According to an article in the Sun, thousands of dodgy translations are being scrapped in Beijing in the run-up to this summer’s Olympic Games in the Chinese capital. The article is accompanied by a slideshow with examples of Chinglish, such as:
Please keep your personal information out of other people when shopping in our store
Your careful step keeps tiny grass invariably green
Please don’t cross any railings lest suddenness happens!
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23 March 2008 at 10:41
kriz cpec
Hi, the Chinese and English words on the sign mean the same thing and are equally funny. LOL
17 April 2008 at 1:37
Kerilyn Sappington
Obviously Beijing is concerned about its city coming under increased international focus with the Olympics in August. People have been photographing these signs and posting them on the internet for years. There’s a site http://www.engrish.com that has funny signs from around the world, chiefly Japan, and even sells T-shirts sporing the mistranslations.
The funny signs won’t go away in the next four months, despite the best government efforts. Especially as it seems that the Chinese government isn’t willing to spend money to hire native English translators to do the work. At a translation conference last November, I and other (native English) Chinese-to-English translators were approached to donate our services to help correct the translations and improve Beijing’s image for the Olympic Games.
But embarrassment aside, these linguistic mishaps are part of the fun of traveling. You go to the trouble of learning a few phrases in the local language (who knows how successful that venture is) and then the hotel posts bilingual signs to give you a good laugh.