I don't know where the time has gone lately and I can't believe I haven't written since last week. Things have been busy and fun with Sean's dad coming to visit, working second jobs and enjoying the warm weather outside. After sending Sean's dad to Beijing to join up with his tour group, things are back to normal and I am surprised to see that it is already week 11 out of 17 in this semester. I will be back in Holland in about two months!


One thing that has caught my eye recently in the news is the attention that Chinglish is getting. Chinglish is spoken or written English that is influenced by Chinese. Chinglish is usually understood by English speakers, but the words or grammar used may be awkward or wrong but always entertaining to see. From a linguistic background, Chinglish is a gold mine and I am sure there are people who have studied and written papers about it. For the rest of us, it provides constant entertainment from common, everyday things like street signs and menus. I have actually seen books that are just pictures of signs which misuse English to the point where it is just plain ridiculous and very very funny.


I started taking pictures of notable Chinglish on different trips in China and I know many of the other teachers have little collections going too. Unfortunately, Peter sent me this article the other day from the Times that outlined how Shanghai was cleaning up a lot of its incorrect English in preparation for hosting the World Expo. Before the Expo began, over 600 volunteers replaced thousands of signs and menus. A similar effort was made before the Olympics in Beijing. You can see a slide show of some examples of Chinglish here.


Another example of where you can see Chinglish is on the shirts that people wear. It is trendy not only to wear Western brand names but also to have English all over your clothing. More often than not, the English doesn't make sense and is simply there for "fashion". Usually there are long phrases of words like "The civilization strive for glad till the super love best for the!" or "trendy cutey lovely hippy hoppy" that make a native English speaker go, "Huh?". Or there are just strange phrases which are grammatically correct but make you take a second look like a sweatshirt with giant block letters screaming "DON'T LOOK AT ME!"

Some people are all for correcting the Chinglish like Zhao Huimin who says "The purpose of signage is to be useful, not to be amusing" or Mr. Yao who says, "I want to see people nodding that they understand the message on the signs. I don't want to see them laughing." But then there are the rest of us who see the signs as harmless, free entertainment and would be disappointed to see them go. “If you standardize all these signs, you not only take away the little giggle you get while strolling in the park but you lose a window into the Chinese mind,” says Mr. Radtke who is the author of a book about Chinglish.


It will take a long time to correct every sign and shirt in China which is all the more reason to keep taking pictures now. As always, thanks for reading and don't even think about whiffing or speeling in the pond.

1 Comment

1. Anonymous on May 15, 2010 at 10:43 PM

   I love this, Sarah! Takes me back to HEL. Perhaps a new paper topic for the current students :) I hope you're having fun. Keep up the wonderful posts. :)
   
   Tally