Last Apartments
The Lake Chapala, Mexico area where this apartment building has been going up for over a year is home to the largest group of American and Canadian expats in the world—most of them over 60 years old. That taken into account, I don’t think its sign sends the correct message to their targeted renters. I’m sure the name “Last Apartments” is a rather unfortunate translation of “Ultimos Departamentos,” and for the superstitious, it is definitely not a great selling point. (Most probably, their intention was to convey that they will be the latest or best in design, but the translation from Spanish to English leaves the impression that no renter will be leaving the premises alive!)
I can see that it would be of putting too many.
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Ha.. Every time I’ve driven by it I’ve thought I need to get a photo. This time I did!
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I wonder that someone didn’t point out to them that it just doesn’t read right!
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This happens all the time in Mexico, especially in menus. And to be fair, I have committed some really laughable faux pas speaking Spanish, so I understand it completely. I should start collecting them and reveal one of my own flubs each time I chuckle over someone else’s.
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Good idea! It’s like when people translate Chinese into English through google translate. That’s hilarious.
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I have a whole book of Chinese signs in English. Yes, hilarious..but not as bad as I’d do trying to speak Mandarin. I once went from shop to shop asking if they had any penises when I was in Ethiopia and the first time I went to have my van washed in Mexico, I asked them to wash my pubic hair. No one outflubs me when it comes to foreign languages!!!
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Lol! The reaction from the locals must be interesting!😛
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No one else has every mentioned it, Sadje, but it is right on the only main road that extends between all of the towns on the northern side of the lake and I chuckle every time I go by it.
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Maybe they have gotten used to it.
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Abandon hope all ye who enter here comes to mind
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Ah.. we are of the same mind, then.
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🙂
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Perhaps they meant to convey that no-one would ever want to move away because they will be so nice 😀
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I’m sure they meant to convey a positive message, but the humor lies in the double entendre…intentional or not. Or perhaps it is just my own sick sense of humor that sees it this way!
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At first glance, I wondered if that meant they were finished building, and the sign was over the last of the bunch! In Hawaii, when they get to the top of a building, the last beam goes up with an American flag attached!
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So many interpretations for such a simple sign.
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Pingback: A Judy Dykstra-Brown Challenge: Unfortunate Signage – Cee's Photo Challenges
You know me too well. I just had to play along.
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I don’t think I have any of those pictures, but I’ll look. I love that stuff too, but I usually see it when we are driving past and there’s no time for a shot of it.
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Yes.. I’ve passed this sign a hundred times without having my camera out and always driving myself. This time camera was coincidentally on the seat and there was a short stop in traffic. Just long enough for one shot through the side windowglass, but luckily I’d just had the car washed so glass was clean.
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Really, they are Lost in Translation😂
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I love your premise!
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Pingback: Life’s Lessons: Unfortunate Signage – Beautiful Photographs
I thought that I’d published and posted a pingback already. I was wrong. I just found this in my drafts folder. Please forgive my delay! http://ecstaticeclectica.com/2019/10/18/lifes-lessons-unfortunate-signage/
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No problem. I didn’t put an expiration date on the prompt.
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I love taking photos of signage. Can be amusing and insightful.
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