Get it right and make the right impression

When you are trying to communicate with your guests, it's great that you want to help your foreign guests feel at home by using English. However if you put the wrong words out there, it sticks out to your foreign guests and can do more harm to your brand image than it does good.

For example in one store, I came across a sign with a picture of a person with their finger in front of their mouth in a shushing gesture. The caption said "Please eat quiently," unfortunately 'quiently' is not a word. 'Quietly' is likely the target. Now, your foreign guests are having a chuckle and the importance of your message is diminished.

Now, turning to the image at the head of this post. "This water be good to drink." 'Be'? I have some elementary school students that can see the mistake; 'is' would be correct. The grammatical error may not stop people from drinking the water, but it, again, affects your brand.

It's easy to avoid such mistakes by checking your English beforehand. If you ask us to check your English signs or come up with your wording from the start, it will not only be done at a reasonable cost, but we can offer some extra suggestions that add a more authentic, native voice to your signs. For instance the first sign could be, "Please respect other guests and refrain from making loud noises." The second sign could be, " It is safe to drink this water, please enjoy!".

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