The Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language is trying to excise maladaptations of the English language.
Fortified by an army of 600 volunteers and a politburo of adroit English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 10,000 public signs (farewell “Teliot” and “urine district”), rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings.
The campaign is partly modeled on Beijing’s herculean effort to clean up English signage for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which led to the replacement of 400,000 street signs and 1,300 restaurant menus.
See: The New York Times
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Austria
Local time: 17:31
German to English
+ ...
Chinglish is one of the delights of travelling in China. I'll be sorry to see it go.
France
Local time: 17:31
English to French
+ ...
However, I doubt that they will be able to remove Chinglish completely. At best they can have signs that an average English speaker can understand without rolling on the floor laughing.
I am not trying to imply that the Chinese can't be ... See more
However, I doubt that they will be able to remove Chinglish completely. At best they can have signs that an average English speaker can understand without rolling on the floor laughing.
I am not trying to imply that the Chinese can't be up to the task (I'm sure that there are extremely competent language professionals there), but the grammar is so different and both Chinese and English are so full of ambiguities that Chinese linguists translating /into/ English will occasionally make funny mistakes.
I guess that the same problem exists with any language pair involving very different languages...
I will add a quote from my own personal experience (a user manual obviously translated from Chinese):
"In any case the company is not reliable."
Good luck to Shanghai.. ▲ Collapse
Poland
Local time: 17:31
English to Polish
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one of my favourites "don't want to see" (i.e. "no entry")
Canada
Local time: 11:31
English to French
I remember reading a Reader's Digest story about a woman in America who thought some characters were pretty, copied them and then knitted them into a sweater... someone later pointed out that she was advertising that "this dish is cheap and delicious"
... See more
I remember reading a Reader's Digest story about a woman in America who thought some characters were pretty, copied them and then knitted them into a sweater... someone later pointed out that she was advertising that "this dish is cheap and delicious"
English in China is usually not there to convey information but rather to indicate status (look, we have English) or because some regulation imposed it.
The official pamphlet handed out at the Formula 1 races a few weeks ago were a disgrace, ranging from typos to utter gibberish... and this is an expat-centric event! I have seen "Please not to forgetting you.re cloth" on the personalized coat-check stubs of a very very high end venue.
And unfortunately it is considered incredibly rude to point out other people's mistakes or shortcomings as it causes the person to lose face so even if 5000 people (foreigners who couldn't care less about face
And when it's not spelling/grammar, it's utter gibberish... this bar just closed down... it was called "Hello Two Ok"...
Canada
Local time: 11:31
English to French
"Welcome to take my taxi. Please fasten seatbelt"
(note that there are no seatbelts in taxis)
When you complete a bank transaction at the ATM you are asked:
"Do you want advice?" "Yes" "No"
(if you press yes, you'll get the receipt
"Welcome to take my taxi. Please fasten seatbelt"
(note that there are no seatbelts in taxis)
When you complete a bank transaction at the ATM you are asked:
"Do you want advice?" "Yes" "No"
(if you press yes, you'll get the receipt
Just recently the automated phone tree for the major cell phone company top-up service was changed to comprehensible English spoken by a native. For the last 2 years it had been a Chinese woman's voice saying "Press 1 for claim loose mobeel process, Press 2 for [chinese word] susskiber". ▲ Collapse
Japan
Local time: 01:31
Russian to Japanese
+ ...
When it comes to funny English signs, Japan might be more entertaining than other countries as English and other European names are used almost everywhere, so laughing at other countries is the same as laughing at Japan itself...
But this restaurant in China definitely makes all of us smile: http://kanbanjournal.com/2008/07/54
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:31
English to Italian
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as seen in Chengdu's airport
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/920/img7917t.jpg
Japan
Local time: 01:31
Russian to Japanese
+ ...
as seen in Chengdu's airport
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/920/img7917t.jpg
the worst one I have ever seen... How did they translate this?????
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