night show. She obviously had help from someone with a magic marker. Thought you'd be interested to see it. Cheers."I don't know whether it was the newspaper's mistake or Ms. Lavigne's PR people's carelessness, the phrase 日本最高 on Ms. Lavigne...

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Flash Errors at Local Shop

目 does not really mean "attractive", it only means "eye; item".價目 = (marked) price刺目刺眼 = irritating to the eye甲 does sometime represent "1st in order", it also means "shell". If there is no secondary character to provide contextual information, it could be translated either way.甲蟲 = beetle, insect with shell指甲 = finger n...

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"Speeding is not Safe"

Reader Callum sent me this photo of his friend's t-shirt.At first glance, I thought the shirt had 高速按 on it, which means "high speed press", something that is used in a dry cleaning shop.Then I realized that the phrase is actually 高速ネ安, but I had no idea what that meant. I then forward the photo to my associates to see if they would recognize what...

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Pointless Longevity

(http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A40411/high/iam00023669.jpg)This is another example of carelessness by the tattoo artist or/and the client. The top character 寿, simplified version of 壽, is missing a dot in the 寸 partial.寿 = old age, long life; lifespan忠 = loyalty, devotion, fidelity力 = power, capability, influence英 = petal, flower, leaf; brave, a hero;...

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I Forever You

This tattoo posted in BMEzine's gallery did not have a translation caption.The characters 我永你, "I forever you" reminded me of those "I heart NY" t-shirts and "I heart Huckbees" posters.我 = our, us, i, me, my, we永 = long, perpetual, eternal, forever你 = you, second person pronounThis is not even pidgin Chinese, at least pidgin is functional. (thanks...

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Chestnut Whiskers

While I was reading through BoingBoing.net, I came across a website called "Adult Engrish", which documents the comical misfortunes of an English teacher's life in Japan. As far as I can tell, the website is not associated with Engrish.com.The website's logo [seen above] has a hanko (traditional Japanese stamp, also known as 圖章 in Chinese) with 栗須...

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Foreign Frog

Reader Erin Delgado emails:"I used to wear this shirt quite a bit. I always assumed that the characters translated to 'dolls' because that is the brand name - 'dawls'. However I once wore it to Chinese restaurant and the waitress seemed a bit shocked by the shirt and now I only wear it in the privacy of my own home. However I am extremely curious...

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RTFM Shirt featuring Chairman Mao

A week ago I have featured a trendy purse with pro-communism slogan here. Yesterday, reader Ben Ostrowsky has sent me a link to a RTFM t-shirt [shown above] at lafraise.com.I really enjoyed the clever reference between Mao's red book and RTFM, which is a geek slang for "read the f*cking manual".I am start to wonder if it is trendy to be a commie these...

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Lusty Misfortune

Reader Ben Watson emails:"Hi Tian, I got this tattoo and I don't have a clue what it means. In fact, I can't even remember getting this tattoo. So if you are able to enlighten me I would appreciate it. I like your site, its very entertaining. Ben" 色 【いろ】 (n) (1) colour; color; (2) sensuality; lust; (P); EP 凶 【きょう】 (n) evil; bad luck; disaster;...

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Strength

Reader anonymous emails:"Good afternoon, Tian. I have been visiting Hanzi Smatter for some time now. Quite hilarious really. Anyway, an acquaintance recently got a tattoo of, what they think to be, the word "strength". Now, I have usually seen 力 being the kanji for those duties, but that is not the case here. I have looked up several kanji that could...

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HOWTO: Display Hanzi and Kanji

Recently I have received many emails from readers asking how to properly display Hanzi and Kanji on their computers. Since most PCs with Microsoft Windows operating system are English without East Asian language package(s) installed, the Hanzi and Kanji would show up as “????” and “□□□□”.Solution 1. Usually in Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP, there is...

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Failed to Recognize

The character shown in this tattoo supposed to be 識, which means "to know" or "recognize". Unfortunately, both the tattoo artist and the client failed to "recognize" the error, no pun intended. The tattooed character is missing a dot.識 = recognize, understand, k...

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Peaceful Flat Mousepad

Angela emails:"Tian, My sister has found this mouse pad on sale on Futureshop.ca. My understanding is that 和平 means 'peace'. But 平 alone means 'even' level; flat'! Cheers, Angela"Even though 平 is commonly translated as "peace", but technically it only means "flat" or "balanced". The phrase for "peace" is 和平; and sometimes in Japanese, 平和.平 = flat;...

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Trendy Pro-Communism Purses

Reader Chris Port emails:"I saw this site offering purses with (in addition to skulls) 'cool Asian script that no one knows the meaning of!' This looked like a job for Hanzi Smatter. Here's a closeup pic of the purses [shown above]. Thanks for any enlightenment you can grant, Chris"努力 = great effort; strive; try hard完成 = complete, finish, settle; whole整...

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Light, Literature, Catches Dragon

The first character could be 光, but I doubt it. The second character is 文. I have no idea what the third character is. The last one could be 弋.光 = light, brilliant, shine; only文 = literature, culture, writing弋 = catch, arrest; shoot with bowI have no idea what the phrase means, anyone el...

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