Confuse and Amuse

　　Chinese are well known for their desire to learnEnglish and practice on unsuspecting foreigners, withlevels of spoken and written English improving remarkablyacross the country in recent years. One standout, however, has not kept pace with the levels ofpeople’s English. Every foreigner who has traveled orlived in China will have a story to tell about an Englishlanguagesign that has been lost in translation. Thesesigns around the country not only can create confusionwhen traveling, shopping or socializing, but are also acontinuous source of amusement. Despite the ongoingefforts of authorities to clean up these “informative”relics, they can still be found on billboards and menus,in supermarkets, banks, train stations and a host ofpublic places.

　　Authorities in major cities have in the past held campaignsto improve standard English usage at famousscenic spots visited by foreigners, such as thePalace Museum and the Great Wall, wherepeople coming across a confusing sign wereasked to phone a hotline and report their findto the relevant bureau for correction. Problemsrange from obscure abbreviations, word-forwordtranslation of Chinese characters intoEnglish, improper omissions and misspellings.The emerging language is known colloquiallyas Chinglish, that strange marriage of Chineseand English that produces illegitimate offspring.Some of my favorite Chinglish blooper signsare:

　　Tender fragrant grass, how hardhearted totrample them - in a Beijing park;Please keep your legs - next to the escalator;Reduce signs of premature senility - on abottle of face cream;Don’t forget to carry your thing - in the backof a taxi;To take notice of safe. The slippery arevery crafty sloped - entrance to mall oppositeBeijing Railway Station;No fight and scrap, no rabble. No feudal fetishor sexy service permitted - in the parkingarea of Ming Tombs;Those who are drunk, sick or below 1.1 meters are forbiddento take part in suck game! - at entrance to a Beijingpark; andUnnecessary touching - above automatic taps at BeijingAirport.

　　While it is easy to laugh out loud at these and marvelat how they have been up for so long, it is perhaps a goodidea for authorities, in the bigger cities at least, to run ongoingcampaigns to get Chinglish signs changed. Investingin professional translation and avoiding translation softwarethat is generically unreliable is a good start.

　　Either that, or the signs are all part of agreater plan toensure that foreigners keep a permanent smile on theirfaces as they negotiate the often stressful challenges ofdaily life in China. Perhaps the term amusement park has awhole new meaning after all…