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Slip and fall down carefully

September 7, 2009 by wroolie 4 Comments

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One of the things I’ve heard about China before arriving was that the English translations I would see on signs and literature might not be the best use of English.  While in Beijing, we saw lots of examples of signs that were just funny.  In the pool area of our hotel is a sign that says “Slip and fall down carefully”.

While at the Beijing Amusement Park, most of the rides included Alcoholism as one of the symptoms you might have to prevent you from going on a ride (“You must not ride this if you suffer from Heart problems, pregnancy, or alcoholism.”  I kept imagining recovering alcoholics staying off these rides in case they caused a relapse.

Most of the Westerners we saw in Beijing were not English speakers (or at least not as a first language).  We heard people speaking Russian, French, and Swedish . . . but all the signs that were translated, were shown in Chinese and English.  My son pointed out to me, when he saw a sign that said to turn off you cell phone instead of mobile phone, that they were specifically translated into American English.

Beijing 239Some of the signs were okay, but so many were either vague (a sign along a river bank says “Please away from the water”) or complicated (the instructions for how to pay for food in the Food Republic food court at the APM shopping centre on Wanfujing street is impossible to read).  Some are intentionally cute and funny, like a sign in the Olympic village that says “The Grass is smiling at you”.

This is often referred to as Chinglish.  The BBC ran story while we were still over there with several other photos of strange Chinglish signs.  The story is here.

Outside the Forbidden City (on the East Gate) is a set of posh toilets.  (The only reason I call them posh is because it costs 1 yuan –about 10p– to use them.  The sign above the doors in Chinese says that it’s the room for men to urinate in.  But, here greeting you as you enter one of China’s most revered treasures, is my favourite sign of all:

Beijing 405 Beijing 404

The kids love saying it, now.

Filed Under: China Tagged With: Beijing, China, Chinglish

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

    Reply
  2. Marie Bohusch says

    September 7, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    ragamuffins wielding swords? oh my! ;-P

    Reply
  3. RunningTracker says

    September 7, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    Wow, funny pictures Eric 🙂 I didn’t see that many Chinglish signs actually, I guess I didn’t pay enough attention!

    Reply
  4. Ursula Stuter says

    September 30, 2009 at 8:18 am

    This is a great note! How fun. I just read an article on another site, only they refer to it as "Engrish" which is probably more Americo-centric as well as insulting. I like the idea of grass smiling at me. 🙂

    Reply

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