Filed by Victor Mair under Lost in translation, Writing systems.If this kind of misunderstanding is possible with only three characters (and it happens a lot in daily life), one can well imagine the types and quantity of reading errors that result from character texts that have no spaces at all (as in Classical Chinese) or only when marked by punctuation as in Modern Chinese. This is a good example of how Pinyin (Romanization) with proper word division is clearer than writing only in characters without any spacing.

The erroneous rendering on the sign is taken directly from Google Translate.

Instead, 签到处 should have been parsed as qiāndào chù, lit., 'signing-in place', i.e., 'sign-in desk' or 'registration desk / department', as one might encounter at a conference or workshop. Code).The following sign was posted on Weibo (China's Twitter clone):Īs it appears on the sign, the translator must have parsed the three characters 签到处 as qiān dàochù, though the correct grammatical order and wording for 'sign everywhere' would be dàochù qiānmíng 到处签名. This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Then, we will debate whether 'coincidences' mean anything? Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. We answer the question: What does 'synchronicity' mean. Messinger, Carl Jung, and more are featured in this episode. As the song says, 'Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs.' Should you plan your life based on signs? Is the universe trying to tell you something, or is your imagination just running wild? Part Two (2) of our exposé on whether the universe is trying to tell you something. Signs, Signs, Everywhere 2-'The Real Deal' w Dr.

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