For those of you out there who are partial to a common form of Americanized Chinese cuisine, and have been for at least a little while, you may be familiar with the archetypical example of what is sometimes (unflatteringly) called "Engrish," to wit: The Chopstick Instructions.
For those who can't read past the glare, it says, "Welcome to Chinese Restaurant. please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks the traditional and typical of Chinese glonous history. and cultual."
While I cannot speak to the typicalness of its glonous history, I did just find out that "cultual" is an actual word. It means "of or relating to cult or worship."
Given the excessive number of posts and images on the web about this particular chopstick exemplar, I have to admit the word may not be completely ill-chosen.
Personally, I think that these instructions are written by someone with perfect Oxford English who wants to make them look 'authentic'.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly a viable theory.
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