Lost in Translation: Inverted Sign in Kuala Lumpur

I was walking through the streets of Kuala Lumpur when a shop’s sign caught my attention. It wasn’t the usual misuse of an English word or poor grammar or an absolute syntax fail. It was simply inverted, like how the word “ambulance” is written backwards on the front of ambulances in the USA so it reads correctly in a rear view mirror. There were three languages written on the sign — Malay, Chinese, and English — so this wasn’t a blunder where the people simply didn’t know which way the Latin alphabet should be arranged.

Why the hell would a shop intentionally put up an inverted version of their sign?

As I stood there I found myself momentarily stumped.

Then I looked a little closer:

It was a print shop. They sell things like customized rubber stamps.

Oh.

For a second there it was I who was lost in translation.