The following are actual English subtitles used in films from Hong Kong:
Solve the puzzles by saying them out loud, over and over, faster and faster, repeating the phrase, until you "hear" the answer.
Example: LAWN SAND JEALOUS (place) Answer: Los Angeles
DON'T LOOK AT THE ANSWERS!!!!!!!
Answers:
| :-) | Your basic smiley. This smiley is used to inflect a sarcastic or joking statement since we can't hear voice inflection over Unix. |
| ;-) | Winky smiley. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark. More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smiley. |
| :-( | Frowning smiley. User did not like that last statement or is upset or depressed about something. |
| :-I | Indifferent smiley. Better than a Frowning smiley but not quite as good as a happy smiley. |
| :- | User just made a really biting sarcastic remark. Worse than a :-). |
Those are the basic ones...Here are some somewhat less common ones:
| (-: | User is left handed |
| %-) | User has been staring at a screen for 15 hours straight |
| :*) | User is drunk |
| [:] | User is a robot |
| 8-) | User is wearing sunglasses |
| B:-) | Sunglasses on head |
| ::-) | User wears normal glasses |
| B-) | User wears horn-rimmed glasses |
| 8:-) | User is a little girl |
| :-{) | User has a mustache |
| :-{} | User wears lipstick |
| {:-) | User wears a toupee |
| }:-( | Toupee in an updraft |
| :-[ | User is a Vampire |
| :-E | Bucktoothed vampire |
| :-F | Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing |
| :-7 | User juust made a wry statement |
| :-* | User just ate something sour |
| :-)~ | User drools |
| :-~) | User has a cold |
| :'-( | User is crying |
| :'-) | User is so happy, s/he is crying |
| :-@ | User is screaming |
| :-# | User wears braces |
| :^) | User has a broken nose |
| :v) | User has a broken nose, but it's the other way |
| :_) | User's nose is sliding off of his face |
| :<) | User is from an Ivy League School |
| :-& | User is tongue tied. |
| =:-) | User is a hosehead. |
| -:-) | User is a punk rocker |
| -:-( | (real punk rockers don't smile) |
| :=) | User has two noses |
| `:-) | User shaved one of his eyebrows off this morning |
| ,:-) | Same thing...other side |
| :-Q | User is a smoker |
| :-? | User smokes a pipe |
| :-D | User is laughing (at you!) |
| :-X | User's lips are sealed |
These are the nominees for the Chevy Nova Award. This is given out in honor of the GM's fiasco in trying to market this car in Central and South America. "No va" means, of course, in Spanish, "it doesn't go."
1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"
2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
4. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick."
5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.
6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
7. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I Saw the Potato" (la papa).
8. Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.
9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."
10. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
11. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant!"
12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its newleather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish!
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