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Aug
30
2011
By
Raevyn

Mi bosco de sequel


This is not the door you are looking for!

Timmy is a codemonkey, not a guardmonkey.

Some of you might remember our issue with would-be infiltrators attempting to enter ThinkGeek HQ via our side door that we plastered with "This is not the door you're looking for. You can go about your business." and "DO NOT ENTER".

The signs did not work. We realized that the reason for this was because the strangers attempting to invade us were likely looking for the Social Security office around the corner and might not be English-speaking. This brought up a quandry. We, at best, speak maybe two or three languages (English, Klingon, Quenya) and could not adequately translate these signs. At least not without a lot of work. So we crowdsourced it!

You guys are impressive. Seriously. We recieved over 800 translations in 251 languages, including all the major ones you'd expect as well as: 1337, Anagram, Astromech Droid, Base 64, Binary, Elvish, Hexidecimal, Huttese, Judoon, Klingon, LOLcats, Morse Code, Na'vi, Pikachu, Pirate, R'lyehian, Rick Astley-ese, robots.txt, Samuel L. Jackson, Shriiwook, Squirrel, Swedish Chef, Undead, and Yodese.

Ever since we put up the new sign (well over a foot long) the confused stranger quotient has dropped almost to nothing, and we have you to thank! So thanks, chuckleheads and translators! Our uninterrupted days are all because of you!

As a special bonus for those who requested it, we have a PDF of the new sign for your own personal stranger-deflecting. You can download it in tabloid form and letter form-- now with updates as of Wednesday, August 31. Enjoy!

We tried our best to choose the most agreed upon translations, but if you see any mistakes, please let us know in the comments or email the correct translation to replybot at thinkgeek dot com, and we'll get them fixed.

Thanks again translators!

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Comments

meaningless icon! Brilliant! Made my day :)
mensagirl said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! My fav is the Zombie speak! Great job, guys!!
LarisaK said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I love this. I want to post it on my front door (as the NO SOLICITING sign does not work worth spit). Would also post it on my bedroom door, but alas, the kids don't read yet.
MegaMomster said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! The Zombie translation is spot-on.
mlerley said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! Awesome! But the Hebrew shows up backwards -- the words and letters are good, but they need to be the other way around. Goes for the Yiddish as well near the bottom :-)
wlfmn101 said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! The french translation is off (at least the later part of it, but first one could be better), it should say: "Ceci n'est pas la porte que vous cherchez, vous pouvez retournez à vos occupation" not Ce n'est pas la porte que vous cherchez. Vous pouvez allez environ votre affaire. Votre is singulare. environ is an aproximation.
spyraven said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! "I'm sorry, visitor. The princess is in another office." HA!
Freakland said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I'm shocked there isn't an Ancient and Goa'uld translation on there.
ejstruble1 said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! oh no! The Hebrew and Yiddish are backwards! (Just flip the letter order around)
adeens said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I have an issue with the verb in the Japanese translation... I already emailed you with it.
KempSamurai said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! Regarding the Hebrew and Yiddish: As far as I understand, they're both right-to-left languages. Depending on the program you used to make the sign, you could just select the Hebrew and Yiddish text and change its orientation.
DragonEgghead said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! Is there a key or legend for what the various languages are?
dreamnite said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! As spyraven said, the French translation is wrong. It should be : "Ceci n'est pas la porte que vous cherchez. Vous pouvez retourner à vos occupations." (corrected some spyraven's typos).
jessydiamond said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! The Arabic, Hebrew, and Yiddish translations are all backwards. You have the right letters, but the wrong order.
Flordongirl said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I agree with spyraven on the French. Also, the zombie, the code, and Mario translations were all fantastic. The collective "You" who read this blog are awesome.
ratri said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! There is a typo in the Dutch line. Were it says werkzaamhedevn the v is wrong. It should just read werkzaamheden. The text is also a little informal for a public service announcement. If I would have had to write it myself I would have put down: Dit is niet de deur die u zoekt. Vervolg uw eerdere werkzaamheden. The latter is more of a taste preference I guess. The letter v in werkzaamheden is just wrong.
Qvdv said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! Was that Swedish Chef in there? I love it!
ibexscribe said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I have a problem with the icelandic translation: "Þetta er ekki hurðin sem þér leitið. Þér getið haldið erindi þínu áfram annars staðar." For the first, the personal pronouns are in polite form (like, "this is not the door that thou searchest for"), and that is fine (if you like that sort of thing :p). Only problem is that "þínu" is not right, it is familiar form. To have it all in polite form, "þínu" should be "yðar" ("yðvar" would be even more archaic :D). Secondly, the latter sentence is a bit wonky. It would be better as "þér getið sinnt erindi yðar annars staðar". Thank you for your co-operation.
mankoneko said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! The Arabic is backwards too, but the letters are right. Frontways, the letters should read from right to left and should be connected. Nice, though!
moon_dragon81 said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! Thousands of years from now, a well preserved copy of this will be a Rosetta Stone for a new civilization. We should look into getting this etched in stone once people finish picking apart the grammar and letter order.
Merennulli said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I'm guessing you didn't mean to leave in the phrase "Translates to: Not the threshold they expect. Travel now, lost one." Otherwise, this is 100% pure awesome.
dasirrine said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! Thanks for all the corrections and comments, guys! We're updating the PDFs now to account for the errors. Some fresh files should appear tonight to fix most problems, though the Hebrew and Yiddish might take a little more time to work through.
CarrieGouldin (ThinkGeek Staff) said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! The download link isn't working :(
alpheus125 said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! As a student in lingustics this is gold. :D And awesome in general.
icekat83 said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I can help with the right-to-left/left-to-right issues, especially if you're using inDesign. Hit me up at akerr at eisenbrauns dot com. 'Tis routine for us. I don't see any Farsi, Akkadian, paleo-Hebrew, or hieroglyphic Luwian on this, but I have friends who can help correct that oversight for v 2.0. :-)
Aquarello said this 659 days ago.
meaningless icon! I agree with spyraven's french translation (and jessydiamond's corrections). I did find it the original French text strange... Feels like it came out from an automatic translation. But anyways, this is indeed a great thing :)
Okiku said this 658 days ago.
meaningless icon! BTW I stand by ejstruble1 about Goauld and Ancient. :D Can you guys PLEASE post a list of the languages? There are a few I can't figure out.
icekat83 said this 657 days ago.

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