Kiek in de Kok
Engrish photo by Dave J
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A WTF rather than an Engrish Fail, unless it is confirmed that you indeed get a kick in the…
Not Engrish as it’s clearly not English – but oh lord the caption made me spit coffee on my screen when I figured out the sign!
“(Take a) look inside the kitchen” in Dutch, i suppose.
Nope, this isn’t Dutch. Might be Frysian..
nope
Afrikaans I believe (a language spoken in parts of South-Africa), split-iff from Dutch some hundred years ago.
It actually is from Tallinn, Estonia.
It is the name of an old guard tower in the old city.
If my mind isn’t failing me the name comes from medieval german.
What I do fail though is to see what’s funny about it.
… you’re kidding, right?
that explains why everything else on the sign is seeming to be from near the Finland like the Baltic States, something like that.
Medieval German is quite a possibility, the meaning was easy for me to unveil since I’m a native German speaker.
So the guard tower, does he face/ look/ “kiek” to the sea, the land or over Talinn? Which of these might be the Kök, the kitchen?! Talinn as a melting pot? I’d like to find out.
it is called that because you can see in the near-by houses kitchen.
At leas you could when Tallinn was as big as the old town.
Here You are, I copied from the museum`s homesite: The cannon tower Kiek in de Kök was founded in 1475-1483. The name was first recorded in the description of the second siege of Tallinn in 1577 as Kyck in de Kaeken, later on several forms of the same name were used, such as Kik (Kyk) in de Kok, Kiek in die Küche, Pulffer-Thurm Giecken Köck. In 1696 the present name Kiek in de Kök was also mentioned, meaning “peek into the kitchen” in Low German. And true enough, it was possible to watch what the enemy was doing in their “kitchen” i.e. on position lower down from the about 38m-high tower.
Greets from Estonia!
Well that was easy.
Low German is still spoken in Frysia, the coast area of Lower Saxony
Kyo, that aint dutch…
In dutch that would be something link “Kijk naar de keuken”
(look at the cook woud be: “kijk naar de kok”, so that might be closer)
seems more like danish, or some other scandinavian language.
at least the meaning is quite obvious now.
Lookig at the other signs frisian seems no option at all.
Kotuotsus is Estonian, so this might be the answer.
Kök means kitchen in swedish but the rest make no sence.
The rest of the signs seem to be in finnish
It’s not Finnish, maybe Estonian like someone already pointed out. But one could easily be mistaken if not a native speaker – the two languages are a lot alike.
The name Kiek in de Kök, indeed in Low German, meaning “peek into the kitchen” was first used in 1696: according to the Linnamuuseum site, because it was possible to the enemy was doing in its “kitchen” (lower down from the tower around 40 meters)…
This is not Engrish nor a fail.
if(Language != English) {
Language = Fail;
}
GTFO.
I’m dutch, but kok means chef, but kok with dots on the o isn’t dutch
I have no idea what this is about O.o But ”Take a look inside the could be right”, if it were dutch. Or it has to be some horrid dialect..
It’s actually Low-German, but you guys were right about the meaning; it’s “Peek into the kitchen”
yeah, definitely low-german: my nanna says things like that. she’s kinda old school that way;)
It must be, because in the dialect they speak here in the east of Holland you would say: “Kiek in de kökn”, that’s like almost the same
The dialect is called Tweants which has a lot in common with Low German.
It’s a cannon tower in Tallinn, the capitol of Estnia. The name means “peek into the kitchen” in low German. See http://www.linnamuuseum.ee/kok/index.php?lang=2&id=170 for a description.
No Engrish, no fail. Just a misplacement!
Posting funny pictures fail.
This place is located in Tallinn, Estonia. Story goes that it used to be the highest tower of its time from which you could peek into everyone’s kitchen. Estonian for it would be “kiika kööki” which does mean “peek into the kitchen” literally.
Though really not enrgish (name is hundreds of years old), probably derived from German. But it amuses pretty much every tourist I have met.
Well, whatever. I’m still not going to bend over anywhere to the left of THAT sign!
Whatever, looking at some of these comments it looks like a SOH FAIL.
Seconded.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL… estonia xD
I don’t care whether it’s strictly Engrish – I think it’s funny. Of course, being female, the idea is probably a lot funnier to me than it is to males.
oh I TOTALLY agree. This is maybe in estonia, south africa or wherever. It may totally fail the ‘Engrish’ test…. BUT… this one had tears rolling down my face. Yes, I think it’s really funny too.
Maybe it’s because, being female also, I totally agree with you dr_handle
for the record…it is plaatdeutsch (a lovely mangled mix of german, dutch, some english and way too many vowels), spoken in the far north of germany (although not so much these days)
And every meeting with his so-called superior
Is an humiliating Kiek in de Kok…
…Many miles away
Something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch.
WIN!
Another suburban family morning!
I’d never thought I’d see a picture of my hometown here, but wow!
The word kök is also kitchen in swedish.
hai! according to german wikipedia, “kiek in de kök” (“look inside the kitchen”) is a low german expression for a tower, a building so tall you can look inside the kitchens of the inhabitants of the city. this one here is lo(l)cated at tallinn, estonia.
We come to this site, and have a giggle AND get educated. How good is that?
So, someone finally named a street after Obama…
not a street, neither it’s after obama. i know you tryed to be funny but it just failed.
WIN!
Ahhh…I’m sure I would laugh my head off If I knew what it said…. =D
DO NOT WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The word “coq” is rooster in french.
Only funny if you don’t know that it’s pronounced more like “keek een deh CHURK”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_phonology
Yes, I know it’s not Swedish, but the correct pronunciation does not sound like what you may think.
Ahhh, counter-intuitive pronounciation rules- “Churk”?
Gee, Vee, I’m sorry, I was just trying to make a funny with a play on words… I mean, that’s what Engrish Funny is all about, isn’t it?
Just for you, I’ll try to be a little less sophomoric in the future, ok?
What it reallt means is “Take a look to the kitchen”. There is a story about the name, how you could look to an kitchen, where something dont remember what was happening. It’s like a legend. And it’s danish or german.
I’ve been there!!!
Dear commenteers!
You are one illiteracy win!
FAIL! It is Low German/Low Saxon which was a lingua franca in the Hanseatic League.
Not Engrish. FAIL.
“supposed TO BE” even..
It’s Estonian, historical site, that name isn’t Estonian but others are, before u start putting ”fail” on things then google it before ok? its more like a fail from the uploader
It’s about the only Engrish upload that involves a correct use of a language, not an English misspelling. Raudpolt fail.
There’s also “TITTI DISPENSER”
Yes, this is from Tallinn, Estonia.
It translates to “Peep in the Kitchen” (more or less)…The tower was tall enough that people said one could look into the kitchen windows of homes in the area.
We were trying to express how funny this was to our Estonian friend…by the time we explained it is wasn’t very funny.
By the Way Tallinn is a city definitely worth visiting.
what does it mean?
Probably this blogs best article online!!!
I don’t disagree with you!