Posted on 03/19/2008 4:53:14 PM PDT by blam
Signs of panic over 'Chinglish' in Beijing
By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 7:38am GMT 19/03/2008
For years, badly translated signs have had the Englishman abroad in stitches. But for tourism officials in Beijing, a city preparing for the arrival of millions of visitors for the Olympic Games in August, the problem is far from funny.
In pictures: 'Chinglish' signs in Beijing
The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau has hired English linguists to eradicate "Chinglish" from signs and shop fronts.
It has also instructed the city's 4,000 unrated hotels to translate their names, service hours, room rates, menus and notices into accurate English.
Restaurateurs have been given a list of the proper English names for the most commonly mistranslated items, including "virgin chicken" for a young chicken dish, "steamed crap" instead of crab, and "burnt lion's head" describing Chinese pork meatballs.
"These translations either scare or embarrass foreign customers and may cause misunderstanding on China's diet habits," the state news agency said.
Some of the signs have been celebrated on websites and books, including one sign that greets Western visitors to a café with the words: "Welcome big nose friends" and another for the Tibetan "Reception Centre for the Unorganised Tourists".
English speakers in Beijing have been invited to visit "Racist Park" - more accurately translated as the Park of Ethnic Minorities - and warned to take care on wet roads as "the slippery are very crafty".
Doug Lansky, an American travel writer, said part of the charm of the direct translations - such as signs on lawns pleading "don't walk on me" - was that they revealed the Chinese way of viewing the world. "On one hand I can understand why they are doing it - they don't want people making fun of their language skills or culture, but on the other hand, it's a real shame," he said.
"The travelling experience should be a little bit quirky, and throw people off balance a bit."
I love engrish.com. This one made me spit out coffee one morning.
Saw a sign on a Schewan restaurant (in english) that said "Real homely style cooking"
I bet the chef was not too happy....
I actually saw several “Spoony” tshirts and bags when I lived in Korea. LOL!
This outta be good!
I love “Welcome Big Nose Friends”.
“The travelling experience should be a little bit quirky, and throw people off balance a bit.”
Well, I suppose being dragged off the street, interrogated for hours and thrown into a lao gai is probably not what he meant.
Remember now repeat after me,
“I’m a Tibetan tourist, I know my Karmic rights!!!.
I don’t care what it is, I want one. BTT.
The official moniker was coined years ago. It is called "Engrish".
(actually, the former isn't a joke, and in a way, the latter isn't either).
You could spend hours on engrish.com and i would still put spoony against anything you find there. This has been a keeper and pops up on FReeper thread related to said topic.
In 1936, Hitler desperately wanted some international brownie points to put on a good face while they were rearming and preparing for war.
And China has it's own dictatorship hierarchy, and they really want to prove to the West (the big market) that they can be trusted no matter how many of their substandard products keep getting recalled.
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