Seremban Park Signs Get DIY Grammar Fix After Embarrassing Errors Go Unnoticed
Someone more proficient in English couldn’t stand the poor grammar and decided to correct the fitness station signs.
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Although Malaysia’s proficiency in English currently ranks third in all of Asia and 26th globally, there are still those who don’t have strong command over the language.
Depending on the area and level of education, many can either get by with simple phrases or engage in full-blown conversations. We won’t get into technical or professional use of the language here, though.
Writing in English however could pose more of a challenge for some, which often results in some amusing typos.
A neighbourhood park posted fitness station signs with broken English
Facebook page MainProp Seremban shared a series of photos of signages in English at a park in Seremban 2 with various grammatical errors.
On closer inspection, it seems that a resident or park visitor had taken upon himself (or herself) to make corrections by writing over the poorly-written signs.
One sign for a fitness station called ‘Log Hop’ had instructions that wrote “Standing on top of lower beam, stand your body for balance for few second or minute”.
Using a marker pen, the person who corrected it wrote “Stand on top of the lower beam, balancing your body for a few seconds to a minute” and left a note at the bottom saying “Whoever wrote this needs English lessons”.
Another fitness station sign wrote “Archilis Stretch”, which has a misspelling of Achilles. On this one however, the good language samaritan only corrected the instructions instead of the station’s name.
The instructions read “Stand and place your leg on the bottom bar and both hands on the top of bar. Stay for a while and repeat for others side”.
Another sign wrote “Stand underneath and the both hands try to touch above the bar”.
Frankly, the instructions are not written so horribly to the point that you cannot understand how to use the fitness stations.
Besides, when in doubt, you could always refer to the pictures on the signs. They kind of illustrate things a little bit more clearly compared to the written instructions.
Perhaps the committee that made these signs need to employ someone who writes better English, or at least get a third party to proofread the instructions before making the signs.
It’s not unusual for someone to be a strong writer but a less confident speaker, or vice versa. Both skills are important for effective communication, and it is beneficial to work on improving both areas.
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