English

沙文

Signs of panic over 'Chinglish' in Beijing
By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 19/03/2008

Foryears, badly translated signs have had the Englishman abroad institches. But for tourism officials in Beijing, a city preparing forthe arrival of millions of visitors for the Olympic Games in August,the problem is far from funny.
The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau has hired English linguists to eradicate "Chinglish" from signs and shop fronts.
Ithas also instructed the city's 4,000 unrated hotels to translate theirnames, service hours, room rates, menus and notices into accurateEnglish.
Restaurateurs have been given a list ofthe proper English names for the most commonly mistranslated items,including "virgin chicken" for a young chicken dish, "steamed crap"instead of crab, and "burnt lion's head" describing Chinese porkmeatballs.
"These translations either scare orembarrass foreign customers and may cause misunderstanding on China'sdiet habits," the state news agency said.
Some ofthe signs have been celebrated on websites and books, including onesign that greets Western visitors to a café with the words: "Welcomebig nose friends" and another for the Tibetan "Reception Centre for theUnorganised Tourists".
English speakers in Beijinghave been invited to visit "Racist Park" - more accurately translatedas the Park of Ethnic Minorities - and warned to take care on wet roadsas "the slippery are very crafty".
Doug Lansky, anAmerican travel writer, said part of the charm of the directtranslations - such as signs on lawns pleading "don't walk on me" - wasthat they revealed the Chinese way of viewing the world. "On one hand Ican understand why they are doing it - they don't want people makingfun of their language skills or culture, but on the other hand, it's areal shame," he said.
"The travelling experience should be a little bit quirky, and throw people off balance a bit."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/03/19/noindex/wchinglish119.xml








代表作：


世紀代表作：


臨表涕零之作



除了人獸交，原來世上竟有人果交


厠所的用途列明得十分清晰，一讚

抽刀斷水

很多在數年前已看過了，會心微笑之餘又略帶悲情。現況可能已大大改善，尤其北京，好像已整頓了一番，聽說連某些地名街名的不協調也特意聘請專家來改正了。

沙文

告示板也要特意聘請專家來改正，貴國不愧是天朝大國。改後一定文采彧彧

抽刀斷水

原帖由 沙文 於 2008-5-10 02:30 發表
告示板也要特意聘請專家來改正，貴國不愧是天朝大國。改後一定文采彧彧

如不是為了招待紅鬚綠眼的大量消費者，北京才懶得理會。

沙文

那又未必。想當年有【李太白醉草嚇蠻書】，唐時設鴻臚寺，至大清設理藩院，朝廷對外文也是高度重視的
http://www.loulan.gov.cn/foosun3/Htm/loulanwenyuan/xiaoshuo/jinguqiguan/20070712105930676.htm

若然當世能出一位寫英文好過William Shakespeare的才子，國家幸甚矣

Jom

這算好了,我還記得細個搭大陸火車見到既漢語拼音,有同鄉話俾細路聽果D係英文,叫佢俾心機讀好佢.......

沙文

讀拼音好過啦。以前，我想來想去都不明白為何他們會將乾果譯為fuck fruit

看了上面那張ingredient(s)才搞清楚，原來簡體字的「乾」、「斡」是同一個字：干
http://bloguide.ettoday.com/fjt/textview.php?file=125373
而「幹」，又不一定譯為"fuck", 亦可以是"trunk, do". 但偏偏就是要fuck, 亦堪稱一絕也


其實中華上國百姓不一定要識蠻夷文字。
我並不質疑為何他們不識蠻夷文字，我亦不認為中華上國百姓一定要識蠻夷文字。

所以中華上國百姓不識蠻夷文字，是不足為奇的。但耐人尋味的，不是他們為何不識蠻夷文字，而是：

為什麼他們會認為蠻夷文字可以是這樣譯出來的？