11 replies to this topic

[bayonet]

Feel free to remove or merge it if it is a repeat topic.

The Beijing municipal government is resolved to launch a campaign to sweep away the Chinese English, namely Chinglish in public, which is thought part of an effort to creat a more satifactory environment for foreign travellers during the appoaching Beijing Olympic. Though the Chinglish instructions do result in inconvience and confusions, pretty many foreigners feel regret to see the coming end day of Chinglish coz it creats lot of funs and make the foreigners feel very Chinese. This tread at least give a chance for u to revival those Chinglish which u encounter and find interesting or those sentences the Chinese u talked with that found difficult to understand. They also help to form a better understanding of the way Chinese think and act.

[naruwan]

there is a Chinglish website actually.

Deformed Person.... classic.

[bayonet]

The first one i think should be '' physical challenged people only''
and the second one i believe a '' The antique building is under renovation. We here ask for understanding and apologise for what might cause you inconvenient. '' would be better. But i m not sure, it might be a Chinglish or a weird english.

[naruwan]

The first one i think should be '' physical challenged people only''
and the second one i believe a '' The antique building is under renovation. We here ask for understanding and apologise for what might cause you inconvenient. '' would be better. But i m not sure, it might be a Chinglish or a weird english.

actually "Handicapped" would do nicely for the first one.

[kaiselin]

Those are funny examples of Chinglish.
As I am learning Chinese, I have seen odd translations in subtitled movies, but that has been a long time standing joke.
More recently, I use my computers translation page to help me in quick translation.
I find some of the attempts very strange and impossible to understand because of the standardized choice of the word that the service chose to use in some examples.
Most often I see it when the words for a countries name is translated as America, England or Germany instead of the other meanings that the character also means.
It also is quite confusing and totally incoherent when a compound Chinese word meaning is individually translated as two separate unrelated words.

I think that I would find it charming to see the mistranslated signs. The handicapped sign might rile some with thinner skin, since it is not totally politically correct, but then there's always some people who will get their nickers in a knot.

[Accidentally on Purpose]

I think it's a good thing...some bad english in amongst all the bad chinese from the tourists

[Non-Han Nan Ban]

Deformed person! Normally I would say such a sign was cruel, but since it's not intentional, it is funny.

Eric (En Rui)

[Jurchen Fuca]

The best one being KFC's "We do chicken right" campaign.

The Chinese, unbelievably, and literally translated that sentence as "在KFC, 我們做雞是對的" -- It actually means "At KFC, we are doing the right thing by prostituting." LOL :0

Best Chinglish.

EVER.

*Note: The literal meaning of to-do the chicken is a slang, an old Chinese slang meaning to become a prostitute.

Edited by Jurchen Fuca, 08 June 2008 - 09:16 PM.

[Jurchen Fuca]

---
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Edited by Jurchen Fuca, 08 June 2008 - 09:13 PM.

[大泽升龙]

One I can remember most: 给你点颜色看看！ ==> Give you some colour to see!

It is unlike the other misused English, it is proper English but very difficult for foreigners to understand. I think this should be called real Chinglish. I am sure one day foreigners will understand and accept it when more and more people become Chinese-culture aware. [another similar example is "paper tiger" (纸老虎)]

[OiLing]

I think these examples are perfect examples of Chinese language word order for the foreigners to understand. But I think that the term Chinglish stands in for the word loans Chinese language have taken from english. For example, in Cantonese there are quite many loans of words such as the word "godown" that is formed by the phrase "go put your load down" and means pantry (i dont know if that is the correct english word. Another example is the word kayleen that means cream.