This notice has mysteriously appeared in my apartment block. In fact there are two signs, one in the lobby and one in the lift. I don’t know why they were written in English; I’m not aware of any other native English speakers living here, although there might well be. The signs tell us where we should put our rubbish and recycling:
There’s quite a lot of dodgy English here, but the phrase that really stands out for me is the one at the end: “Good luck with that!”
I’m sure you know exactly what “Good luck” means. It’s a friendly expression that you use when you hope somebody will succeed: “Good luck for your driving test tomorrow!” So you might think that “Good luck with that” means something similar. But it doesn’t.
“Good luck with that” is a phrase we use sarcastically when we’re almost certain that somebody won’t succeed.
Tim: “One day I’m going to play football for England.”
Tom: “But you’re hopeless at football and you’re fat. And you’re already thirty-two! Good luck with that!”
Even though Tim is over thirty, overweight and not very good at football, he still thinks he can make the England team. When Tom says “Good luck with that!”, he’s telling Tim that’s he’s crazy or stupid for believing he can succeed.
When it says “Good luck with that!” at the end of the notice, it’s saying that I’m like Tim. Putting the rubbish in the black bins and the recycling in the yellow bins is such a difficult task that I’d be crazy to think I could do it. No, I should just put anything in any bin, or even just throw all my “waste from food waste” out of the window for the pigeons, and accept that I’ll get a large fine.