Lost in translation
Tradition is important in Wales, so while most of the population speaks English, the country is officially bilingual, with both English and Welsh sharing equal status.
As a result, all road signs in Wales must be printed in both languages, although there is no requirement that city employees must be fluent in both.
In the city of Swansea, traffic officials have their own in-house translation department. So when a new sign was needed to redirect heavy vehicles, the English text was e-mailed to the translation department, and a Welsh reply was received in short order.
The sign was printed and put up, but it wasn’t long before officials began to receive complaints. They soon discovered that while the top half of the sign read “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only,” the Welsh on the bottom half translated to “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”
Wrong way sign
The state motto of South Carolina proclaims, “Ready in soul and resource,” but the same cannot be said for the state’s transportation department.
This summer, the state hired a North Carolina company to install 100 new signs as part of a new $255,000 Wayfinder Sign Program aimed at directing visitors to attractions around town, while also consolidating existing markers.
Perhaps forgetting that outside of NASCAR you can’t get everywhere just by making left turns, the crew installed two of the initial signs incorrectly, mistakenly pointing motorists away from the colleges and auditorium the signs promoted.
A South Carolina city worker has now been assigned to follow the North Carolina crew as they install the rest of the signs. As for why South Carolina city workers don’t just install the signs themselves . . . hey, is that Dale Earnhardt Jr. over there making a wrong turn toward the auditorium?!
Heroes among us
In times of trouble, people look for a hero to save them from their plight. When it comes to poorly written signs, that hero is Jeff Deck and his Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL).
Armed with markers, erasers and adhesive letters, Deck, a 28-year-old Bostonian, and a couple of college buddies set out on a three-month driving tour of the U.S. this spring with a mission to correct as many typos as they could find on public signs.
Deck said that TEAL was only able to correct about half the typos they found. Often signs were out of reach, managers weren’t in to give permission or the team was simply kicked off the premises.
Still, Deck said his team managed to correct around 300 signs. Deck even made it onto NBC’s “Today” show and is hoping to land a book deal about his adventure based on the blog he maintained during the trip.
Unfortunately, that blog also temporarily derailed his mission this summer. The Grand Canyon National Park Service discovered a post that Deck made on the blog describing how he had used Wite-Out and a permanent marker to correct a rare, hand-painted sign in their park. As a result, Deck was banned from all national parks for a year and ordered to pay $3,035 to repair the Grand Canyon sign.
So while the Typo League may be sidelined for now, we must never give up hope, instead remaining vigilant as we wait for the day when our hero returns. Which, according to Deck’s court order, could be any time after August 2009.
