Tuesday, February 06, 2007

In the spotlight - Wall Street Journal report

Surprise.

Chinglish.de was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal today, please cf. Mei Fong,
"Tired of Laughter, Beijing Gets Rid Of Bad Translations", Feb 05 2007.

I hope that makes more people realize that we should "put in all efforts 下力气" to archive as much of our beloved endangered species as possible before it'll be gone for good.

Cameras out, time's tickin' ...

Best,

olr.

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26Comments:

At 4:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

came from there!!

 
At 5:31 AM, Blogger Cora Jungbluth wrote ...

I agree completely with you, Olli - But it's getting harder and harder (as we can see from reading through the wallstreet article, too) to find real good Chinglish here in Beijing :-( Even riding the underground has become boring nowadays...

 
At 6:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

Hi!
your blog too good laugh , hope you good good study , day day up.
if not , i will give you some color see see.
-----------------

一个玩笑,我不会说英语:(
西方人用汉语很少会出现错误吧,汉字那么简单。

 
At 10:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

hahahaha,very funny

 
At 3:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

why u fear of other people's comments???

 
At 7:04 PM, Blogger Liz in Seattle wrote ...

Chinglish is dying? Say it ain't so!

I was an English teacher in Nanjing in 1987, and although I don't have pics to share, I came across these beauties:

T-shirt: "Here are young lovers. Mickey is brave and"

Beijing Friendship Store (a LARGE sign over the Down escalator): "Thank you for your kind advice. Welcome you coming again."

Men's Running Shorts (you know, the nasty short polyester kind from the 70's...this brand was everywhere): Strategically emblazoned across the front, "We go in for sports"

And finally, at a celebration marking the day that the UN decided the five-billionth person had been born: "World Day of the Five Billion Reminds the Humanity to Control Itself According to Plan"

All of these phrases have worked their way into our family's everyday vocabulary. Go figure.

Keep up the good work, and control yourself according to plan...

 
At 2:27 AM, Anonymous lizzylei wrote ...

It's interesting.
3Q!--Is it Chinglish?
Aha.......

 
At 11:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

These mistakes can make confuses on the overseas visitors.

The local city council has the responsibility for these stupid mistakes.

 
At 4:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

so, you are trying to help, or just simply making fun of it?

 
At 6:36 PM, Blogger olr wrote ...

Thanks for your encouragement and your comments, everybody!

It is interesting to see that there still are quite a lot of people (with a strong possibility of them being Chinese) that are either infuriated by this little hobby or continue to doubt my motto which I explicitly put in the column on the right hand side.

So, of course, I will control myself according to THE plan and continue to enlarge this collection. Cheers.

 
At 7:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

Hi there! I got this link after I read the article. I'm a native Chinese speaker and totally enjoy yr sharing of our marvellous Chinglish!!! Pls 下力气 to preserve this disappearing language...keep rockin'!!!!!!!!!

 
At 11:36 PM, Anonymous Sonia Wu wrote ...

Gosh, as a Taiwanese native, I am a bit embarrassed about it, too. There are a number of signs in Taiwan that has the same kind of beauty, maybe not as bad as Beijin. (lol)

Anyway, it's always nice to laugh. My boyfriend who is American and I had a really good laugh reading the same article on The Wall Street Journal and going through all the related pictures on your and the other websites.

I hope during my stay in Taiwan for the Chinese New Year, I will be able to witness the same beauty before the government raise their awareness on this subject and take any action.

In the end, thank you for bringing laughters into our lives with your photography collection.

:-)
Sonia W.

 
At 3:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

Hi, I loved browsing thru your blog, and have sent your link to lots of my friends, foreigners or not...

Keep up the work, we need people like you in life, not just China.

 
At 3:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

add oil, add oil, jia you, jia you!! the beauty of Chinglish!

 
At 6:39 AM, Blogger olr wrote ...

"Pls 下力气 to preserve this disappearing language"

I will do my very best...

"In the end, thank you for bringing laughters into our lives with your photography collection."

Thanks a lot, Sonia. 应该的 Yinggai de.

"Keep up the work, we need people like you in life, not just China."

Thank you very much for the compliment.

 
At 2:01 AM, Anonymous janie wrote ...

I learned "rubber" as "eraser" from our middle school textbook.

Until 9 years later, when I met an America, he had a good laugh over that, and corrected my mistake. :)

 
At 2:06 AM, Blogger Zhiwei wrote ...

Chinglish sieht interessant aus.Dank Ihnen für Ihne Arbeit.Ich wünsche,es wird besser sein.呵呵

 
At 2:07 AM, Blogger Zhiwei wrote ...

Es ist interessant..

 
At 3:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

哈哈,很有意思的博客.我是一个在加拿大的中国人.我们中国人聚在一起时也常谈起国人的中式英语.是很搞笑.
听说过heart flower angry open吗?就是中文的"心花怒放".多么有创意的国人.也许有一天我们会用中式英语颠覆英语.就像long time no see, no problem一样,其它的中式英语会填补英语中表达的空白.

 
At 5:24 AM, Blogger Vcat wrote ...

hello olr,

There is a website called www.engrish.com, I donno if you already know it or not.If not, it worthes checking out.

I don't think all the english speaking foreigners in china feel the same way you do though. And as a mandarin speaker,I certainly don't wish to run into that kind of awkward situation when you have to explain to someone about why those signs are worded that way.

 
At 5:56 AM, Blogger olr wrote ...

Hi Vcat,

thanks for recommending engrish.com, indeed a great site with way more content than my little baby over here.

Cheers,

olr.

 
At 8:11 AM, Blogger Wenyan wrote ...

ich habe diese webseite an www.6park.com gesehen

 
At 6:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

A:I am sorry!
B:I am sorry too!
A:I am sorry three!
B:~~What are you sorry for?
A:I am sorry five!

 
At 12:35 PM, Blogger olr — 纪韶融 wrote ...

Good one, lah :).

(I'm starting to pick up Singlish...)

 
At 3:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

Yeah, why not??

Chinglish, add oil(加油)!

我也希望可以看到更多英式中文、德式中文或者法式中文。我感到,只要语言学习者喜欢自己所学习的语言,就让他们大声地去说,大胆去写,就算不正统也没有任何关系,随着全球化的到来,我感到,没有什么语言会非常纯粹的了,大家在融合中互相交流,互相帮助,这应该是一个非常美好的未来

 

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