Cus maigheás!

[muckefuck]

In the film Stripes, Harold Ramis is introduced as the instructor in an ESL class full of immigrants. He asks them, "Does anyone speak any English?" and one student tentatively raises his hand, saying "I speak little English." He asks the man to share what he knows with the class, and the mans says, "Shit. Son of a bitch." The entire class repeats "SHIT. SON OF A BITCH."

That's a glimpse of what it must be like to be an Irish teacher in the USA. Every American knows basically three Irish phrases "Sláinte!" ("Cheers!"), "Erin go bragh!" ("Ireland forever!"), and "Pogue mahone!" ("Kiss my ass!")

Now let's further imagine that you go to the home country of Ramis' student and see t-shirts and signs blazoned with "SONAVABICH". It's in the name of local business, from pubs to horse farms, often in a grammatically senseless shortened form like "Sonav". Be honest: just how big a pack of idiots would you think those people were?

What brings this all up is that monshu had lunch yesterday in a place called Pug Mahones. (Presumably the alteration of the first syllable was driven by the need to avoid confusion with existing businesses, but of course it only makes the owners look more moronic.) When, I keep wondering, will I ever have the pleasure of eating at a taqueria named "Chupamé Lapoya's"? Or a Chinese take-away named "Tsau Tah Mah's"? How long before the next enterprising pub owner realises that every plausible corruption of póg mo thóin has already been exhausted and he'll half to resort to mangling dún mo bhod instead?

Comments

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

The menu includes a "Rueben", which I also find grating. (Is that a sandwich originally containing beets?)

[strongaxe.livejournal.com]

There are apparently several places called "Nacho Mama's". And don't forget the quasi-Mexican chain "Chi Chi's" (i.e. "boobie's" [sic])

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

"Nacho Mama's" is actually a reasonably amusing pun. There's nothing amusing or clever in a bad respelling of póg mo thóin.

Chi-Chi can be a nickname as well as a euphemism (in addition to world famous golfer Chi-Chi Rodríguez, there's MLB pitcher Chi-Chi Olivo), so "Chi-Chi's" is actually a plausible name for a restaurant. The same can't be said for "Pogue Mahone's". "Pogue" is a (rare) Irish surname, but it's never used as a given name.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Now let's further imagine that you go to the home country of Ramis' student and see t-shirts and signs blazoned with "SONAVABICH".

Well, that sort of thing happens all the time:



I'm a big fan of http://engrish.com/ and http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/ myself.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does--and when it does we make up blogs expressly to ridicule it.

[embryomystic.livejournal.com]

Maybe there should be a similar blog for misuses of Irish? I suppose for maximum exposure it could be bilingual, so that the sort of people who might otherwise stray down the garden path of Irish-so-bad-it-makes-your-head-hurt will be able to take heed.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

We need a catchy Irish equivalent to "Scumraeg".

[embryomystic.livejournal.com]

I confess that I don't get the reference. But the more I think about this, the better an idea it seems. Maybe it could be a group effort, run by a rotating cast of snarky, international Gaeilgeoirí.

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

Here in Barcelona there is a restaurant named El Pollón. Maybe not surprising that it is located on C/ Enamorats.

Chuck