.Passenger Service Guidance China High Speek Train
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THIS THREAD IS NOT AN ATTACK ON CHINA.
IT IS AN ATTACK ON THE “SO-SO” ATTITUDE
THAT KEEPS CHINA FROM REALIZING ITS FULL DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL
Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train
The cost of the new service was 16.6 billion RMB. The new stations are state of the art, futuristic even.
China High Speed Train Wuhan Station
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China High Speed Train Wuhan Station Interior
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The trains are more like bullets and the inside is more like an airplane.
Guangzhou - Wuhan High Speed Train China
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The ride is smooth, even at 347 km/h. Yet, with all the attention paid to technological detail, something went awry. Inside the back of each seat is a “Passenger Service Guidance” brochure, in Chinese and Chinglish. Even the title should be “Passenger Service Guide.”
With all of the Foreign Language Departments at famous Chinese Universities and all of the native English speaking teachers throughout China, the Chinese to English translation is atrocious and a flat out embarrassment to the rail operating company. The company was unable to spare a few thousand RMB for a proper translation? 16.6 billion RMB and no money for a proper translation? Or is this just another example of “so-so” is ok in China? The failure of this small detail makes a person wonder what other small details were allowed to go forward as “so-so.” How safe is this new 350 km/h train?
Let’s have a closer look at the Chinglish of the “Passenger Service Guidance.”
There should be an initial statement:
For your safety and the safety of others, please obey the following instructions:
Chinglish: It is forbidden to take the flammable, explosive, corrosive, poisonous, radioactive and other dangerous articles, including the forbidden knives.
English: Knives and other weapons, flammables, explosives, corrosives, poisons, radioactive and other dangerous articles are forbidden in the train station or on the train.
Chinglish: The tickets check will be stopped before the train’s departure. Please pay attention to the stop time of checking, get on train or stand within safety line on platform for waiting before it.
English: Clear the departure gate and wait in the designated safety area on the platform prior to the train’s arrival.
Chinglish: Watch out the space between platform and the train carefully. Please stand the queue during get-on and get-off. Don’t be crowd when you getting on after the get-off please. It is forbidden to pass through under train, climb on roof, jump off station, enter railway track and so on.
English: Form a single file line at your designated coach. Allow disembarking passengers to clear the coach before boarding. Enter the coach single file, without pushing or shoving. Be careful of the gap between the platform and the coach. It is dangerous to leave the platform area to enter the track, crawl under the train, or climb on the roof and such activity may result in your arrest.
Chinglish: Please don’t push or lean on the door and don’t pull(or push) the emergency brake valve handbrake button, and other safety facilities ant random.
English: Keep clear of the door while the train is in motion and only use emergency equipment in case of a real emergency. Do not allow children to play with the emergency equipment.
Chinglish: Smoking is not allowed in every part of the train.
English: There is no smoking allowed in any part of the train.
Chinglish: Under the conditions which may effect the safety of the train and the passengers, please be followed with the crew’s instruction and keep order. Help priory for the senior and the disabled, illness, children pregnant and other who need help. In case of emergency, please notice the crew in time.
English: Please give priority to senior citizens, the disabled, pregnant women, the sick and infirmed, children and others requiring special assistance. Immediately notify the crew of any emergency and follow crew’s instructions at all times.
Chinglish: In case of the get-off which is necessary during emergency, you can break the safety window by a special hammer for escape. If on Electrical Multiple Unit, you can also press the emergency button above the compartment end door.
English: In case of emergency, evacuate through the safety window using the provided hammer to break the glass or push the emergency stop button above the rear compartment door.
The second and third pages are just as ridiculous. For a Country filled with people who value “face,” it is unbelievable that a major project like this would be so cheap that they would not spend a few thousand RMB to save their corporate face with foreigners. Or if the company did pay for a translation, they should demand a complete refund and hire someone competent to do the job right.
Someone needs to tell this company that its public image is in need of immediate repair!
Susan Class 3
April 6th, 2010 at 12:51 am ·
EDITOR’S NOTE: I AM COMPELLED TO INQUIRE – ARE YOU AN educated IDIOT? THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF CHINESE PEOPLE? YOU ARE KIDDING, RIGHT? YOU CANNOT BE SUCH AN APOLOGIST FOR THE ERRORS THAT YOU THROW AWAY YOUR OWN DIGNITY AND CREDIBILITY
Franking speaking, I do not regard the translation adopted by the new services as a funny action. From my perspective, it is kind of “nativision”. Just as a saying goes ”In Rome do what Romans do”, the brochure is mostly prepared for Chinese to read and understand. From the script, we can clearly see the translation is done according to Chinese way of thinking and it is not only for foreigners to read. Though we emphasize globalization and being international all the time nowadays, we could not discard our traditions. The key point is that how to deal with foreign cultures and Chinese traditional customs and cultures and make a balance between them. Finally, I want to cite a famous proverb coming from RuXun, a famous writer and a patriot, when facing things which is from abroad, we should “absorb the elite and abandon the draff.”
WHAT CHINESE COMPANY WOULD TRANSLATE CHINESE INTO ENGLISH OR CHINGLISH FOR THE BENEFIT OF THEIR CHINESE CUSTOMERS? DO CHINESE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND ENGLISH OR CHINGLISH BETTER THAN CHINESE? UNBELIEVABLE!
English as a foreign language in China may not be perfect. The case of gross English mistakes presented here is a pity and tarnishes the face of China. These obvious mistakes which should never be tolerated and this should be a wakeup call, to change attitude and improve the English language in China. Sometimes these messages are translated from Chinese using online software from where they adopted for the final presentation. The sentence construction or the message to be conveyed may be distorted, hence as much as the online translations are useful, the messages should be properly scrutinized.
English as a foreign language in China may not be perfect. The case of gross English mistakes presented here is a pity and tarnishes the face of China. These obvious mistakes should never be tolerated. This should be a wake up call, to change attitude and improve the English language in China. Sometimes the messages are translated from their Chinese version using online software from where they are adopted for the final presentation. The sentence construction or the message to be conveyed may be distorted, hence as much as the online translations are useful, the messages should be properly scrutinized.
They lack the common sense that the English version of Passenger Service Guide is aiming at helping foreigners who’s not familiar with Chinese.They should have had a clear idea about that. What a shame.
BTW, I’m myself quite tired of the ‘so-so’ attitude of translation, let alone the misusing of title words! To avoid these mistake, we should discipline ourselves and do as much as we can to correct the misused words when seeing them appearing in our daily life.
More than funny, I think it’s ridiculous. Who is the guide writing in Chingish for? Chinese? We can read the Chinese words of course. Foreigner? American or Englishman? I don’t think they can know excactly about the meaning in the guide because the bad structure and inporper use of a word.Other foreigners, like Russan? Come they may not be too familiar with English, but they must be not familiar with Chinglish! So I think it’s just a mark to show our train is world-wide and it has a brilliant service. And the leaders only can tell ‘oh, there is some English words in the guide, that’s great’. So ridiculous, isn’t it?
I live here,I have to respect them and their idea and culture …not accept! just respect!but in this situation we can’t talk about about respect…because they are in a wrong way from several years ago until now….”my meaning is So-So attitude”.this so-so attitude in China covers many things such as chinglish,health,medical care,food,driving……and it seems they don’t want to change and even try to get better.
China is a country of long history, and it is what we could be proud of as a Chinese. Well, our ancestors have created the most advanced culture in the ancient times, their achievements lie in their wisdom, and what’s more, their scrupulous attitude! No one can ever deny that we are not as creative as our ancestors, and it is our creative thoughts that contribute to our happy life, right? But as a whole country, comparing with the developed countries, we fall behind our ancestors. No matter in economic or culture as well as technology! Why? Aren’t we clever? I don’t think so. We are just not serious when it is needed, because we turned a ‘so-so’ attitude to our life most of the time. We are not likely to seek for the best when it is ok with a so-so solution, in other words, we pay more attention to quantity rather than quality, and that’s the most important factor that holds us from looking forward! Developed country is just a dream if we could not reexamine our attitude and improve it at the same time.
Suddenly I remind something. Does anyone remember the Harbin bus annoucement? For example, when zhongshan road station is near, the annoucement always say ‘We are arriving at zhongshan lu’ instead of ‘We are arriving at zhongshan road’. They use half English and half pinyin. And the most important is the part they use pinyin is the station’s name! So what the annoucement is for? Foreigners can’t tell if they arrive the right place. Funny~
In fact, when I saw this information, I felt it is not funny, but distressing and frustrating. This is a very common phenomenon in China . Although China has been opening up for many years and more and more foreigners come to China, this phenomenon has not been largely improved. The most fundamental reason is the attitude. Our mother tongue is not English, but we can hire some people with professional English backgrounds to correct it. China does make a lot of things every year, but how many products own the core technology, how about the quality of products？We only pay attention to quantity rather than quality. Attitude is everything, success lies on details.