For the love of tourism, use real English

Safety is so important when it comes to ski resorts: there are standard rules for skiers to follow, mandatory helmets for kids in French ski school, and avalanche prevention procedures just to name a few.

Somehow, whoever organises these huge safety signs around the ski resort of La Clusaz seems to think that a native English speaker isn’t needed to get these important safety messages across.

Pictured above is a sign next to a jump in the family snow park, yet it says “Please do not stand in front of the reception desks” (“les receptions” being the landing areas after the ski jumps ).

To my surprise, I saw an equally bizarre translation just metres away at a restaurant where people often leave their skis in the snow. No wonder, when the sign tells people “Don’t let your skis in ground”. Should I keep my skis on a leash to prevent them from in grounding? I wonder if the German translation is as confusing as the English.

And now a new sign has appeared explaining the dangers of the steep cliffs away from the ski trails. “Off road : rocky bars” — even the punctuation has been Franglaised, with a space before the colon in typical French style.

Rocky bars sounds a bit like a chocolate bar version of rocky road slice, and who doesn’t love an off-road adventure. This English text actually makes me want to ski right where the French text is warning me not to go. In fact, I did go there, and there were no rocky road chocolate bars, nor off-road driving fun. And thankfully, I already knew about the steep cliffs and how to avoid them — no thanks to this sign.

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About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.