Lost in Translation

You know in some movies where there is a non-English speaking main character and a subordinate who translates for this person. A situation arises where the non-English speaking guy speaks for like 15 minutes in Japanese or Chinese or tongue clicks and then the translator translates this into some short phrase like: "Please take a seat." or "You must die now!" or "Excuse me I need to use the toilet." Well, this sort of thing is not simply a movie occurrence, it happens in real life. The photo, one of many examples that I have seen/heard, is a prime one. There is a big long string of Japanese and then the translation just says: "Please return your dishes." No wonder foreigners (of Japan) get the misguided idea that everything takes longer to say in Japanese (which is not true to any extent). The Japanese actually reads: "Please return your dishes to the return window. Please separate your garbage by cans/bottles, burnable, and food materials to dispose of it." and the big red Japanese at the top with the red arrow says "Return window". It's pretty funny. After being here a while you will find that even though EVERYBODY has studies English during junior high and high school (and many in college) there are numerous English mistakes all in all sorts of public places and important displays. Such is the state of things in Japan. ;) I'll post further examples as they appear.