One of my favorite things about being in China has been experiencing the wonderfully confusing yet amusing Chinglish signs all about the country. One of the various definitions urbandictionary.com provides for "Chinglish" is "broken English produced by people whose mother tongue is Chinese, that results from translating Chinese sentences on a word-by-word basis, instead of conveying the intended meaning (e.g. translating "wo hen xihuan" as "I very like" instead of "I like it a lot").
This is a good example of why we shouldn't just use Google Translate to translate from one language to another.
I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures and get to experience a little bit of Chinglish culture with us! :)
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| "School likes our home, let's afforest together" -Sias Campus |
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Not really Chinglish: "Keep the environment clean"
Don't you just love the mushrooms? :)
-Sias Campus |
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Super Wife Cake
The fine print: "Thin filling thickness moisturizing soft we hope you enjoy our dessert" |
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| A supermarket on the Sias Campus |
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| "GENTIS"?? |
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| Keep watching the floor! It might do a trick! :) |
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Proper attire required?
I guess this is okay, too. :) |
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"pass The Wind"
"Slow Down"
-Seen on the freeway. One of my favorite signs! |
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"mercy for grass
Please give your" |
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| "Flowers for you smile, you have a bypass road around" |
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| Just in case you were wondering...no, there wasn't a play anywhere in sight! |
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| Recovery and Unrecovery |
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| What if someone was to "safely" climb it? hmmm... |
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"Please appreciate the beauty of flowers and grasses."
Don't forget to appreciate the pomegranate. |
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| "NO ANGLING" |
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"THE AUTO-INDUCTION ASKS RESPECTFULLY THE USE"
-Another favorite of mine |
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| 'nuff said |
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| I helplessly watched the workers install this sign as I walked to work in the morning. |
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One of my favorite signs! Seen while climbing one of the five
sacred mountains of China (aka Songshan).
"Dear friends: The mountain trails are songshan, would you please when
mountain spirit is loosened, when breathing, general per
capita smooth round trip."
Don't even ask...I have no clue! |
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| "No stopping in case of fallings" |
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| Wait...what? |
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| Another trash can! So glad they "retrieve"! |
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| Yet another ban! |
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| I'm pretty sure this was on a Friday. |
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| A new kind of "online" shopping?? |
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"Appropriative Road for Sightseeing"
Entrance of Walking and Clinbing way" |
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| Rachel practicing her good manners. Can you see her pinky? :) |
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| I won't even go there. |
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| This is pretty awesome! |
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A coffee and sweets shop in a mall in Zhengzhou.
"Candy tear ever & again" |
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| A little ice cream shoppe inside a mall in Zhengzhou. |
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| Having a little fun with a sign in Beijing's Summer Palace. Yes, we went both ways! |
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| Entrance fee booth at the Great Wall (Mutianyu section). |
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| This actually makes sense! |
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Courtesy of AshleyRieger.
"Please cherish your life! No crossing! |
These are only a few of the signs that are seen around the country. As much as we do laugh at awesome signs like the ones above, they are quite useful most of the time!
Quite often, signs are only in Chinese. So Chinglish or English, we'll take it.
One of the cool things about teaching in China is the opportunity to teach our students to not just use their dictionary to translate things into english...or else, you know what happens. Yes, we deal with quite a bit of Chinglish in the classroom.
Hope you all are having a great day! I know we are! :)
Blessings,
Benjamin
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