Lost in Translation

My first languge was German. English came into my life in Kindergarten, five years later. Growing up, most of my friends' parents were immigrants as well. They spoke to their kids in their mother-tongue and we, the kids, replied in English.

Many words, thoughts and feelings often do not have an exact English equivalent - and visa-versa.

When I saw a rack of these signs for sale in the new PANDA MALL store in Scarborough, where everything is imported from China, I had to wonder about how much they paid for, or saved on their translation services, how much it cost to print and ship this stuff all the way from China, and how much of it will go into a local dumpster because it's just not selling.