At the Other End ...

... of the spectrum of linguistic competence, this notice I found taped to a malfunctioning bank machine in Coronation Plaza.

In a way, you have to pay tribute to the work that went into the composition of this notice. You can almost hear the gears turning in the author's mind, as more formulaic options such as "Not Working" or "Out of Order" signally failed to present themselves. So carefully specified are space, time, and the existential salience of the "promblem" that, in the end, there was only enough energy left over for a singular "thank."

It's too bad. I really needed to update my passbook.

Coffee Shop Paronomasia

I saw this sign on a recent trip to Katong (in the eastern part of Singapore) and thought it was a very good example of a bilingual pun.

The Chinese says A li ba ba yi ding hao, which of course approximates the sound of the English rather well, and means "Ali Baba is sure to be good!"

I like the way the Chinese version eschews representing the final consonant of house. They could so easily have rendered it A li ba ba yi ding hao chi (Ali Baba is sure to be good eating), but that would have ruined the syllabic count!