Saturday, July 29, 2006

Only in Syria: Borong Bus??

Does anyone here know what is a "Borong Bus"?

If you guys give up, let me know so I can tell you.

Shame on you guys... no takers? Here is the story of Borong Bus.
Borong Bus is not a fictional hero (although it sounds like it), it is not a Syrian dish, and it is not a brand name of anything.
As I drove my brother and his wife yesterday to the airport, I couldn't help but noticing a big printed illuminated box stating the conditions of travel for Syrians, Arabs, and foreigners written both in Arabic and English.
The note states in arabic the following:

"على المسافرين أن يكون بحوزتهم جواز سفر صالح وبطاقة الطائرة (بورونغ باص) قبل دخول باب المغادرين"


I tried hardly to think what could this be. Is it an IATA terms that I don't know? Is it a typo of some kind? Is it a Persian or Urdu or Hebrew translation of "plane ticket"?
I only found the answer when I scrolled down and looked at the English version. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of it, but I didn't. Furthermore I think the airport is a no-photo area and I would be afraid someone would grab me and put me into a cell.
Anyway, the English version was a three liner with at least 6 or 7 grammatical and spelling errors, and it states that "departures foreigners should have their passports and plane tickets (Borong Bus) with them.... bla bla bla" I can't remember the exact wording but I will get it if possible soon.

I felt ashamed of myself being in this place where no one even bothers to get someone who knows a little bit of English to make the sentecne look right. Being in this place where "Boarding Pass" becomes "Borong Bus" (apparently the person who dictated the English version is both hard of hearing and cannot pronounce the letter "P" right).
I am sure the country is full of typos and deadly mistakes of this kind. But what does it take to have an English literature graduate construct a neat sentence with no "assholeness" such as above to save themselves such humiliation? And yes I say humiliation, because what are those "departures foreigners" going to say about the management or the government when they see stupidity expressed in its simplest version in the places where it shouldn't show?

I pledge to our officials to consider perfection in these slight features of modernization and civilization as opposed to the common rule of هات إيدك والحقني

And I wonder what would an official in the airport do if someone brought that to his attention? Maybe I should and tell then what will happen.

5 Comments:

At Sun Jul 30, 06:45:00 PM GMT+3, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is it the "hoob-hoob"?

 
At Mon Jul 31, 01:09:00 PM GMT+3, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You may be a bit harsh on your country. We get criticism all the time that the Spanish translations are grammatically incorrect also. I admit that seems a bit worse than most.
Felicia

 
At Mon Jul 31, 07:37:00 PM GMT+3, Anonymous Anonymous said...

lol,fatal mistake!

You should make this mistake clear to the officials! balash fadaye7!

 
At Wed Aug 02, 01:35:00 AM GMT+3, Blogger Bassam said...

I am unaware of the issue of Spanish in USA, but that is also inexcusable. But anyway, the issue here is a not a matter of a typo or mistranslation. It is a matter of ignorance and confidence in it.
If the next time I go to the airport this is still up, I will attempt notifying someone in charge.
As per the good things about my country, I am sure there is plenty. And when something goods strikes me so I think of writing about it, then I will. This is still about things I see and experience. And Honestly I find more joy in writing about things of this sort as opposed to praise (which is boring to write about most of the time)

 
At Fri Aug 04, 07:06:00 PM GMT+3, Blogger مترجم سوري said...

lool
the whole airport should be blew off
it's really a shame to have Damscus name on it

 

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