2. Understanding signage
BOTTOM-UP vs. TOP-DOWN
Signage is categorized as "bottom up” or “top down”. Top down signs are created by “official” governments or local bureaus with authority. They are meant for the public good, and are generally funded by public taxes. Therefore, multilingual signs and
labels (such as warnings on cigarettes) are generally written and translated in clear, correct language, carefully checked for errors or possible misreadings.
Sign 7. Top down sign
On the other hand, bottom up signs and labels are written by manufacturers, promoters, and business people. They are often poorly written and translated by non-native amateurs who rely more on Google translate than their own personal experience. Examples of such signage abound on engrish.com.
Sign 8. Bottom up sign
In between these two distinctions, a “middle” ground exists. Larger private companies or enterprises may have internal resources to create text of reasonable quality without having to rely on MT or outside translators. On the other hand, smaller government or public organizations may not have access to linguistic expertise or may have to create “sudden signage” in order to address an unexpected or emergency situations. At these times, local government or public welfare facilities may create signs that are clearly the product of machine translation without any hint of pre- or post-editing.
Sign 9. Machine-translated top down sign.