Chinglish

[spicyapple]

I got a good chuckle on Global's news story on the linguistic phenomena of Chinglish that many foreigners in China find amusing, especially brought to the forefront as the Chinese government is trying to stamp it out in time for the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Chinglish on Wikipedia

Some humourous examples:

- Ethnic Minorities Park is called "Racist Park"
- Restaurant menus include "Corrugated iron beef" and "Government abuse chicken"
- "To take notice of safe, the slippery are very crafty" - Sign warning of slippery road
- "Deformed man toilet" - Public toilet for the disabled
- "Engine room is serious place" - Caution: Engine Room
- "Drink Tea" - Closed

More examples from Flickr.
Funny Youtube video.

 

[GoCubsGo]

LMFAO that is awesome. I've seen things like this around the web and it never gets old.

 

[bousozoku]

It's pretty sad, actually. Western languages are difficult enough for the concepts they don't have but when translations of easy phrases are so messed up, it's obviously poor education and experience.

The manuals for Japanese electronics used to be really bad.

Of course, this kind of thing goes both ways like "Turtle saves us" instead of "God saves us" or "You're scary" instead of "You're cute".

 

[zephead]

I clicked the Flickr link to be greeted with the message "Flickr is having a massage." Interesting way to say a website is down/being fixed! It's definitely less boring than "Flickr is being fixed, come back later."

 

[obeygiant]

These never get old.

www.engrish.com

language is NWS but its hilarious.

 

[spencers]

saw a spot on CNN today about this. interesting, yet funny stuff

 

[smueboy]

These never get old.

www.engrish.com

Some of the things on here are just bizarre..

 

[yg17]

NWS:



http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=****intosh.jpg&category=Adult%20Engrish&date=2005-09-20


replace the **** with a certain 4 letter word begins with f and ends with uck

 

[Zwhaler]

Wow that was really funny... Haha I just laughed my ass off at "deformed man toilet" LoL

 

[macridah]

lol ...

I run into this in other countries in asia ..

dangerous crab ... dungeness crab
beef cook too much ... cooked well done

i saw tons more but these are the ones i remember the most

 

[Abstract]

Well to be fair, it isn't their first language. You'd likely be as bad in Mandarin if you went to China. I was in Taiwan (not really the same as China, I know), and I tried to order something, and the lady just laughed at me. ****, I learned Chinese for 2 months to say that funny line!

I didn't know any Mandarin when I was in China.

 

[devilot]

I find it amusing that the above posts refer to Chinglish as improper or partial English spoken by native Chinese speakers.

I'm more familiar w/ 'Chinglish' as it is briefly referred to in the wikipedia article-- as broken Chinese spoken by westernized Chinese AKA American Born Chinese (ABCs).

We've been using that term for ages now.