昨天坐地車上班，看見一位小學生背著橙色的書包，十分醒目。但看真點，書包上竟印了Delay no more三個字，立即反眼。
把粗口或黑話加入產品，在香港並不罕見──之前14K不是風行一時嗎？但買那些產品的人，通常都明白文字的意思，而這位小學生及其父母，大概不知那三個字的真意吧？
有人覺得這是創意，栗不用大驚小怪。但把一些意思不明的文字帶在身邊，甚至穿在身上，絕對危險。想起【騎呢團友愛導遊】中，那件寫上Enter me rear的汗衣，真是哭笑不得。
不知那位小學生，何時才醒覺她背著一個印了粗話的書包呢？
我媽的工友試過穿一件胸口寫著「Squeeze me」的T恤......
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/17/2010 12:43:00]我記得你寫過，笑到我
Oh.....................
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/17/2010 16:08:00]唉
恐怕就是那位小學生醒覺是句粗話，才買下這個書包。你沒有見過小學生粗口爛舌嗎？
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/17/2010 16:06:00]但願不是啦，Isis。那個小女孩，看起來還蠻純的。
probably bought by her mum who does not know English?!
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/17/2010 17:09:00]I really hope so, Kenji
我想他的媽媽並不明白當中的意思，真慘﹗
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/17/2010 17:09:00]但願如此
Kenji, or could be that her mom interpreted the words literally, which could be construed as the English translation of 加油
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/19/2010 21:49:00]Teacher: I asked a man from the UK about this phrase and he said no British would ever say things like this.
我諗設計有時都會反抗一下「社會主流價值」，尤其是香港人做左咁多年順民。
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/19/2010 21:54:00]反抗社會主流價值我覺得沒問題，不過用在書包上似乎不好。萬一老師質問起來，豈不麻煩？
不過有沒有老師知道或留意到，又是另一個問題。
不知所謂的創意啦 ................
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/19/2010 21:55:00]如果連累小朋友受罰，就真是罪過
Every phase could have multiple meaning. In HK, you can even add to it what it could sound like in Chinese that could complicate thing. T-shirt in the West could be satire and not to be taken seriously. I always find HK interesting because it wants to use English but without understanding the Western culture.
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/19/2010 21:57:00]The problem is, some teachers may take it serious and punish the student!
To use English but without understanding the Western culture? Could you give me an example?
The T-shirt is an example. Message on T-shirt could be satire or self expression. People could wear "Squeeze Me" T-shirt in the West without anyone taking a second look. But in HK, it could be funny? T-shirt became popular in the 60's along with the free spirit moment. In a way, people don't take them too seriously and mostly just for fun. Like Teacher said, Delay No More in the West could be a straight forward positive message. Westerner don't know or care how that could sound like in other languages. Even Nike famous phase "Just Do It" could be bad in some other languages or in some Chinese dialects. I also learned from other Blogger when writing English email, if you don't use proper form, people assume you don't know English and give you a hard time but in the West, people would look past them as typo. Like 'add oil' which should really be 'add gas' but if the intention of the message get communicated does it really matter if it is oil or gas?
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/20/2010 08:10:00]Thanks, 土星人.
I think some people like to twist what others say (as a kind of creativity?), and this is quite common in HK. But I believe 一樣米養百樣人, probably should treat it as cultural issue.
I'm not sure if it's good to look past those improper forms or typos. Maybe it's because I'm still learning English, and I'd appreciate others correcting my mistakes.
I don't understand your British friend. "(any verb) no more" means "do not (verb) anymore". It is proper English, so I don't know why he said nobody says it that way.
回覆刪除而家D小學生唔好以為佢咁無知，其實佢哋d「三字經」仲講得熟過課本!!!
回覆刪除講起呢d印有英文字句嘅衫，我有件好鍾意嘅嘅衫印有「prostitute & sweet」，但係我就當冇嘢咁經常夏天著出街，有個男人發現咗之後即時禁止我再著，搞到我勁唔開心
At least in the US, T-shirts, wording on bags and stuffs could be very explicit in nature and maybe people are used to it and people in general don't think much of it. Also, the Western culture could be more open and people are more expressive. If you feel a need to express yourself with foul language you have the right to do so as long as it is not imposting on other people right. T-shirts and such is almost the perfect media to do so.
回覆刪除銅鑼灣都有個商場叫 Delay No Mall 啦!
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