No dash on to a Train

Posted on July 3rd, 2008

This photo comes from the platform of the Seaside Line in Yokohama which I used last weekend to go to the Yokohama Bayside Marina to go sailing with a friend of mine. (It also goes to Hakkeijima Sea Paradise.

I find this sign a bit striking because it is located so close to Tokyo. Usually the more into the countryside one goes, the worse the English becomes, but in this case it’s near Tokyo and Yokohama.

The mistakes here of course are the use of the indefinite article (”a”) instead of the definite article (”the”), the capitalization of “Train”, and the space between “on to” - all admittedly difficult nuances since they don’t exist in Japanese. All the more reason to ask a native speaker such as myself to proofread your important English translation that will be seen by thousands of people!

Shock English: No dash on to a Train
Correct English: Don’t run onto the train; Don’t dash onto the train

Tags: information, public, Trains and Mass Transit|電車、交通機関
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Public security announcements: understandable, but why not proofread the headlines?

Posted on June 18th, 2008

Here’s another poster I recently saw in a subway station. In this case the English isn’t terrible to the point of being wrong or misleading. But it’s still wrong. How easy would it to be to get a native speaker to check the phrasing on important posters like this in public places that are seen by many people?

Shock English: We reinforce railway security.
Correct English: Reinforcement of railway security:

Shock English: Other rules when you see unattended item. Don’t touch! Don’t smell! Don’t move!
Correct English: When you see a suspicious item: Don’t touch it! Don’t smell it! Don’t move it!

Tags: announcement, information, poster, public, security, Trains and Mass Transit|電車、交通機関
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For Japan Rail, poor translations mean everything is an accident…

Posted on June 15th, 2008

Inside the JR Yamanote line trains, since around 2001 or so they’ve had state-of-the-art large LCD sign boards displaying comprehensive train information, news, and commercials. One of the info screens is for train delay information of Tokyo train lines.

But just what are the causes for those delays? Some lazy translator working for JR decided to translate most of the reasons as “accident.” You’d think they’d want to promote themselves as having fewer accidents, not more!

At least some of the translations are reasonable, like the one for crowding (see picture), which I could never imagine happening in America.

So many people see this information every day and the translations are so sloppy and easy to fix that it boggles my mind. Delays due to car inspection and signal trouble seem quite common, but English speaking riders will only see these as accidents. Why don’t we fix these mistakes? (Note: There are more reasons than those in the list below.)

Tags: accident, information, Japan Rail, JR, public, Trains and Mass Transit|電車、交通機関, yamanote
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