Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Chinatown: Goethe-Institut


The Goethe-Institut takes the innovative strategy of alternating German and Chinese signs. This Chinese sign reads "German Cultural Center" ( 德國文化中心) but the textual layout requires you to read left to right, scanning vertically from the bottom to the top of the banner.

Strictly speaking, the characters should be reversed and rotated clockwise 90 degrees so they can be read from up to down along the banner.

Of course, the Germans are well-known for sloppiness and imprecision so these oversights aren't surprising.

1 comment:

  1. Careful... Remember, we Germans aren't all smiles and sunshine!

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