Monday, July 07, 2008

You have many question, Mr. S. I send you premium answer question, hundred percent!

Typical for a man who owns Hong Kong’s most popular New York-themed pool hall, my normal source for translation has gone missing. So I’m turning it over to the internets. Can anyone decipher this sign that another friend found in Hokkaido?



I'm hoping it isn't too offensive since it's about to be embossed on a t-shirt.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll take a medium, thanks.

Dakota said...

"STOP!
It is illegal for people underage to drink alcohol!
Check for proof of age!"

I'm going purely off the Chinese characters embedded within the Japanese, but that's definitely the idea. There are a few small question marks (there's a long strong of Japanese at the end of the first sentence, and there's no telling why the character "zhong," or "middle," is slung on to the end of the final sentence), but I'm still pretty confident in the translation.

Dakota said...

On second glance, the second sentence should be "We are in the process of age verification" -- that is, "We I.D." It's a statement, not a command.

A more graceful translation:
"Alcohol consumption by the underage is forbidden by law.
We check I.D."

the Nabob said...

Thanks Dakota, friend of Diplodocus!