Teacher fighting to change Chinglish signs
January 26, 2007
ONLY in China is the slippery very crafty, you must receive
strangers carefully and the police warmly warn people not to drive
tiredly.
It's good for a chuckle, but these language gaffes have left
Beijing teacher Liu Yongli simply embarrassed.
He has spent the last three years photographing more than 1,000
examples of the bizarre ways English has been used on signs in
Beijing and a few other cities.
A favourite of his reads: 'To take notice of safe, the slippery are
very crafty'.
It is actually warning people to take care when using a sloping
driveway.
And another: 'On the taxi the guest stands forward'. Mr Liu, who
teaches English at a university, suggests the simpler 'Taxi pick-up
point' instead.
He first noticed how bad Beijing's Chinglish problem was in 2003
when studying for his masters degree.
'A lot of the common English, and that used on signs, does not
appear in textbooks.'
Beijing has set up a body specifically to tackle the problem ahead
of the 2008 Olympic Games, but Mr Liu said a national standard was
needed.
'The government should publish a standard book that people and
departments who make signs can refer to,' he said.
He has taken reporters to a large car dealership where the word
'exit' has been written as 'export' throughout, the two words being
identical in Chinese. - Reuters.
