There are tons of examples of odd English usage in Asia, and Singapore is no exception. This is because for many people English is a second language and to increase visibility of their stores or offerings including English make sense. I find it completely helpful and struggle in countries where English is not included (Korea, China) regularly.

That said, some times it is not just the odd English, but bad design. Take this brochure that came in my mailbox today.

Hong Kong res01

New Coming! is a pretty direct translation from the Chinese characters, OK. the pictures are somewhat out of focus due to either the low resolution of the printing or images or both. But the map is what gets me.

Hong Kong res_map

I live on Thomson Road not far from Balestier Road. Both of them are reasonably busy roads. The Singtel building is also fairly visible from Thomson Road. PIE is an expressway (6-8 lanes). What gets me about the map is that you can't tell the relative size of anything. Based on the map, the Car Parks dwarf the shopping center size and would probably be reasonable for an amusement park. Neither of us can imagine where the location might be from the map.

Oh well. The Steam Lemon Sea Bass sounds good.