高円寺の駐車場は英語の使い方に注意した方が良い。

I saw lots of interesting things on my recent bicycle ride to Koenji. One was this sign in front of an outdoor multi-level parking lot.

• 駐車場 (ちゅうしゃじょう) (n) parking lot; parking place; (P);

It says:

× SILENT PARK <- 黙黙な公園? 無声公園?

There aren't any silent parks in Tokyo, are there? Actually, the sound of birds is kind of nice. I'm not sure a silent park would be so nice.

"Silent" is an adjective, so that makes "park" a noun. What's more, do any Japanese understand what they mean? Why didn't they just use a Japanese sign? Mysterious...

To be honest, I don't know exactly what they mean. Surely they meant "park" as a verb. Maybe they meant something like:

◯ Park quietly!
◯ Keep the noise down!

• Keep it down.
  声を低くしなさい。／静かにしなさい。(definition from Eijiro on the Web)
  

◯ Respect the neighborhood by not making noise.

They need to use an imperative sentence, like one of these above. Maybe I should just be glad that they didn't say:

× Let's park quietly! <- the grammar is fine, but I think native speakers would never say this... http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2009/04/dont-use-lets-if-you-are-giving-someone.html

Do your acquaintances a favor by recommending that they have the English they put in public checked by a native speaker. If you find any mistakes in my Japanese, send me email and I'll correct it right away!

• 知合い (しりあい) (n) acquaintance; (P);