Beijing Stamps out 'Chinglish' Signs before Olympic

[krykrykrynunit]

Overnight, 4,000 Beijing hotels have been instructed to translate Chinglish names and notices into accurate English. Restaurateurs have been given a list of the proper English names for commonly mistranslated items...

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.

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."

source-asianoffbeat

[Calltometal]

Haha, that would be cool to go and see all of those translated sines into direct English. However a part of me feels that they shouldn't do this. I mean I know they are getting ready for the Olympics, who doesn't know, but still its all part of the fun of going to a foreign country. I think the funnest thing of going to a foreign country is to try and figure things out, especially what things mean. A lot of Chinese characters, I will use Kanji, are pictographical. Kanji is a form of art and therefore I think they shouldn't change the sines, but there are those who want them changed. Still bothers me though, a little.

[collegeboy]

lol deadlynightshade made a thread in the humor section full of these mistranslations
there are so many good english-chinese chinese-english translators they can use to avoid these situations

[lieke]

China sure is working hard to make a good impression..

[Otaku515 Dj-san]

ow no soon enough chinglish will conquer the world