If you read Spanish you need a permit — or the cops may get you
From Dan Gaffney’s Facebook page
Feast your eyes on the sign at the left, recently removed from a playground in Delaware. Oh how clever those Mexican-hating “public servants” can be.
The translation for the Spanish portion: “You must have a permit to play in this field. Violators will be subject to police action.”
Raw Story has more:
Milford School District Superintendent Dr. Phyllis Kohel told Delaware Online that she immediately took action to remove the sign on Sunday afternoon.
“I didn’t want to wait,” she explained. “I certainly assume there was not an intent to discriminate… We have a great working relationship with all of the communities at the school, and there is absolutely an understanding that no ethnic group will be discriminated upon.”
Wilmington Councilwoman Maria Cabrera called for an investigation into how the signs could have been up for a year.
The story was broken by a conservative radio-show host, Dan Gaffney. Good for him!
January 8, 2013 - 8:00 AM
Sounds as though laziness on the part of the people charged with ‘interpretation’ was the cause, although my cynical side wouldn’t be surprised that possible other intent was involved.
This is what happens when you use Babelfish to do your translating, folks.
Why does Delaware discriminate against their other immigrants? Where are the signs in Mandarin, Hindi, Farsi and Arabic? And where’s the Braille and Ebonics for our citizens with special needs? And what an oversight to leave out the indigenous peoples, the Delaware Indians, and not have a sign in their native tongue of Lenape. When will the xenophobia and hatred stop?
POR, like it or not, this nation will eventually be completely bilingual, and probably in our lifetimes.
I’ve seen the results of what comes out of translation programs, and I learn towards Laura’s post. “Supervision” might have morphed into “permit”.
I would actually support making english the language of America by law. Then the funding we put into bilingual advertising, etc., should be pumped into elementary level education in the english language.
+1 Miriam! English should be the official language of our government.
Hablo un poquito de español, pero mi español no es muy bueno. Entiendo bastante para pasar y pedir una cerveza.
Comment by Other John — January 8, 2013 @ 12:28 pm
Una cerveza o un oso?
Other John, I think you should be able to always order a beer in english if you are standing on American soil…or American flooring inside a bar located in America…
Miriam, I would tend to agree…the only time I’ve actually needed to use it was to order a cheeseburger at an A&W in the RDU airport back in 1998. It was a while before my flight to St. Louis, and the entire staff was hispanic. They had trouble understanding my order, so I repeated it Spanish…they got it right, so I had no complaints.
Hillary, I sure would not to find an oso (bear) anywhere near me in a bar…unless it’s been to a taxidermist first, and even then, I still find those things a bit weird anyway!
OJ – while I was in Acapulco with a group of friends, we used a small English to Spanish dictionary. We were all going to order
beer – having had enough of the Mexican Margarita – when my friend thinking she looked up beer, instead, gave us the word for bear – un oso – so that’s what we ordered… the bartender [camarero] gave us the most startled look I have ever seen…thinking he had not heard us, we repeated it…needless to say we never did get that bear!
haha, Hillary…that is a great story!
Makes me wonder if he thought you all were pulling a “Danial Boone” for dinner…
http://www.zandkantiques.com/Folk-Art-Paint-Decorated-Box-Patriotic-Americana-Daniel-Boone-For-Sale.html
I’ve memorized “cerveza mas fina” from Corona bottles. Although I’ve been told it’s the PBR of Mexico.
Ustedes debe tener un permiso para jugar en este campo. Violadores seran susceptibles a accion policial. “You must have a permit to play in this field. Violators will be subject to police action.”
Is not really even close to:
Los padres o tutores supervisión es necesaria para el uso de este patio de recreo. Juega a tu propio riesgo. “A parent or guardian supervision is required for use of this playground. Play at your own risk.”
I would think anyone making, or anyone in charge of, a sign in a city with enough Spanish speaking people to require the sign in the first place would have only minor errors. This seems deliberate.
Even Babelfish did it right: “Supervisión de un padre o tutor es requerida para el uso de este patio de recreo. Jugar bajo su propio riesgo.” =”Supervision of a parent or guardian is required to use this playground. Play at your own risk.”
Nope, it is deliberate and I cannot speak much more than a word of Spanish.
Kristen, I think that’s a bit insulting to PBR…which is actually pretty decent, especially for the price. I’d compare Corona more to Milwaukee’s Best…which I’ve heard referred to as carbonated horse piss.
And Sandi…yeah, when I look at the text of the signs, it’s hard to claim it was a translation mistake…translation mistakes invole paerhaps a word or two meaning having a slightly different meaning from the intended, or maybe a phrase being a little different. The signs are completely different in every respect, except the background and text colors.
OJ, not sure if you meant to, but you just insulted horse piss.
@ dobbs…that seriously made me laugh!