Stay hyDRAEted

From Alex Strange:

This sign I keep seeing at local events in the SF Bay bothers me every time I see it. (and then the Japanese people I've shown it to also thought it was unappetizing) So I thought I'd send it into languagelog.

The worst part is, it's not really wrong.ドレイのレモネーど (dorei no remonēdo) does mean Drae's Lemonade. It's just you can't avoid reading it as "slave lemonade" (dorei / ドレイ / 奴隷). Maybe they should pick a different other language?

PS Every time I've been in Japan recently the English has been quite good everywhere, unless I'm just used to Japanese sensibilities now like why it'd make sense to name a secondhand store "Hard Off".

On the other hand, the last time I visited, I flew through Germany and Lufthansa's website and emails were full of mistakes.

(VHM note: Depending on how things go in the comments, I may make one of my own about the proliferation of Japanese signs in suburban Philadelphia.)

Selected readings

• "Mysterious sign in Japanese and Russian" (3/27/15)
• "Dogs and Japanese not admitted" (3/2/13)
• "Chinese, Japanese, and Russian signs at Klagenfurt Botanical Gardens" (6/12/16)
• "Miswritten character on a Tokyo Metro sign" (7/31/15)
• "Please do not anything" (1/16/23)
• "Particle amnesia" (1/27/17)