The Chinglish Files by olr

Chinglish piece on "Marketplace"

2011-08-14T16:37:00.001+02:00

In China, signs translated into English baffle
By Rob Schmitz
Marketplace, Thursday, August 11, 2011

Many thanks, Rob.

Chinglish and ... Google Earth

2010-11-07T14:14:00.000+01:00

As part of my ongoing PhD project I am currently working with GeoTwain, a small web application developed at Heidelberg University to create so-called kml files (which you open with Google Earth) from semicolon delimited tables. It supports geo-encoding, i.e. finding coordinates of place names, by searching different databases and applies time and other information to the placemarks.

I am currently testing the software for my needs and came up with a first kmz file (kml plus graphics) with Chinglish signs taken in China. The data source is my second volume of bilingual pictures: "More Chinglish - Speaking in Tongues", published in 2009 by Gibbs Smith.

I am a kml newbie, so I was particularly delighted to learn that you are able to upload your own visualization of a Chinglish spot. Here is the first trial:

In total there are 100 pictures at 42 locations with - no surprise - Beijing and Shanghai as the main spots. The graphic differs in size according to the number of spotted signs. Notice how the density of signs decreases once you start moving away from the coastal areas. Whether or not this is coincidental needs further research, but it fuels the hypothesis that Chinglish is existent where sign makers have an international non-Chinese speaking audience in mind, i.e. metropolitan areas and touristic sights.

Have a look yourself: "More Chinglish: Speaking in Tongues" in Google Earth (needs Google Earth installed)

Comments are very much appreciated.

Chinglish on China Radio International Beyond Beijing

2010-07-07T03:12:00.003+02:00

On Friday morning 4 am I had the privilege to join two gentlemen live in Beijing, discussing my favorite topic:
David Moser, Academic Director, CET Beijing Chinese Studies, Teng Jimeng, Associate Professor for American Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University and I had a fun panel in the wee hours of the day.

Listen to the show here.

How to take a good Chinglish picture

2010-05-28T15:01:00.000+02:00

I receive quite a few contributions here at Chinglish.de that would make for some marvellous contributions if only their quality would be a tad better. That’s quite a pity, because I very much want to showcase your treasures, but do not want to copy down the content, simply because it’s too dark or too fuzzy.

The following list is an attempt at making you, the Chinglish photographer, contemplate a few things before taking a picture. Keep in mind: this is written for 傻瓜照相机 a “fool’s camera”, or in plain English: your everyday modern digital pocket camera.

First of all: Take your time.
Good pictures rarely get done in a rush. I know what it feels like to come across good Chinglish. You laugh, you are excited and you want to catch the sign as quickly as possible. So you hurry. I say: please put down your camera bag first or any other stuff you are holding in your hand at that moment. Believe me, with free hands and regular breath your picture will turn out so much better.

Take two.
If you are not sure that your auto focus worked correctly, give the sign another shot.

Check the lighting.
Do not photograph against the sunlight. Do not use a flash when the sign has a polished surface since it will reflect the flash and ruin your picture. If you can move the light source try to play with it. If you cannot, move yourself.

Get close.
If your camera has a macro function (as most modern cameras do), use it.

Change perspective.
Try to get as close to the sign as possible and change perspective. Try and take a picture from the lower left or the upper right.

Add background.
Adding context makes sense with a lot of signs. For example: add a bit of lawn if you are taking pictures of a public park sign asking to watch your steps.

Use a tripod.
Although it may feel quite bright outside, shooting in the early evening without using a flash is almost always a mission impossible. Using a small tripod helps. It does not need to be a tripod with telescope legs, a small 5$ mini tripod propped on a bike saddle helps stabilizing quite substantially already. Use the self-timer.

Very important: Do not forget the original.
In order to compare the Chinese text with its English counterpart, do not forget to include the original characters in your picture. If that cannot be done, please shoot an extra one for reference purposes.

I hope this proves helpful to you. I am looking forward to your contributions!

Follow-up from Canada.

2010-05-05T15:00:00.004+02:00

CBC, which is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and their radio program "As it happens" contacted me before dinner yesterday. I had a little chat with host Carol Off on Shanghai's correction efforts. You may find the program here:
http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/AS_IT_HAPPENS/20100504.shtml

Here is the actual interview (wma file):
Listen to Part 2 of As It Happens

News from Big Apple again.

2010-05-03T17:04:00.003+02:00

"Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/world/asia/03chinglish.html

Thanks, Andrew!

This blog has moved

2010-04-28T14:57:00.001+02:00

This blog is now located at http://chinglishfiles.blogspot.com/.
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Message from Big Apple

2010-04-14T18:55:00.009+02:00

Reader Diane Maas from New York City reconfirms part of my theory on the underlying motivation of the ongoing Chinglish production in connection with the Chinese tourism industry. Please find her guest comment below:

My husband, daughter and I were recently (April 2010) on vacation in Yunnan, where I'd like to report that Chinglish is alive, well,and thriving. From the top of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to the depths of the Jiuxiang Grottos we saw some wonderful examples (see pics below). As Yunnan is now opening up to tourism (though we saw mostly Asian tourists--no Westerners), signage is mostly bilingual Chinese-English, or in most cases, Chinese-Chinglish. Many places in northern Yunnan such as Zhongdian (now renamed by the Chinese government as 'Shangri-la' purely for tourism purposes) once sleepy little cities are getting on the tourist industry bandwagon reinventing themselves as necessary "destinations.' Therefore, most of the signs are relatively new (created in the past two years, when the Yunnan tourist industry has been in high gear) - so that made the Chinglish charm all the more poignant.

Here are two of her treasures:

Many thanks, Diane!

Shanghai EXPO English

2010-01-06T03:12:00.005+01:00

哇！What an interesting way to start the new year. This sign with its full name of 《卢湾区窗口服务与商业发展指挥部世博双语指南》(approximately: World Expo Bilingual Compass (issued by) Luwan District Commercial Development Headquarters) is a great window into the Chinese mind (at least into the one that deemed this sign necessary).

Clearly nothing (substantially) wrong with the English here. But using Chinese characters as a phonetic crutch to teach English pronounciation is a fascinating phenomenon. I thought this particular concept to be dead and buried, though. Clearly, I was wrong.

Here's a Pinyin transcription:

Welcome to our store! - weierkangmu tu aowo sidao!

Good morning - gude maoning
Good afternoon - gude afutenu
Good evening - gude yifuning

Can I help you? - kan ai hai'erpu you?

I'm sorry, I can only speak a little English. - anme saorui, ai kan wenglei sibike e leitou yinggelishi.

Just moment, please. - jiesite moumente pulisi

I'll find our colleague for help. - ai wei'o fande awo kaolige fou hai'erpu

Bye Bye! - bai bai

It's interesting to see that the Chinese phonetic transcription itself isn't consistent: in the first sentence the sign makers are using "澳窝 aowo" for "our" (welcome to our store) while in the last line they were voting for "阿窝 awo" (I'll find our colleague for help). It's a long sign, apparently.

Dear readers and Chinglish fans:
Please send me an original picture of this sign including its surroundings! Mail address is on the right.

Jackpot question:
who is the target audience?

Many sankesi!

Variations on a theme.

2009-10-10T15:35:00.000+02:00

"小心碰头" xiao3xin1 peng4tou2 - "mind your head" is a sign that you can't miss whereever you go in China. That is, if the translation comes out right, which is not really happening in many instances. Please find a selection below. I am really puzzled when it comes to the last one!

Many thanks to Kevin, Chris and Gordon for contributing to this selection!

The Chinglish Files go academic.

2009-09-30T16:23:00.003+02:00

I am happy to announce that the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Cultural Studies (KJC) at Heidelberg University (Germany) has awarded me with a PhD scholarship and a seat in this year's Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies.

The programme is part of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows". I quote:

Its aim is to analyse shifting asymmetries in cultural flows. The nongeographical use of both Asia and Europe and the concept of cultural flows are key elements of innovative theoretical debates on cultural exchange from the Bronze Age up to the present.

My topic: Chinglish, of course! I keep you informed.

Best,

olr.

Chinglish talk on China Radio International

2009-09-24T00:30:00.001+02:00

Program description:

Although Chinglish has caused some controversy among the Chinese, some foreigners are interested in them as well. Oliver Radtke is one of them. We have invited him to our studio to discuss Chinglish.

Thanks, CRI, for having me on the show!

Click to listen to the webcast.

Posting from Germany.

2009-06-28T13:15:00.002+02:00

Fellow Chinglish friends,

for the past few weeks it was almost impossible to post or moderate comments. Blogger blocked, Google blocked, Youtube blocked...

(Note to Internet cops: Guys, this is still the wrong way of doing it.)

Hope you continue your support while I figure out what technical solutions to use in the coming months.

Best from Heidelberg,

olr.

AFP 1, Reuters 0.

2009-05-05T18:21:00.008+02:00

AFP's Beijing correspondent Peter Harmsen and I had a wonderful linguistic conversation over a cup of freshly brewed coffee recently.
Here's the story:

Language lover on quest to save Chinglish
(posted May 5 2009)

Many thanks, Peter.

Compliments to the Huangpu River.

2009-05-05T05:18:00.006+02:00

Recently I did an interview with JFK Miller, Editorial Director of Urbanatomy.com, the website of that's Shanghai city magazine:

"The fine art of Chinglish"
(posted May 04 2009)

Many thanks, JFK!

Differing view from Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao.

2009-04-16T05:50:00.005+02:00

Many thanks, Yang Yongxin (杨永欣), for taking the time to comment on the Chinglish phenomenon in today's Lianhe Zaobao. I quote:

在我看来，中国式英文展现的并不是中国人的创意，更不是什么文化宝物，而是一些中国人不认真的工作态度，因此中国式英文的风气不能助长。(In my opinion, Chinglish isn't about Chinese creativity, even less about being a cultural treasure, it's about a lack of serious working attitude with some Chinese, therefore the common practice of Chinglish mustn't be fostered; my translation)

"a lack of serious working attitude", all granted, many examples prove that point. My point, however, is much more the lifelessness of most so-called standard translations, to challenge the notion of standard-English, who defines it, the intended or unintended ingenuity of some of the translations, the necessity to keep the Chineseness of the original content etc. Languages are inevitably changing, English has proven to be one of the most flexible idioms and Chinglish is already an inseparable part of it.

30 year-old Yang Yongxin who studied in the US and the UK should know that first hand. Since he's working as Zaobao's correspondent in Guangzhou I am looking forward to his personal contributions.

Front page story!

2009-04-15T12:49:00.008+02:00

Thanks to Erik Nilsson for a very good piece on my favorite pastime: "Chinglish has life, don't trample on it" in today's China Daily (April 15 2009).

I very much enjoy the vivid discussion in the comment section (apart from the usual racism discussion, of course).

No April Fool's joke - the sequel is here.

2009-04-01T17:10:00.000+02:00

"More Chinglish - Speaking in Tongues" is on the shelves!

Oliver Lutz Radtke
More Chinglish -
Speaking in Tongues
Paperback, 112 pages
English introduction
Gibbs Smith Publisher
ISBN: 978-1-4236-0584-3
7,99$/7,99€

You may order via Amazon.com or Amazon.de.

In Beijing it's available at The Bookworm and Wangfujing Shudian.

Postal code 00.

2009-02-12T15:58:00.005+01:00

The slightly boastful (and often rather uninformative) way of Chinese museum education seen at its best.

My suggestion: The former site of the emperor's washing room (I assume that he had a separate change room).

I still want to know what soap he was using ...

Taken at the imperial summer palace in Chengde. Many thanks, Patricia!

2009 - year of many anniversaries

2009-01-04T12:46:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year to all my dear and loyal Chinglish readers!

What better way to start 2009 by taking a look at this Chinglish beauty, shot on the way to Tian'anmen Square.

Until the late 70s China's underlying number one 主义 zhu3yi4 had been Marxism or some garbled form of it. We can also agree on that the other big 主义 has ruled the country ever since, Capitalism. No matter how many times Politburo leaders mention "socialism with Chinese characteristics" in their new year's eve speeches ...

Keep in mind, though, that a 主义 per se is just an "-ism".

Many people in China are left behind by the new C-ism, and many people are again longing for the older days of M-ism-ruled China.

So why not advocate a new version of it, for example, a "fragrant and hot" one?
xiang1 香 fragrant
la4 辣 hot

For me the most revealing aspect about this sign is that the noodle shop owner naturally thinks of Marxism when translating 主义.

Next time, I'll try their soup.

Many thanks, WR!

Christmas riddle.

2008-12-19T17:35:00.004+01:00

This, dear readers, is a highly creative and rather cryptical variant of the standard "Flush after use" (which is what it says in Chinese).

Not only did the Beijing restaurant owner take a "W" and turned it upside down. He seemed to have come up with a whole new word. Native speakers, what on earth is meant by "mang out"? Looking forward to your creative postings.

Many thanks, Namisan!

English books in China - Can't find what you're looking for?

2008-12-07T10:27:00.005+01:00

Cityweekend Shanghai has done a little interview with Frank Cai from Blue Fountain Imported Books, the company that distributes "Chinglish - Found in Translation" in China, too.

So if you are in the Middle Kingdom desperately needing a certain publication, Frank might help you import it.

Read the interview.

Going back in time.

2008-12-02T06:53:00.002+01:00

No, there ain't no chair vomiting around. "Regurgitant" and its Chinese counterpart 回流 hui2liu2 mean nothing more and nothing less than "flowing back". Except that you would find this Latin term in a medical report rather than at an antique market.

My suggestion: Chinese antiques returned from overseas.

My friend Silvano pointed out that hui2liu2 usually implies a historical perspective. Antiques taken, for example, by the 八国联军 ba1guo2 lian2jun1 or "Joint Army of the Eight Powers" after their successful suppression of the so-called Boxer Uprising in Beijing in 1900.

So from a nautical perspective the vomiting chairs and chaiselongues are basically booty.

I will have to go to that place and see for myself when the stuff actually had left China and under what circumstances.

Shot in Beijing. Many thanks, Wiltrud!

So sick of censorship.

2008-11-22T18:12:00.004+01:00

For whatever reason, I had a hard time uploading pictures in recent weeks.

Back to normal now, but still, so looking forward to the day, when China realizes censoring the internet is among the stupidest things to do on Earth (including even discussing an Alaskan vice-presidency and filing German tax reports).

So, for today, I leave you with this beauty from Guangzhou.

May it serve the purpose of reminding the Middle Kingdom's cyber watchdogs to go out and have a picnic in the sun (Guangzhou 25 degrees Celsius!) instead of sniffing around online.

Many thanks, as always, Patricia.

Best,

olr.

Procreation, anyone?

2008-09-17T21:14:00.002+02:00

Fellow friends of Chinglish,

I am urgently looking for any "f..." signs ...

Please send me your original contributions (not stuff downloaded from the Net) as soon as possible to chinglish at olliradtke.de.

Many thanks,

olr.

Agreed.

2008-09-09T09:38:00.002+02:00

Beautiful, indeed. This is a good example of why Chinglish (that doesn't lead to dangerous consequences) needs to stay. In the West, we are so used to a certain approach with public warning signs or Do's and Don'ts that we don't notice them anymore (and, in the end, often end up doing things that these signs tell us not to do).

But can you resist the charme of this approach, taken at the Great Wall?
It's part of a series visible at countless other spots along it.

Many thanks, Angi!

I will.

2008-08-20T09:22:00.003+02:00

The Longmen Grottoes - world famous site, tourist mecca and a haven for great public calls like this. I like the translation since it carries the original meaning rather well.

Many thanks, Björn!

Go where?

2008-08-04T18:35:00.006+02:00

They -pend billion- of dollar- and forget the "-"!

I mean it: 加some real油!

P.S. Big -ign, to be found everyhwhere at Terminal 3.

Thanks for the fox.

2008-07-23T12:46:00.009+02:00

This morning I had an hour-long interview with the news people from sohu.com at their headquarters in Zhongguancun.

Many thanks, 廖恒 and crew, for taking such an interest in this matter!

Here is the webcast interview (in Chinese):
德国朋友建网上博物馆保存中国式英语 part 1

德国朋友建网上博物馆保存中国式英语 part 2

And the transcript (in Chinese):
外国人如何看待中国式英语

Another great thing about coming to sohu.com is: after all the talking you get to bring a new friend home!

In the spirit of this website, what could his or her name be? Open for suggestions...

I try my best.

2008-07-12T16:35:00.006+02:00

Without a Chinese original, it's quite a challenge to reconstruct what the owner was actually referring to. Wondering about the Chinese original, I came up with these two possible candidates:

"一个感受茶道的新地方" or "一个感受新茶道的地方"。

Regarding feel gan3shou4 感受 take a look at the previous posting Synonyms are trouble.

Found next to Beijing's Drum Tower gu3lou2 鼓楼.

Pretty lost in translation in this hospital.

2008-07-11T18:21:00.006+02:00

Tricky one at first, makes sense if you know that mistakes like these result from a rather obvious lack of sensitivity for the various shapes of Latin characters. The mixup of "d" and "p" or "D" and "G" are classic examples.

First line is a "green first-aid passage".
The hospital is obviously operating on a color system.

The second one reads
"Administrative offices of all inpatient departments."
The only thing I don't get is the "oeira" at the end of this line.

Shot in a hospital in 成都 Chengdu. Many thanks, Christoph!

I hope not.

2008-06-25T20:44:00.005+02:00

"世界最大的体育盛宴即将爆发了" isn't supposed to be an anonymous bomb threat, but rather a happy announcement.

Two words are interesting:

sheng4yan4 盛宴 - feast
bao4fa1 爆发 - to explode, to erupt

This very modern and very Public Relations combination of a traditional "feast" with the rather aggressive "explode" leaves room for a lot of misinterpretations.

My rather uninspired suggestion:
"The world's biggest sports meeting is about to begin!"

Shot in 舟山 Zhoushan, 浙江 Zhejiang Province. Thanks, Kukuriku!

A man of taste.

2008-06-22T13:32:00.004+02:00

The purchase of the day. What could this lovely "present" be?

Nothing less than a wonderful toilet brush!

Found in a Beijing supermarket.

Synonyms are trouble.

2008-06-14T15:16:00.003+02:00

I went to the Beijing Tourism Bureau website today and a most colorful flash banner urged me to do a rather strange thing: "Contact the Olympics".

I don't know how long this banner is online already and I wonder how long it will take them to realize they should take if offline pretty soon again. Why do so?

The problem is ti3yan4 体验 and gan3shou4 感受 mean basically the same thing: to feel or experience with (in my understanding!) 体验 having a stronger emphasis on physical experience. All in all it is definitely not about writing an email to Jacques Rogge.

Suggestion: Break it down - "Experience Beijing and the Olympics", maybe even: "Experience Beijing and feel the Olympics". Native speakers anyone?

Have you seen it?

2008-06-09T22:24:00.003+02:00

I'd turn the translation around.
The Chinese is focusing on the hand (literally: dang1xin1 当心 ya4 轧 shou3 手 - "watch out" "crush" "hand"), I'd focus on the gate. Suggestion: "Watch out, moving gate".

Many thanks to Bernd, who also runs the wonderfully quirky www.sleepingchinese.com.

Should I really?

2008-05-06T06:23:00.002+02:00

Taken at beautiful Qianshan 千山 Mountain in Liaoning 辽宁 Province.

Literally it reads "Let us all be friends with the birds".

This is, again, a very Chinese sign, since it is not only anthropomorphizing feathered animals but it's also a classic "win the public over for a good cause"-type of call materialized in green and white. On the other hand, it doesn't feature any specific plea or order, such as "Don't feed the birds", "Don't eat the birds", "Wild animals, please don't scare them" or the like.

Suggestion: Difficult to say. I'd say "Please help preserve the wildlife". I am open for ideas.

Many thanks, Jochen!

The countdown is officially open.

2008-04-30T12:27:00.003+02:00

Only a hundred days to go (till the Olympics open in Beijing), but so many more signs to rescue. The latest is taken yesterday at Beijing Capital Airport's new terminal 3. No worries, they only want your feedback, not your tax records.

Suggestion: "Questionnaire", "Feedback", "Suggestions"

Chinglish Book Review #05.

2008-04-25T16:44:00.003+02:00

I'm happy to quote from the fifth book review of "Chinglish - Found in Translation".

Thanks, Weekly Standard!

Feudal to Translate -
A guide to the English dialect spoken only in China

[...] If, as Radtke believes, Chinglish is an endangered species, then this little volume is a gem of a time capsule.[...]

source: Weekyl Standard, Mar 31 2008, Volume 013, Issue 28

Chinglish feature in down under.

2008-04-24T08:40:00.008+02:00

Many thanks, Karen Halabi, for featuring Chinglish.de in today's The Sydney Morning Herald.

I'm looking forward to many more incoming contributions to preserve a linguistic gem that is so much more than just incorrect English.

Cheers,

olr.

No joke, fools, rather a mystery.

2008-04-01T11:37:00.002+02:00

Question of this year's April Fools' Day:

How did an online encyclopedia get into those Yunnan 云南 fungi dishes?

Shot in Beijing, many thanks to Doryun!

The wait is over ...

2008-03-06T19:17:00.006+01:00

In September 2007 I received a mail informing me about a particularly wonderful Chinglish File in Guangzhous's Martyr's Park 广州起义烈士陵园 (see Wikipedia entry) and immediately called for photographic support.

My call was answered yesterday.

Et voilà!

喧哗 xuan1hua2 - actually can mean whoopla or hullabaloo, no doubt about that. Here it rather indicates to keep your voices down. I hesitate to suggest "Silence, please" as an alternative translation，however, since this is usually used in museums or cemeteries, not in parks. What do you think?

Many thanks to Phillip!

It's Chinglish time on ABC Radio National.

2008-03-01T10:00:00.004+01:00

I did a little interview with (Australian) ABC's Maria Zijlstra for her Lingua Franca program, which looks "at all aspects of language; old languages, modern languages and even invented languages."

Listen to the interview here (15 min.)

The program audio is also available for download on the Lingua Franca website.

Chengde - the sequel.

2008-02-27T11:31:00.003+01:00

Very nice addition to a previous post on the Chengde summer palace.

This is a good example of the commendable creative effort often involved in the production of Chinglish, trying to squeeze two things into one: Starting from "I just know the noun" going straight to "I want this noun to be a verb and I want it to be in present continuous tense on top of that". Or in short: "just copy the form on the right".

Many thanks, Anne!

Of all places ...

2008-01-19T13:13:00.001+01:00

Reader Tony happened to be at this week's Detroit Motor Show (NAIAS), and came across Chinese exhibitors, too.

He writes:

The manufacturer - and I hope you're ready for this - is Bei Jing Li Shi Guang Ming Automobile Design Co. Ltd. The car brand doesn't really roll off the tongue too easily, does it? Interestingly, the steering wheel hub (horn button) bears a picture of a gentleman who looks rather like Chairman Mao, but I believe it's the founder of the company. This one is called: A Piece of Cloud!

So, I started my research. The company was founded in 2002, which, according to its website,

is the first independent nature of local automobile design company in China. The CEO and design director Mr.Li Guang Ming realized the backward status in chinese car designing. So he rated all staff enduring hardships these years. In the ninth China Beijing International Hi-tech expo this year, we exhibited our latest electric vehicle called "Tang Hua".

And endured, they truly have. I've heard about the Tang Hua series before, just 2m long, with an electric motor letting you enjoy a maximum speed of 20km/h or 45km/h for the two-seater model, they indeed are a different type of (fun) car.

Or in the company´s own words:

This model use the all-permanent-magnetism and all-suspending technology, which can increase 20% continuously driving mileage for electric motor car. The maturation and development of the technology will establish consistent foundation for the supreme objective of the development of electric motor car---flywheel energy storage technology. It means the electric vehicle era has truly occurred.

If Mr. Li says so... I am more troubled by the fact, that garbled PR lingo like this is the best a Chinese car manufacturer, willing to enter the European and the US market, can come up with. If their cars are as well-composed as their English promo material, I doubt they will export more than the showcase models.

What really got me hooked was the description for another model, that Tony sent me. To me, it's a rare occasion to find Western irony in Chinese. Or do they really mean it? (Being smart businessmen, I fear, they do.) You decide.

Thanks, Tony!

P.S. A totally different story, but also worth noticing, is the company's logo, which proves rather convincingly that the asthetics of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution aren't that far away, really.

Chinglish in spe

2008-01-05T15:56:00.000+01:00

ESWN's Roland Soong did a great job - as always - by compiling a wonderful collection of "Poster Slogans with Unique Chinese Characteristics", such as the one on the left saying "If you pay loving care to public health, you will live to 100 years old. If you throw garbage everywhere, your children will die".

Since this is all Chinese bulletin board material, I cannot garantuee the posters' authenticity, but I am pretty sure that most of them are ideal candidates for official Chinglish translation.

Chinglish - Categorical problems

2007-12-27T09:25:00.000+01:00

One of the things that interested me a lot recently, is how book retailers categorize "Chinglish - Found in Translation".

I checked out several of amazon's local language websites and was quite surprised.
Here is what I've found out.

- www.amazon.com (.de/.fr)
#8 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British > Humor

- www.amazon.co.uk
#19 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Historical & Comparative Linguistics > Dialectology

- www.amazon.cn
所属分类图书 > 进口原版 > Reference 工具书 > Dictionaries & Thesauruses 词典及辞典

And www.amazon.jp and www.amazon.ca don’t categorize at all.

At the local chain MPH I spotted the book between "Greetings from the Simpsons" and "The Dictionary of Legal Bullshit", which luckily didn't scare our young reader to pick it up anyway.

What does that tell us? Books are only what we want them to be? I just don't know ...

Book Review #04 (Chinese)

2007-12-14T11:55:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to quote from the fourth book review of "Chinglish - Found in Translation".

谢谢, 翟华!

“中式英语”出书啦

难能可贵的是，作者没有简单地嘲弄“中式英语”，而且颇具善意地分析了“中式英语”产生的四种原因。
在作者看来，“中式英语”产生的第一个原因是：... 更多>>

source: 东方文化西方语 (Eastern Culture Western Tongue), Dec 03 2007

The bag is back!

2007-12-13T21:23:00.000+01:00

My publisher, Gibbs Smith, sent me a bit of merchandising again which I would be most happy to give away to Chinglish contributors (thanks for modelling, WR).

Receive your own "Chinglish - Found in Translation" bag for sending in 3 unique Chinglish beauties!
Files have to be >300kb and different from the ones on display. For the bag, please send me a correctly stamped envelope to my postal address, which you get at chinglish at olliradtke.de. Thanks.

Book Review #03

2007-12-05T22:05:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to quote from the third book review of "Chinglish - Found in Translation".

Thanks, Daily Mail!

Chinglish! Hilarious examples of signs lost in translation

With so many English-speaking tourists and businessmen now travelling to China, the Chinese are having to translate their signs to help visitors. Sometimes, though, the message gets lost, and the results can be amusing, and often utterly baffling. Now a new book has collected pictures of some of the best examples and here we present a selection...

source: Daily Mail, Nov 30 2007

Tissue poetry.

2007-11-11T17:56:00.001+01:00

This is nice. The tissue actually features two lines from a well-known poem called "Bringing in the Wine 将进酒" by famous Tang dynasty poet Li Bai/Li Bo 李白 (701-762).

人生得意须尽欢，莫使金樽空对月。

Oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases
And never tip his golden cup empty towards the moon!

(translation taken from 《唐诗三百首》中英文双语对照完整版 300 Tang Poems with translation, hosted by the University of Virginia's Chinese Text Inititative)

But that, of course, still doesn't explain why they had to use beer jugs for the birthplace of wineculture ...

(The simplest explanation is that the rather unspecific jiu 酒 - which can be used to describe all sorts of alcohol creations, ranging from beer (pijiu 啤酒) to schnapps (baijiu 白酒) - is translated as "wine" in this particular poem, so our tissue producers went with that particular translation, no matter what graphics they used :). )

Taken in Qingdao. Thanks, Wieland！

Book Review #02 (in German)

2007-11-07T05:21:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to quote from the second book review of "Chinglish - Found in Translation".

Thanks, Cora!

"Fixed expectations district" ist nur eines der vielen Beispiele, die sich dem Leser in Form von 98 Hochglanzbildern in "Chinglish – Found in Translation" anschaulich präsentieren. [...]
Auf den folgenden Seiten erläutert der Autor darüber hinaus historische Hintergründe zur Entwicklung der englischen Sprache in China und eventuelle Verbindungen zu Chinglish, glücklicherweise ohne dabei zu sehr dem Detail zum Opfer zu fallen, was an dieser Stelle auch nicht angebracht wäre. Sehr aufschlussreich sind dagegen die Erklärungen zum Einfluss des kulturellen Hintergrunds auf Übersetzungen, insbesondere bei Kulturen, die so stark divergieren wie die – vereinfacht gesagt – „des“ Ostens und „des“ Westens.
[...]
Eine eindeutige, allgemein gültige Erklärung für das Phänomen Chinglish lässt sich wohl nicht finden. Aber wozu auch? Viel schöner ist es doch in die auf den folgenden Seiten präsentierten sprachlichen und kulturellen Unterschiede einzutauchen und einfach deren Bizarrheit und Charme auf sich wirken zu lassen… man wird es sicher nicht bereuen.

source: Cora Jungbluth, SHAN e.V. newsletter Nov 2007

Pondering the online translation theory - part 2

2007-11-01T07:02:00.000+01:00

Based upon my previous post on the might and magic of online translation tools, I’d like to elaborate further on the topic of why so many Chinese-English translations go wrong and how much online translation software is contributing to all this.

The battle plan for a rather thorough investigation (and maybe partial solution) of this huge mix-up of languages and meanings is as follows:

1. Defining a list of the most used English-Chinese dictionaries online.
2. Running a thorough test on all dictionaries using phrases that I’ve found on Chinglish signs.
3. Looking for similarities with the actual Chinglish signs.
4. Contacting the dictionary website and its webmaster directly, addressing the problem.

For doing so, I am seeking my readers’ help first.

Below, I have listed what I think are the most used English-Chinese dictionaries online. The method is disputable, but quick: I used today's top search results for the term "英汉在线词典" both on google.cn and baidu.com.
What are your suggestions? Did I miss one?

Top 10 English-Chinese online dictionaries

http://www.dict.cn/
(developed by Chinese exchange students at the University of Indiana)

http://www.iciba.com/
(run by popular dictionary company Kingsoft)

http://dict.baidu.com/
(run by China's search engine no. 1 Baidu.com)

http://study.hongen.com/dict
(developed by Beijing-based Jin Hongen software company, the self-acclaimed no. 1 edu-website in China)

http://www.poptool.net/chinese/entocn/

http://fanyi.cn.yahoo.com/
(same as Altavista's Babelfish?)

http://trans.godict.com/
(run by netanet.com, logo is hilarious)

http://www.tigernt.com/dict.shtml
(private project by H. Xin)

www.cndict.com/
(run by Beijing-based software firm Unics Technology)

www.dreye.com.cn/
(run by Shanghai-based PC manufacturer Inventec)

Although Google's own translation service doesn't show up in the top results, I will include it anyway because of the search engine's ubiquity on the net:
http://translate.google.com/
(Google's translation service)

(Although there seems to exist a vast amount of dictionary websites, most of them actually make use of the above mentioned translation engines, mostly dict.cn, fanyi.cn.yahoo.com or translate.google.com. The ones above all use genuine databases. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Thanks for the notebook, Dan!

"The Hu Jintao suite is ready, sir."

2007-10-24T16:45:00.000+02:00

Now its official: Chinglish.de has, finally, photographic prove of where the final decisions on the new Politburo were made. Right here in this room of the 如家酒店 Home Inn Hotel in Beijing City.

I wonder, is there any standard translation for that key card action?

P.S. Additionally, a little logo check. I leave the commenting to my readers.

Many thanks, Chris, for the picture and the hint!

Shanghai underground style.

2007-10-20T09:12:00.000+02:00

This is a wonderful series taken in various trains of the Shanghai Metro.

They are basically all - much nicer - variations of the old airport routine: Don't leave your luggage unattended or Hold onto your belongings.

How many of these still exist?

Thanks to Yinyuan and Chandler!

It's Chinglish time on Channel News Asia.

2007-10-03T06:01:00.000+02:00

I did an interview with my colleagues Suzanne and Steven from Prime Time Morning this, well, morning.

I hope you'll enjoy it. I certainly did. Just click on the screenshot.

(Screenshot taken from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/ptm/)

What is copyright anyway?

2007-09-29T12:25:00.001+02:00

My dear Chinese teacher Gu Wen sent me this article today:
哭笑不得，令人佩服的五体投地的中式英语(组图),
from wenxuecity.com/

Turns out, all content of this picture-only entry was taken from Chinglish.de.

Dear Wenxue City 文学城 member, besides not asking, there isn't even a single reference to where the pictures are coming from.

How would Singapore respond to that: Why you so bad, hor?

No, seriously, bad move. You don't have to queue. But be a decent visitor. And state your sources.

世界博览 - 2007年第9期 - ”博客版“

2007-09-26T12:28:00.000+02:00

<中国通> “chinglish”记录本

文/[德]纪韶融
译/王紫微

在网上，有一个叫“Chinglish”的博客专门记录我们城市的各种中国式英语，博主纪韶融很乐意为我们讲讲他和中国式英语的故事。更多...

广州网友们，请注意！

2007-09-18T17:21:00.000+02:00

A fellow Chinglish connaisseur sent me this yesterday:

By the way, there's a great sign at the Martyr's Park in Guangzhou which reads something like:

"The folllng activtes srctly probittd: #11 Whooplah/Paint".

God only knows what they had in mind! If I ever go back there I promise to get a shot of it for the collection.

广州网友们，希望你们可以帮个忙：
第一Martyr's Park在哪里？是黄花岗吗？
第二，有没有人可以帮我拍一张？

谢谢大家！

祝好，

纪韶融。

P.S. 别忘记继续参加上个帖子的翻译比赛... 谢谢!

Poetry contest.

2007-09-17T08:28:00.001+02:00

A friend of mine sent me this sign from Yunan's 云南 famous 石林 Stone forest.

Before anyone starts to wonder what is wrong here:
The English translation is correct, but lifeless, especially compared to the rhyming and the spirit of the Chinese original.
这个牌子的英文翻译的文法是准确的，不过跟原本比起来，并不如中文的诗意和精神。

Let us find a translation that captures the original poetry better!
让我们找一个更能捕捉原本诗句神韵的翻译！

I am looking forward to your creative postings.

Thanks for the "housekeeping", Shujun!

Update 24 hours later

Leading the poetry race insofar:

"We are tiny, we are shy.
Step on us and we will die."

Good job, Siak!

Update 72 hours later

The stuff is getting more and more elaborate... At the moment I prefer a slightly revised version of Siak's original poem, thanks go to an unfortunately anonymous English teacher from Shanghai Chris, who works as an English teacher in Zhejiang province!

"We are tiny, we are shy.
Without trampling you pass by."

Backstage.

2007-09-16T18:49:00.000+02:00

Dear fellow Chinglish readers,

just to let you know with what kind of level of communication I have to deal on a regular basis, I'm going to display a recent anonymous comment that I would normally reject for obvious reasons:

this is ain't funny, man!i just dont get it, what u tring 2 express?r u tring 2 say how stupid chinese are, or what?!i believe if you learn chinese, you could be much more stupid than this! and, if you really got plenty time to do this kind of shit, you should spend some time to take care of your "thing"!!!!teach you one first!you stupid pussy!

I don't know where to begin with this one, sigh...

1. If you don't agree with my interests, I'm sure there are million other websites that may interest you more. Bye bye.

2. If you don't "get it", why assuming something without having a clue in the first place? That is not only illogical, but really dumb, sorry.

3. About learning Chinese: 我是德国海德堡大学汉学系毕业。我真希望你先了解这个博客的目标，才敢批评。我给你看一些中国媒体和我自己写的稿子，希望你先读，才说。最后，拜托你，少一点用脏话，好吗？谢谢。

Deutsche Welle 德国之声
中国式英语中国式幽默
to the article >>

World Vision 世界博览
"Chinglish" 记录本
to the article (PDF)>>

4. Why the rude language? Nothing has been and will ever be gained from that.

5. I don't have plenty of time, but part of my rare free time just goes into what I deem a valuable hobby. If this does not amuse, cf. point 1.

祝好，

olr.

Book Review #01

2007-09-15T19:17:00.000+02:00

I'm happy to quote from the first book review of "Chinglish - Found in Translation".

Thanks, Kam!

While it is undoubtedly embarrassing to the Asian community to see snapshots of so many inscrutable phrases posted alongside Chinese characters, this good-natured tome should be seen as doing a service if it causes China to correct the problem by the time the Olympic torch is lit.

source: Kam Williams, Sep 04 2007, News Blaze

Dustbin poetry.

2007-09-15T15:32:00.000+02:00

One of the most recurring Chinglish themes is the world of recycling. An ecological awareness is definitely spreading in China, albeit slowly, but its terminology is all the more creative, though. This is a nationwide phenomenon if you look at the locations below.

1,2 Lingshan Buddhist Statue 灵山大佛 in Wuxi 无锡, Jiangsu 江苏 province. Many thanks, Leo!

3 Longmen Grottos 龙门石窟 in Luoyang 洛阳, Henan 河南 province.
Many thanks, Jörg!

4 Lama Temple 雍和宫 in Beijing 北京.
Many thanks, Cora!

5 Summer Palace in Chengde 承德, Hebei 河北 province.
Many thanks, Michael!

My simple, much less poetic suggestion: recyclable/non-recycable.

Shenzhen does it, too.

2007-09-14T19:29:00.000+02:00

Private eye Cristin reports:

The picture was taken in downtown Shenzhen a few days ago. The mistakes are quite obvious and can actually cause confusions.
I would put the translations as: Caution for deep water! No Swimming!

Thanks, Cristin!

It's all about next year.

2007-09-13T08:45:00.000+02:00

This is a very interesting website run by the official China Daily promoting the fight against everything Chinglish. The site offers many Chinglish examples as well as correct translations and expert opinions. It also diligently collects nationwide reports on the Chinglish phenomenon (or rather a selection of success stories of the fight against it).

What strikes me most - in its very Chinese approach - is the list of small personal features of the site's outstanding contributors (almost all are university students) - the so-called jiucuo (correction) "纠错 007" with the three digit number intentionally referring to Her Majesty's master spy, I guess.

This is, again, a very smart move in China's ever increasingly competitive society - especially in the education sector - to link love for the mother country with your university career and a continuous public call for help.

Or sweet and short in 8 characters: 以纠错为祖国争光。

(screenshots taken from http://language.chinadaily.com.cn/herewego/)

A tough one. For Y55.

2007-09-12T14:23:00.000+02:00

Suggestions, anyone?

My private eye Silvano reported from Xi'an 西安:

Too bad I can't remember the name of the restaurant to which the menu belonged, and actually, it carried some other curious items, such as Two Human Life Set Menu (i.e. 二人世界套餐) etc, but under the noses of the waitresses, we couldn't find a chance to take more pictures without embarrassing them. That made me really want to steal it!

The restaurant is a chain, with a big sign stating "台北牛排" and stairs leading up to the second floor where it actually is. The interior design is a mixture of many tacky styles, with swings instead of chairs for some tables. The one where I took the picture is at an intersection on 东大街.

Thanks, Silvano.

Time's tickin' ...

2007-09-02T11:49:00.000+02:00

From the BBC website:
China dishes up menu translations

China is working hard to present a positive image during the Games
China is taking action on the English translations of its restaurant menus in its campaign to brush up the country's image for next year's Olympics.
The Beijing Tourism Bureau has released a list of 2,753 dishes and drinks it thinks could do with a wording rethink. to the article >>

CCTV.com offers a selection:

1 夫妻肺片 Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce
2 红烧狮子头 Stewed Pork Ball in Brown Sauce
3 回锅肉片 Sautéed Sliced Pork with Pepper and Chili
4 酱猪手 Braised Pig Feet in Brown Sauce
5 京酱肉丝 Sautéed Shredded Pork in Sweet Bean Sauce
6 木须肉 Sautéed Sliced Pork，Eggs and Black Fungus
7 糖醋排骨 Sweet and Sour SpareRibs
8 四喜丸子 Four-Joy Meatballs (Meat Balls Braised with Brown Sauce)
9 当红炸子鸡 Deep-Fried Chicken
10 宫保鸡丁 Kung Pao Chicken

Does anyone know where to get the full list?

Here's the download:
北京市菜单英文译法(讨论稿) Regulations for the English Translations of Menus in Beijing City - Draft version (Word file)
Source: http://beijing.gov.cn

To all my fellow Chinglish custodians out there: Please shoot as many menus as possible!

Now it's official ...

2007-08-29T12:15:00.000+02:00

"Chinglish - Found in Translation" is on the shelves!

Oliver Lutz Radtke
Chinglish -
Found in Translation
Paperback, 85 pages
English introduction
Gibbs Smith Publisher
ISBN: 978-1423603351
7,95$/5,99€

You may order via Amazon.com or Amazon.de.

In Singapore it's available at Kinokunyia and Page One.

Editorial.

2007-08-25T11:03:00.001+02:00

I've recently received several mails, mainly by the notorious outraged Chinese reader and his main slogan "Show some respect to our country, we will run you all over very soon", questioning the authenticity of the shown Chinglish photographs.

I can't change his attitude besides with what I am doing with this website, so I won't bother, but questioning the quality of my exhibits is a different matter.

It is precisely because pictures that have been manipulated are so readily available on the internet that I adhere to a strict policy of only displaying photos on Chinglish.de which have been taken by photographers that I know personally and who also reveal the location where the photo has been taken.
I frequently turn down many images for display - in spite of how hilarious they are - precisely because I cannot guarantee their authenticity.

I kindly ask readers who are suspicious to refrain from questioning the authenticity of the pictures shown.

All Chinglish on Chinglish.de is real and will continue to be.

Best,

olr.

Thanks, Jochen, for the pharmacy in Macao!

Fake or no fake?

2007-08-13T12:01:00.000+02:00

I've received the following picture several times during the last fews days.

It is obviously a Beijing branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. As the sign states, the "male" branch is on Beichen Rd. 北辰路， which - with a little research - actually is Beichen East Rd. no. 8 北辰东路8号汇欣大厦1层, phone number is 84980594.

I am asking a favor of you Beijing netizens! Could anyone of you venture out and take a large size picture of it to make sure this is not a fake?

If this turns out to be real, I'll get in touch with them and will further report on this matter here on Chinglish.de.

Hope to hear from a helping hand real soon!

Update Aug 15:

My private eye Silvano took a picture of the branch plate this afternoon. He writes:

In front of the bank there were a whole bunch of old people, men and women, supposedly all stock holders, waiting for the door to open. At 8:30, the sun was already glaring. Note that the two plates differ drastically. My guess is that there has been a replacement.

Looks like they've figured it out themselves. So it's hard to tell whether or not "male service" was genuine. Many thanks, my friend!

Spread the word.

2007-07-27T19:28:00.000+02:00

My publisher, Gibbs Smith, sent me a bit of merchandising which is now extensively used all over Singapore (thanks for modelling, WR).

Receive your own "Chinglish - Found in Translation" bag for sending in 5 unique Chinglish beauties!
Files have to be >300kb and different from the ones on display. Mail box is at chinglish at olliradtke.de. Thanks.

Update Aug 16:

Thanks everybody for the overwhelming support and many new Chinglish beauties! All bags are gone.
Please continue to support the cause of chinglish.de!

Let's celebrate!

2007-07-15T11:27:00.000+02:00

We finally made it. One hundred Chinglish beauties are online.

I raise my glass to all you contributors and commentators out there!

Secondly, I'd like to take this joyous occasion to announce my new book on this matter:

Oliver Radtke
Chinglish -
Found in Translation
Paperback, 85 pages
English introduction
Gibbs Smith Publisher
ISBN: 978-1423603351
7,95$/5,99€
available from August 10, 2007

You may pre-order via Amazon.com or Amazon.de.

Awww. (countdown - 0!)

2007-07-15T11:23:00.000+02:00

Probably the cutest version of "Slippery floor" so far. Found in Xiamen 厦门. Many thanks, Jorg!

From house to man. (countdown - 1!)

2007-07-15T10:46:00.001+02:00

This is the Forbidden City, Beijing:

This is all around Singapore:

Which sign makes the trouble/inconvenience more bearable, huh?

Thanks, Martin!

Dragonflies? (countdown - 2!)

2007-07-14T18:22:00.000+02:00

This is an obvious confusion of peck 啄 and burn 灼 because both words share the same transcription, i.e. zhuo2. The interesting question is, why translating from Hanyu pinyin, the Latin transcription system, and not from the original character, which clearly looks different ...

I'd translate it as:
"Beware of the pecking birds. Keep your distance."

Taken at the Beijing Badaling Safari World 北京八达岭野生动物世界, beside the ostrich tuo2niao3 鸵鸟 cage.

Many thanks, Li Bin!

Its one small step for man ... (countdown - 3!)

2007-07-12T18:44:00.000+02:00

Taken at the Emeishan 峨眉山 in Sichuan 四川 Province. Thanks, Thomas!

(I used Photoshop to lighten up the Latin font a bit.)

Thank you. (countdown - 4!)

2007-07-07T10:30:00.001+02:00

Western toilets rather display something like
"This is a water-free toilet. You may leave after use".

But basically the original is correct and so much more straight to the point.

By the way, in a country with more than 100.000 public toilets and an ever increasing freshwater shortage, watersaving technology like this actually makes a lot of sense.

Found at the Shenyang Botanical Garden 沈阳植物园 in Liaoning 辽宁 Province. Thanks, Ulli!

Let's go back then. (countdown - 5!)

2007-07-06T21:07:00.000+02:00

非紧急 - fei1 jin3ji2 - non-critical
情况 - qing2kuang4 - situation
请 - qing3 - please
止步 - zhi3bu4 - to stop

A classic from Beijing Capital International Airport 北京首都国际机场.

It really is just an "Emergency Exit".

By the way, this one will surely be gone for good soon. Can anyone let me know about the change?

Thanks, Hans!

Have a break. (countdown - 6!)

2007-07-06T07:03:00.000+02:00

"有狗，请勿靠近" you gou, qing wu kao jin (literally: dog/s in here, please don't come close) is just the good ol' Roman "cave canem" or "Beware of the dog".

Tibetan-speaking reader Francoise comments:

Talking about Tibetan, the Tibetan text in the picture "Have dogs" actually means "Dog owners are not allowed to come/go", which actually is puzzling enough because does it mean owners are not allowed but dogs are?

Note that in Tibetan too there is a mistake, a letter must have have fallen, hence the white space in the middle ...

Taken at the former summer palace of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, Tibet. Thanks, Gregor!

The sea joins. (countdown - 7!)

2007-07-05T17:32:00.000+02:00

To backup my little theory in the previous post, I present this little gem which originally intended to inform shoppers about "dried sea fruits".

Taken at a supermarket on the southern Chinese island of Hainan 海南. Many thanks, Asmus!

Leave the peanut alone. (countdown - 8!)

2007-07-04T10:02:00.001+02:00

咸 - xian2 - salty
酥 - su1 - crispy
花生 - hua1sheng1 - peanut

Hmm, on a package that says "salty, crispy peanuts", I really don't know where the nutty intercourse is coming from ...

My theory: because mistranslating "dried nuts" (ganguo 干果) as "fuck the fruit" (since 干 can be gan1 dry and gan4 fuck) is very common in the Chinese supermarket scene, this particular company actually took over a common mistranslation that has no reference in the original Chinese product name!

This is sort of wrong twice. Amazing.

Found and eaten in Hangzhou 杭州. Thanks, Stefan!

Once is not enough. (countdown - 9!)

2007-06-26T16:34:00.000+02:00

欢迎 huan1ying2 - literally "joyfully receive" - welcome
您 nin2 - you (as opposed to thou)
再次 zai4 ci4 - again
光临 guang1lin2 - literally "(your) valued arrival" - your presence

Western supermarkets write: "Please come again soon".

Taken at the Hengji Mall 恒基商城 in Beijing 北京. Thanks, Werner!

P.S. For all English natives: test your knowledge of German on the subtle difference between Sie and Du (you and thou).

History repeating, indeed. (countdown - 10!)

2007-06-21T09:13:00.000+02:00

And to proof that Chinese sign-makers can still do it:
this is taken on a Yangtze (Changjiang) 长江 cruiser between Chongqing 重庆 and Yichang 宜昌.

"间手洗" is toilet/toilets 洗 xi3 手 shou3 间 jian1 (literally the "wash hand(s) room") layouted from right to left.

Many thanks to David!

History repeating.

2007-06-17T08:09:00.000+02:00

Hairdresser shops in Shanghai do it, so toilet signs can do it, too.
For me this is a highly creative approach to langugage. "We wrote from right to left for thousands of years, so why can't we do the same with those simple Latin letters".

By the way, this is the oldest Chinglish photograph in my collection.

Taken on the southern island of Hainan 海南 in 1981 (!). Thanks very much, Bernd.

Readers' Response.

2007-06-14T07:12:00.000+02:00

147...

I received 147 new Chinglish beauties in two days...

Don't know what to say, except:

This means an awful lot of work.

and:

Thanks to everyone who is feeding this project!

Best,

olr.

You got mail.

2007-06-12T06:46:00.000+02:00

This morning, I wondered why my mail program was so slow. Then I realized that it just took longer than usual to download the 200+ mails to my Chinglish account, clearly indicating: Spiegel Online published my article.

Die Sache mit dem Ding

Die Schilder, die Chinas Beamte per Wörterbuch und Internet-Übersetzungsdienst kreieren, haben es Oliver Lutz Radtke angetan. Der Deutsche sammelt diese Nebenwirkungen der Globalisierung. In SPIEGEL ONLINE schildert er, welche Poesie durch die bizarren Übersetzungen entsteht. read more...

Dear fellow China travellers and students, please continue your search!

As Beijing's frantic sweeping of everything Chinglish enters its final year before the Olypmics, I need your continuous support to conserve a linguistic treasure that is worth every letter.

I am thankful for every Chinglish beauty you can send me to chinglish at olliradtke.de.

Best,

olr.

"Welcome to presence" nun auch als eBook.

2007-06-11T19:54:00.000+02:00

Für meine deutschsprachigen Leser freue ich mich, meinen Erstling als eBook bekannt geben zu können.

Oliver Lutz Radtke
"Welcome to presence" -
Abenteuer Alltag in China
Dryas Verlag, 300 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-9811327-0-0

Als eBook erhältlich bei mobipocket.com.

Wer doch lieber Bücher in Papierform liest: das Paperback bei amazon.de.

Letter to the editor

2007-06-07T14:21:00.000+02:00

Reader Yongcheng Li from St. Augustine, Florida sent me his thoughts on the translation of an Anthony Hopkins classic

"The silence of the lambs" is a 1988 novel by Thomas Harris and also a 1991 academy award-winning film directed by Jonathan Demme. The Chinese translation of the title has always been 沉默的羔羊 (meaning the silent lambs).

I have never seen any "silent lamb" either in the movie or in the novel. What I saw were only bleating lambs. The movie was about overcoming of Starling's phychological trouble she had since her childhood of the poor lambs, and herself. At the end of the movie, Starling was startled when she received a phone call from Lecter. He asked her if the lambs had stopped screaming, and promised her that he will not come after her, and that he expected the same courtesy.

The actual meaning of "the silence of the lambs" is "making the screaming lambs silent". It is definitely not "the silent lambs". The title could better, in fact, be translated to 哀叫的羔羊 (the bleating lambs).

What do you say?

Fireworks, please.

2007-06-03T07:05:00.000+02:00

Today I celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Chinglish.de.

What started as a one man-project in 2005 is now ... still a one-man project, but the support of you fellow bloggers and China travellers has grown tremendously.

Thank you very much.

After being mentioned in the Wall Street Journal this little blog received and is still receiving media attention from the US, China and Germany. Even Spanish and Czech newspapers have taken an interest.

At the moment I get about five to ten Chinglish beauties a week, making it an ever growing backlog for the next few months. But that doesn't mean you should stop sending them in!

As Beijing's frantic search for everything Chinglish enters its final year before the Olypmics, I need your continuous support to find and conserve a linguistic phenomenon that is worth every letter.

Just remember:

(taken at the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum 陕西历史博物馆, Xi'an 西安)

All the best,

olr.

I try my best.

2007-06-02T12:00:00.000+02:00

This is a wonderful example for the many literal translations from Chinese into English.

小心 xiao3xin1 pay attention to, beware of (but can also be used as an imperative "Be careful")

滑 hua2 slip

倒 dao3 fall, slide

Since 滑倒 is used here to explain basically the same, that is slipping and/or sliding (in any case, some movement that will eventually hurt a lot), it really is suffice to say "Caution: slippery floor".

Thanks, Aron!

Something light for the weekend.

2007-05-26T12:08:00.000+02:00

Yaozhi Guiling Gao. I still haven't found any meaningful characters for Yaozhi, but Guiling Gao is definitely 龟苓膏 turtle fungus paste :).

Blood in stod? I am guessing "stool". Anybody?

Found in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Many thanks go to Michael, who says this is

from some sort of medicinal jelly that I purchased for $2.50 in Chinatown because I liked the decorative jar it came in.

Beware of the "Used wetness-heat evil" ...
I think that's the one attacking you after an hour-long shower session with boiling hot water.

P.S. And, by the way, I also haven't found any reference to treating "yellowish voginal discharge of women"...

RSS Feed now available.

2007-05-18T11:21:00.000+02:00

Due to popular demand, Chinglish.de is now offering a RSS Feed. Please let me know how I can improve this service.

Thanks.

2007-05-16T17:05:00.000+02:00

小心 xiao3xin1 beware, take care

站稳 zhan4wen3 stand solid

Again, this is a Chinese way of seeing things.
In Western countries you'd rather find an Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation, for example, or signs that say "Hold the handrail". Legs are rarely an issue.

Taken in Shanghai 上海 this February. Thanks, Caroline!

Well, all men are ...

2007-05-08T17:27:00.001+02:00

This particular Chinglish beauty from Taiwan falls into the category of "We-have-sweet-little-balloon-headed-guys-left-why-not-use-them-
for-toilet-signs".

(Although the space isn't really big enough ...)

Thanks, Arion!

You just wanna shower?

2007-05-06T10:41:00.000+02:00

注意 zhu4yi4 pay attention to, be aware of
防 fang2 prevent, protect, take measures
滑 hua2 slide, slip

I suggest "Mind the slippery floor". Native speakers, anyone?

One anonymous blogger suggested:

"Slippery when wet" or "Caution: wet floor"

Taken in the Popoko Hotel in Zhuhai 珠海, Guangdong 广东 Province. Thanks, David!

P.S. By the way, the "Deluxe Suite" is 50 Dollars...

Labour Day Special.

2007-05-01T11:10:00.000+02:00

A bangongshi 办公室 is a bangongshi 办公室 is a bangongshi 办公室...

It's really just an office.

Many thanks go to Kevin!

I am sorry, Peking University ...

2007-04-26T07:54:00.001+02:00

... but what's the reason behind translating 创新 chuang4xin1 ("innovation") as "imagination"?

I am sure, when it comes to Operating Systems, your 2007 Imagination Festival keynote speaker does rely much more on the latter than the former, but do you really need to rub it in that bad?

source: Xinhua News

Seriously: If Asia's best university (according to the 2006 THES World University Rankings ) can't hire a translator, I don't know who will.

Really sorry.

Thanks go to blogger "Beyondword" for pointing this out to me.

Homegrown.

2007-04-12T09:33:00.000+02:00

My colleague Ca-Mie De Souza 嘉美 in Beijing delivered a correspondent report on Chinglish yesterday.

In China to standardise English used on bilingual signboards the most interesting statement is related to my Possible approaches to China's bilingual sign-makers. A shop owner is quoted saying

我们没有专门的翻译，主要我们还是邀请别人，或者是我们简单地通过电脑的金山快译和英汉字典。招牌之类的可能就用简单的，文字并没有太复杂的。We don't have professional translators, so we ask someone else or use the computer's Kingsoft translation tool and an English-Chinese dictionary. Signs usually have simple words so we try to translate them ourselves"

(Kingsoft is a popular Chinese-English translation software in the PRC, original Chinese quotation from www.xin.sg)

This strongly supports my guess that a lot of offline Chinglish is actually produced online, don't you think?

I always do.

2007-03-27T10:10:00.000+02:00

I'd probably use flush instead of wash ...

This is another good example of the right-in-your-face-character of Chinglish. Western toilet signs usually carefully circumvent issues related to certain body functions (althought that's what they are mainly for), resulting in requests such as "Please flush after use" or even just "Please flush afterwards" not mentioning those sometimes heavenly relieving actions after all ...

Taken in 西安 Xi'an, thanks to Hugh.

The might and magic of online translation tools.

2007-03-14T11:04:00.000+01:00

As stated in my previous post The most asked question - why? I hereby present some examples of free online translation software that might help to further support my theory of many Chinglish signs actually being produced by using online services.

I randomly selected some of this collection's catchier phrases and ran translation quests on five different websites (their adresses are found below).

As you can see, the outcome is not only pure Chinglish (as is the case with almost any other language), but sometimes quite similar to what I have found on public signs around the country (the original translations are shown in brackets). Enjoy.

先下后上，文明乘车
(After first under on, do riding with civility, see original entry)
(1) After first under on, the civilization rides in a carriage.
(2) Go down upper, civilized riding of queen first.
(3) After descending first up, the civilization goes by car.
(4) After the jump, civilized ride.
(5) Under on, the civilization rides in a carriage after first.

青青的草怕你的脚
(Green grass dreading your feet, see original entry)
(1) The blue grass fears your foot.
(2) Green grass is afraid of your foot.
(3) The very green grass fears your feet.
(4) Green grass afraid your legs.
(5) The blue grass fears your foot.

小草有情你当有意
(Love the litter grass, see original entry)
(1) The grass feels emotion you when intends.
(2) Small grass has feeling you should have a mind to.
(3) The small grass has feeling you to be to have intention to.
(4) When you intend to large and enthusiastic. (!)
(5) The grass feels emotion you when intends.

注意安全请勿戏水
(Noticing Security, Don't play water, see original entry)
(1) Pays attention safely please do not play with water.
(2) Pay attention to safety not play with water please.
(3) Noticing the safety pleases not drama water.
(4) Do not playing in the water safety.
(5) Pays attention safely please do not play with water.

向自觉维护公共卫生的游客致敬
(Salute to the tourists who keep the public hygience, see original entry)
(1) Salutes to the aware maintenance public health tourist.
(2) Salute to the visitor who defends public health conscientiously.
(3) Pay respects toward the visitor who aware of self to support public hygiene.
(4) Tourists pay tribute to consciously safeguard public health.
(5) Salutes to the aware maintenance public health tourist.

文明参观讲究卫生
(Visit in civilization, pay attention to hygiene!, see original entry)
(1) Civilized visit Is fastidious the health.
(2) Civilization is paid a visit to Pay attention to hygiene.
(3) Civilization visit Pay attention to hygiene.
(4) Civilization tour Stress health.
(5) The civilization visits Is fastidious hygienic.

请勿忘随身物品
(Don't forget to carry your thing, see original entry)
(1) Please do not forget along with the goods.
(2) Do not forget please with self article.
(3) Please don't forget personal luggage.
(4) Do not forget belongings.
(5) Please do not forget along with goods.

And last, but not least:
残疾人厕所
(Deformed man toilet, see blog header)
(1) Disabled person restroom
(2) Deformed man toilet (!)
(3) Disable and sick person's toilet
(4) Disabled toilet
(5) Disabled person restroom

Used online services
(1) http://fanyi.cn.yahoo.com/ (same as Altavista's Babelfish?)
(2) http://trans.godict.com/
(3) http://www.iciba.com/
(4) http://translate.google.com/
(5) http://www.onlinetranslation.cn/

Update:
I was just informed that tool (2) trans.godict.com has changed its engine to Altavista's translation service some time after this entry.
I tried to post several of the slogans on display above and godict.com didn't show any translations at all (using bits and pieces works fine). It seems they removed all problematic utterances that I've put on here. Interesting, indeed. I keep you updated.

Update 2:
A week later trans.godict.com properly uses it's own translations again, resulting in the very special "deformed man toilet". Back to normal, it seems.

The most asked question - why?

2007-03-13T16:45:00.000+01:00

This is going to be a bit longer than my usual postings, but the matter is worth every inch ...

I've been lately investing some spare time in trying to figure out what the thought processes of sign makers in China are. As non-relevant or nerdish that might sound at first glance, it is - in my eyes - nevertheless a question that, at least slightly, touches general concepts that China and her citizens and signmakers have about themselves and the world.
近来我花了一点业余时间，想弄明白那些在中国制作英文标识的人，在制作的过程中究竟是怎么想的。可能这听上去不太像一个问题，或者说有一点书呆子气，但是在我看来，至少在一定程度上能出中国和中国百姓，以及那些制作标识的人对自己和对世界的大概想法。

I think it is valid to ask why nobody actually proof-reads many of the bilingual signs in China. Signs that are not only displayed publicly but brightly illuminated by night, enlarged to giant proportions as billboard ads or huge commercials on street-long construction site fences.
我觉得很有必要问一下，为什么没有人去校对一下很多在中国大街小巷的双语标识。那些标识不仅是出现在公众场合，而且还常常被夜晚的霓虹凸现出来，甚至变成大型的广告牌，或一些整条街道长的建筑工地的篱墙上的巨幅广告。

Most of what I say now is influenced by discussions I recently had with Chinese friends and colleagues. Keep this in mind if I may sound arrogant. I can recall many instances where my Chinese friends look down on their tongbaomen and -women much more than I would ever dare to do (including classic utterances like She has no culture at all 这个人太没文化了。).
我现在要说的想法，都是近来和我的中国朋友们，还有中国同事们讨论后形成的。请你们一直记得这点，如果觉得我听上去有些自大。我还记得很多例子，我的中国朋友比我更看不起他们的同胞们（包括经典的口头禅：这个人太没文化了）。

Here we go.
好了，开始吧。

Possible approaches to China's bilingual sign-makers
制造中国双语标识制作人的可能想法

Approach number 1: Nobody speaks English in China.
可能性1：中国没有人会说英语。
I think, we can exclude that right away. There are not only enough foreigners in China who could do the job, but - more importantly - enough Chinese university graduates with excellent language skills, even more so when they return from abroad. That many Chinese students struggle with the English language, hence the abundant literature on classroom Chinglish, is well-known, but not relevant here.
我想，我们能马上删除这种可能性。中国的确有足够的老外来做这项工作，但更重要的是，她拥有足够多的语言水平很好的大学生，而且还有从国外学成归国的留学生。中国学生们如何努力学习英语众所周知，甚至因此衍生出了丰富的课堂中式英语作品。但这个状况，和我们这里讨论的并不相关。

Approach number 2: We don't care.
可能性2：我们漠不关心。
No matter if it is right or wrong, as long as it looks foreign, cool and different (see entry on this Shanghai hairdresser) we are fine with it.
This, of course, wouldn't have much to do with trying to come up with a real translation.
不管标识是否正确，只要看上去是外国字，是很酷的，是不一样的，就行了（参看上海美容美发用品标识）。这样的想法，对于真正做好一个翻译当时是没什么帮助的。

Approach number 3: We don't know better.
可能性3：我们不知道更好的。
Everyone familiar with certain company structures in China knows what I am referring to. Dongfeng Gongsi needs a new company sign, bilingual, international-looking, who is taking charge of that? Of course, Xiao Wang! Why? 因为他的英文是最好的 Because his English is the best!
What does that sentence really mean? Poor Xiao Wang has to deal with something he might not be familiar with at all, but his superiors regard his English to be the best. In the company. So it is naturally him who gets picked for the task. Luckily no one notices the problems afterwards, because his boss's English is nearly non-existent, so he won't bother.
任何了解中国公司一定运作架构的人，都知道我在说什么。譬如东风公司需要一条新的公司标语。需要是中英文都有的，要有国际视野的，谁能负责呢？当然是小王了。为什么？“因为他的英文是最好的。”
那句话到底是什么意思呢？可怜的小王，必须要做一些他可能并没有那么熟悉的事情，就因为他的上司认为他的英语是最好的。意思是在公司里他英文最好。所以很自然的事情就落到了他头上。很幸运的，没人在事后发现问题，因为他的老板英文很烂，根本不愿意费心去看。

Approach number 4: We want to do it ourselves.
可能性4：我们想要自己的事情自己做。
This would be a discussion about "losing face". How come we've built the Forbidden City and now have to rely on red-haired barbarians helping us with their language! An unlikely scenario, but I wouldn't want to exclude anything too early.
这可能是一个有关“面子”的问题。我们曾经修建了多么雄伟的万里长城，还有故宫，怎么可能到现在居然需要依靠野蛮的红毛人来帮我们学习他们的语言。一种不太可能的假想，但是我不想太早排除任何可能性。

Approach number 5: The might of online translation tools
可能性5：使用网上在线翻译工具的力量
In my next posting I'd like to feature some of them trying to show that it is quite likely that many sign makers are actually frequently using free online software to generate their rather characteristic word-by-word translations.
Using these tools for any Chinese sentence is real fun, by the way.
在我下一篇的文章里，我希望给大家看一些这样的例子。你们可以看到不少标识制作人，事实上很有可能经常使用一些的免费网上翻译的软件，来创造出他们极有特色的逐字翻译。
说句题外话，用这样的工具来翻译中文句子，还挺好玩的。

What do you think? What is the most likely approach in your eyes? Did I miss something completely?
I am very much looking forward to any comment!
你们觉得怎么样？在你们看来，哪一种可能性比较大？或者我是不是完全漏掉了一些其他可能性？
很希望你们能告诉我你们的看法。

The Chinglish Files by olr

Chinglish piece on "Marketplace"

Chinglish and ... Google Earth

Chinglish on China Radio International Beyond Beijing

How to take a good Chinglish picture

Follow-up from Canada.

News from Big Apple again.

This blog has moved

Message from Big Apple

Shanghai EXPO English

Variations on a theme.

The Chinglish Files go academic.

Chinglish talk on China Radio International

Posting from Germany.

AFP 1, Reuters 0.

Compliments to the Huangpu River.

Differing view from Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao.

Front page story!

No April Fool's joke - the sequel is here.

Postal code 00.

2009 - year of many anniversaries

Christmas riddle.

English books in China - Can't find what you're looking for?

Going back in time.

So sick of censorship.

Procreation, anyone?

Agreed.

I will.

Go where?

Thanks for the fox.

I try my best.

Pretty lost in translation in this hospital.

I hope not.

A man of taste.

Synonyms are trouble.

Have you seen it?

Should I really?

The countdown is officially open.

Chinglish Book Review #05.

Chinglish feature in down under.

No joke, fools, rather a mystery.

The wait is over ...

It's Chinglish time on ABC Radio National.

Chengde - the sequel.

Of all places ...

Chinglish in spe

Chinglish - Categorical problems

Book Review #04 (Chinese)

The bag is back!

Book Review #03

Tissue poetry.

Book Review #02 (in German)

Pondering the online translation theory - part 2

"The Hu Jintao suite is ready, sir."

Shanghai underground style.

It's Chinglish time on Channel News Asia.

What is copyright anyway?

世界博览 - 2007年 第9期 - ”博客版“

广州网友们，请注意！

Poetry contest.

Backstage.

Book Review #01

Dustbin poetry.

Shenzhen does it, too.

It's all about next year.

A tough one. For Y55.

Time's tickin' ...

Now it's official ...

Editorial.

Fake or no fake?

Spread the word.

Let's celebrate!

Awww. (countdown - 0!)

From house to man. (countdown - 1!)

Dragonflies? (countdown - 2!)

Its one small step for man ... (countdown - 3!)

Thank you. (countdown - 4!)

Let's go back then. (countdown - 5!)

Have a break. (countdown - 6!)

The sea joins. (countdown - 7!)

世界博览 - 2007年第9期 - ”博客版“