Tweedehans +D, Tropish +C
The Dutch in these info panels in Kanal, the new museum in Brussels in the former Citroën garage on Sainctelette square, have been corrected by a visitor. The dutch texts are grammatically well done. But ‘second hand car’ would be ‘tweedehands auto’, and from the missing space and the d that is lacking suggest that […] more…
Kassier+ster
A little help was lend to translate the french into Dutch. ‘sac’ was orriginally translated to ‘koffer’, which means suitcase (valise). Corrected to ‘zak’ (bag). Some translation tool has apparently not understood the gender of ‘cassière’ and ‘caissier’, the translation for both turned into ‘kassier’ (male) but a small addition corrects this into ‘kassierster’. more…
Depotoir pour chiens
Citizens. My wall is not a dump for dogs. Please do not let your animals relieve themselves in front of my door. Thank you. more…
Sandwisherie
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Announcing the dark side
Rue Godecharle, 1000 Brussels (picture september 2018) Some undesired things cling on for a while. These grim looking left-overs of announcements are here since over a year, see the screen shot from g$$gle earth dating from may 2017. more…
Changed situation
Steenweg op Merchtem / chaussée de Merchtem, coming from Rue Piers. Since some time a troubling traffic sign is put up. (see previous post below). It mentions that the Chaussée de Gand, on the other end of the Merchtem street, can not be reached. But a small test proved that his is not the case, […] more…
No raids here
Ieperlaan, 1000 Brussels Two banners over the entrance to the Salvation Army: ” we don’t allow razzias (FR) and No razzias at our place (NL)”. These banners have been put up at several organisations in protest against the neo liberal right wing federal government who are raiding organisations ‘suspected’ of having ties with terrorism. It […] more…
Putting the L in nouvel
Gare du Nord, 1000 Brussels Renovation of the main hall is in full progress. Temporary signage is pointing travelers the way to the new entrance. An unfortunate translation mistake needed to be corrected on all posters. It became an adventure in individual letter placing and spacing. more…
New P
WTC, tower 1, Boulevard Albert II / Koning Albert II-laan 30, next to main entrance The World Trade Towers in Brussels were built in the 1970’s. One of the enterprises in the building is BNP Paribas, full name: Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, or in Dutch: Bank van Parijs en de Nederlanden. The P […] more…
Patrice Lumumba laan
Corner Rue Van der Noot straat + Boulevard Leopold II laan, 1080 Molenbeek Leopold II renamed to Boulevard Patrice Lumumba laan. See also: Boulevard de la Honte/ Schande laan Picture by Femke Snelting more…
Honte / Schande
Boulevard Leopold II, renamed to Rue de la Honte/Schandestraat (Following is translated from this webpage: https://3z5gorm1zxf7vqm2a0w6.oasis.sandstorm.io/index.html “In the night of Thursday, December 22, names of Brussels streets with colonial connotations were renamed to “Rue de la Honte / Straat van de Schaamte”: Street of Shame. This action aims at breaking with the glorification of the […] more…
Avis / Bericht
Not sure were I took this picture again, it has been a while .. The area on the wall carved in stone used to be a place to put up notices, it reads Avis / Berichten: A ‘message’ area. Now this parking meter takes the stage in a somewhat too centralised Oracle like position, as […] more…
C/Sigarettes
Spelling correction: in Dutch ‘cigarettes’ is spelled as ‘sigaretten’. This sign is on the balcony of the building that hosts cultural organisations such as Q-O2, FoAM and iMAL. more…
Un/re/writing the real
In the evening of 22 mars, many people gathered on the Beursplein in Brussels to write messages with multicolored crayons, expressing grief and solidarity with the people who suffered from the terrorist attacks that happened earlier that day. more…
Steen Pierre Rock
Cantersteen 3, 1000 Brussels This warning sign that surrounds a construction site just behind the central station in Brussels, warns in French for falling stones. The dutch translation ‘Risico van Rock vallen’ is of an interesting out of this world delirious level of surreal badness … How does one come up with this crazy stuff […] more…
Komechezsoi
Comme Chez Soi is one of Brussels best known restaurants. This snack on the Boulevard Baudouin is paying tribute with a funky deviation of that name. more…
Wifi free
Avenue Fonsny, 1060 Brussels Badly translated or very much avant-garde ? Does this café offer free wifi or is it a space where you can enjoy the abscence of wireless radiation ? more…
Buiten Diest
Grote Markt, 1000 Brussels. A small mistake in the translation to Dutch of ‘Hors Service’ / out of service: It should have been ‘Buiten dienst’. Some kind person added the missing ‘n’ with a pen. ‘Diest’, by the way, is a city in Belgium. Buiten Diest, therefore means ‘outside of Diest’. more…
Yser Break
Metro Yser / Antwerpselaan From Lunch Break to Metal tape ? Yser meaning Iron in Dutch. Somewhere in here there must be a word joke … more…
Corner Winkel
A nice bilingual shop sign on Rue du Midi, 1000 Bxl. In Dutch / English ‘Corner Winkel’ would mean: corner shop. In German / English it could be a poetic way to translate corner. ‘Corner angle’, ‘Corner corner’ hmm suggestions welcome. more…
No Fiets
Belgradostraat, 1060, Brussels more…
Fair warning
Zuidfoor / Foire du midi, Bruxelles A small linguistic hickup detected on the yearly Brussels fair: Forbidden to overtake the counter Interdit de dépasser le comptoir Verboden de balie in te halen photo by An Mertens more…
Plaffonage Heureuse / Gezegende Bezetting
Place Simonis, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Brussels more…
Aanaarding Remblai Aanvulling
Photo’s by Femke Snelting more…
The Passion for Clients
blvd Anspach, Brussels This sign for an employment agency reads ‘passion for clients’ but the visual language of the display, the way the posters are mounted on a colonial façade inbetween classical statues of some roman looking woman has some ‘master and servants’ connotations. Both the women represented in the statues and the women in […] more…
S(N)A(C)K A(T)LAS
Ernest Laudestraat, 1030, Schaarbeek, Brussels more…
NON
Molenbeek, photo by Tristan Boniver more…
Mechanisce constitut
Wiels, Av. Van Volxemlaan, 1190, Bruxelles more…
de 21h, van 20u
Brussel Deze Week, date unknown, photo Saskia Vanderstichele more…
d’Activiteit
Visverkopersstraat, crossing rue Dansaert A shop for rent, bilingually advertised. The grammatic bastard construction d’ activiteit is an excellent Brussels contraption of French and Dutch words, perfectly understandable, and much shorter than the correct Dutch ‘van de activiteit’ more…
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