Today closed, tomorrow who knows

Post office sign

This little wonder was indeed shot in Amsterdam. The post office folks are not obliged to speak English, but lo and behold, they felt compelled to express themselves in some sort of English. This was literally translated from Dutch. If you see nothing wrong with the syntax (the sentence structure), then you either do not know better or have been Dutchified.

I personally enjoy the ‘who are open’ because in French, it would be ‘who’ (‘qui’ sont ouverts). Since this is not Brussels where things are supposed to be bilingual in theory but are not in practice, my comparison is not very useful. Fact is, people throw a few English words together and actually think it’s OK. That’s what worries me.

(Photo: Yuri)

4 Responses to “Today closed, tomorrow who knows”

  1. Eric says:

    … and you dídn’t even mention the ‘postoffice’ versus ‘post office’ issue …

  2. Tjip Zigterman says:

    … on the other hand… try finding *any* signs or messages translated for visitors in France, Spain or Switzerland…
    At least the Dutch show some effort there.

    Tjip

  3. Natashka says:

    The Netherlands is too small to impose their language on tourists. It’s a numbers game. Switzerland has four languages – should be enough!

  4. Larry says:

    The sad thing is that if there’s an equivalent sign in Dutch posted on the door, it will probably contain mistakes too …

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