
In China, the rush to provide English versions of signs runs far ahead of available English speakers to make sure the meanings are correct. People that do not know much if any English consult dictionaries and guess. The results can be hilarious. Consider the picture at the right, from a hotel room in China. The Chinese character means pull which is obviously the intended meaning. So why does the English version read "Latin America"? The answer is simple. You consult a Chinese dictionary on how to translate 拉 into English. The first entry says "pull". but another entry says that it's an abbreviation of "Latin America" because the sound of the first syllable is the same. See more information about this here.
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