.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!
EDITOR’S NOTE: IT IS YOUR COUNTRY, YOUR TRAIN, YOUR MINISTRY AND YOUR MAJOR. WHY SHOULD I DO YOUR JOB?
I experienced the Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train last winter holiday. Just as the article describes that the train is more like a bullet and the inside is more like an airplane. I took a lot of photos in the train. The train was at tremendous speed all the way, even at 350 km/h. I was very excited, as my former major is traffic and transportation and I am familiar with the railway. Also I have seen the “Passenger Service Guidance” brochure in side the back of the seat. But I didn’t pay much attention to the English translation. Maybe I just get used to the Chinglish. I guess the person who translates the brochure was unprofessional. I admire the professor for your chariness. I think professor you can write a letter to the Ministry of Railways and tell them something wrong you have found. The company should thank the professor for your kind comment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: YOU ASK A JOURNALIST
The reason may be very simple, the general engineer of the Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train, or the station master, probably are the people who was born in 1960’s or 1970’s, they did not have a chance to learn English in their youth, they can’t speak English and they do have no interest in English when they take charge of China, therefore they do not care about whether the translation is proper. It’s not their fault, it’s an issue rooted in history. The guy who really concerns about English is who was born after 1980, but it’s still far away for them to take charge of China. To solve this problem, you can wait for the 1980’s, or just ask a journalist to write an article about the translation problem, and emphasize that bad translation loses Chinese face in front of foreigners. Chinese do love their face, they will change it as soon as possible.
I agree with your viewpoint. It needs to tell this company that they should hire someone competent to do the translation job right, and its public image is in need of immediate repair! This is not just an attitude problem, which not only related to the company’s service quality, related to the company’s image, but also related to China’s overall image. It should be paid more attention to.
I myself saw some funny Chinglish posters in China too. Actually I am a little confused by it. People in China spend a lot of time learning English. Then how come we use it so funny? Maybe we should learn something from it. Maybe the education system for English in China is not suitable? Maybe English teachers in China should be trained? Maybe companies in China need to hire some students who are excellent at English? Anyway, lessons should be learned.
I bet undoubtly the indifference to the translation of the signs will be given when we point them out to the officers. Sometimes all these chinglish are created by us who’s English is just so-so, but we are confident to do the translation job for we concerns about whether they are native or how funny they maybe seem to foreigners. Thank you for your views as a native English man. I am sure I will not do the translation unless I am very native.
It is really that the public image is in need of immediate repair when the World Expo in Shanghai and the Asian Games in Guangzhou are both coming. These two cities are merely two gates to welcome foreign friends. The whole land should be a huge drawing room for guests. Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train would be one of another high lights in the room which is famous for its high speed, the top technical and the expensive expense. There is a saying that details decide success. No one will take it as a success while there are too many funny words in the public to give tips to foreign friends who couldn’t see the problems much more. I agree with that public image is public face. Since Chinese love face very much, the public face should be concerned to be made up. Before Beijing Olympic Games, an action to correct all the wrong spelling in English in the city was spreading around by volunteers including college students, journalists, and foreigners. What we can learn from the instance is action-take action from now on. Thanks to Professor Martin’s work, we have been helped to step on to a correcting way and the next for us is to point it out to the person in charge. To repeat this problem in Chinese websites and to write it down (or suggest others who are probably going to take the train) on the Visitors’ Book there may be practical ways right now.
That’s right. As an English learner, I usually regard all the English published as learning resources. The English words appeared in”Passenger Service Guidance” should be taken seriously, because it would mislead the English learners as me and build a bad self-image. It’s our duty to make it better with a starting from changing Chinglish to English for that we love the country.
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 CRIDIBILITY
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.”
I feel ashamed of the Chinglish in the Passenger Service Guide in the high speed train, and the company should repair it immediately. Actually, we can usually find such errors in tourist attractions or luxury hotel. The translation from Chinese to English is often not quite authentic, making the foreigners not well understanding.
Thanks for pointing them out. It’s also a funny way to see how Chinese and English-Speaking people think differently. Maybe they have already paid thousands of RMB for the translation. They just couldn’t find the right person.
Wherever we come from, if we can find errors in the company. We should point out these errors tolerantly. Because we are not only a national citizen, we are the world citizens.
I have heard from my teacher that the operation of Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train isn’t profitable, even loss this year. I think maybe they want to cut down the cost, so they translate it by the workers who are not professional. They may think it’s a little expensive to hire a foreigner to do this work. But as mentioned, if they spend some money and get a better translation, they can win good reputation. We must care about this small detail. Why most of us don’t pay much attention to it? Maybe we are used to it. But we really need to make it more formal and better, not so-so.
In fact, I have not experienced the Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train yet. My overall impression of the High Speed Train is extremely fast and of high technology. I think it is unbelievable that their translation of brochure is so unskillful, which will seriously affect China’s image. It reflects half-heartedness of the operation company, so how can we trust them for the safety of the high speed.
why we do not strive for excellence in everything that we do? Our working attitude will determine whether our country can develop better than other countries.We should make it a habit to finish our work pefectly because it is a vital solution to strenth our abilities.For example,we can translate the words more prefessionally and smoothly, to do something just so-so is really not a good habit .
IN my opinion , no matter how minuscule something is,we should pay very close attention and make sure that things are perfect. If the company should realize the concept that “attitude is everything“, the work of translation will be done well, because the railway company is not lack of some money , but lack of responsibilty.
Firstly, very thanks for your friendly reminder and recommend. And I will soon search for the telephone number and phone the Railways Bureau’s officials who in charge of it to tell them doing the immediate repair! Maybe this can be done just this afternoon if I can find the contact information. Finally, thank my dear and responsible teacher again.
I have also experienced the Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train last month and I have to admit that I paid no attention to the“Passenger Service Guidance” brochure at that time. As we all know the improper translations can be seen everywhere in China, such as the menus and the guideboards. But it is really unbelievable that there are so many improper translations on the brand new project.
Anyway, I still think the Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train is great and wonderful. I think steady improvements will be made in the major project in next to no time.
I am surprised to hear that, because I always think the English translation in public is Standard English translation and usually learn from it. The “Passenger Service Guidance” is irresponsible and loses our faces. It necessarily needs to be told to this company that they should hire someone else to repair all the translation. What about tell it to a Chinese journal?
I experienced the Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train last week. It’s really very fast. But I didn’t pay attention to the “Passenger Service Guidance” brochure in side the back of the seat. Even I noticed that, I wouldn’t doubt its translation. I thought all the English used in public was right. Sometimes, I would learn the English in the public. I am very sorry to know this. We Chinese need self- reflection. It’s really another ‘so-so’ thing. To be honest, I usually do such ‘so-so’ things. I don’t deal with all the things seriously. We really should change our attitude to all the things.
Chinglish indeed should not appear in formal occasions. I really feel so sorry that the Railway Group Company make such a mistake. Maybe Chinese pay no attention to the mistake when they read the brochures. However, the foreigners will certainly doubt if the high-speed rail technology meet requirement when they find out such ridiculous mistake. I think we should take care of the details and prove our progress to the world.
Useful article! I learn a lot from it. We often use the Chinglish appeared in the brochure in our daily lives. From the comparison I found that the obvious difference between Chinglish and English is the structure of sentence. The order of the words, based on different structure of sentence, is different in Chinglish and English.
I experienced the Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train this holiday. Just as the article describes that the train is more like a bullet and the inside is more like an airplane. The train was at tremendous speed all the way, even at 351 km/h.I saw the “Passenger Service Guidance” brochure in side the back of the seat. But I didn’t pay much attention to the English translation. The Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train’s scientific and technological were shocked the world, if the “Passenger Service Guidance” not correct translation may lets every chinese person does not face. Therefore I advise the company pay more attention to the details to improve the image of China in the world.
It is indeed very embarrassing to read this. It is just as an elegant woman with some residue on her teeth. Yes, maybe it can exactly attribute to the “so-so” attitude. I hate this Chinglish translation in this formal occasion. It reminds me lots of Chinglish translations I see in my daily life, such as “careful slipping” in a restaurant, which will be better of using “caution wet floor”. It is funny of saying the former one which definitely has an opposite meaning. Guangzhou will never make it a real metropolis unless it cares more about the details such like these.
Try to image this is your turn, as an English native speaker, to write tips in Chinese. Are you sure you could do better than writers in the case? Sometimes we just need be lenient in treating daily life.
Maybe you are right, that is not only a translation but a matter of public imagine, and it also influxes foreign guests’ judges on the safety of the train, to some extent, it might influxes the profit in the global time. Of course, the company may think that there will not be too many foreign friends to take the train, even that, this translation may enable them understand what the service guidance mean, but they should know that Guangdong is one of the most open provinces in china, in order to serve passages well, it should translate natively as possible, only in this way,can the foreign friends feel satisfaction and say good to the world for you.
It is a great project to build such a sublime high speed train to service the Chinese. Our china is a high developing country. I think it requires the process to perfect everything. As a responsible citizen, we should take this responsibility to find problems, and do the necessary things to correct them. It is useless to just talk and discuss it without any action.
As the High Speed Train was built for bring people traffic convenient and symbol the high-technologic development, it is a pity that they did a bad job on translation of the “Passenger Service Guidance.” Many of our great ancestors said that details determine success or failure, details are important. In our rapid develop and competitive era, how to deal with the details is more worthy of attention. Especially to Chinese, most of us have a so-so attitude. We should do our best to change our so-so attitude, to make the entire world trust our abilities and our country.
I suppose that the translator is a Chinese, who works at the train station and his/her major is science and technology, not English. The passengers between Guangzhou and Wuhan are almost Chinese who come from Hebei to work in Guangdong, and the train is intended for China’s internal traffic, so the persons in charge don’t pay attention to these translations. Maybe the English translations there are just to show its internationality. Of course, there is not any authentic internationality without accurate English translations, and this Chinglish makes us embarrassed.
To be frank, I had not experienced Guangzhou-Wuhan High Speed Train before. I didn’t know it had such a bad translation in its guidebook until I read this article.
In my opinion, it is not right to translate the Passenger Service Guide into Chinglish, since this was prepared for the foreigners. The Guangzhou Railway Group had not considered that it was in a formal occasion. “So-so “attitude is still can be seen everywhere. I strongly suggest that everyone should pay more attention to the details. The attitude decides success or failure!
I think the fact that there are many Chinglish in China is not funny but sarcastic. Chinese, a country with ancient civilization, with people intelligent, cannot use English rightly, which is so unbelievable. But if you understand the environment of China, you should understand. Although China has been developing rapidly, there are also many rural areas, which were poor before and are poor now. Their educational resources are also poor. So many student can not get good English environment, can they use English very rightly? Not. So, if we want eliminate Chinglish , we should pay attention to rural areas’ education, let students learn authentic English. If we do so permanently, Chinglish will be eliminated.
The fact that so many Chinglish appeared in our daily life especially in some important occasions makes me feel puzzle. In my perceptive, the English guidance is intended for the foreigner in china. This has nothing to do with the Chinese tradition which someone has referred before.
What make me puzzle is why there are so many chinglish in China? We have enough capital to invest in the translation work. We have enough smart people to do the proper translation. Maybe, this problem has not got the enough attention of our government.
Of course I should admit that these translations are not exactly right. But we should notice that every nation has its own culture and habit. For one hand, the translators are Chinese; they are more familiar with Chinese culture, so the translations are sounds more like chinglish. For another hand, the passengers are mostly Chinese; we are more used to the Chinese grammar structure. If the translations are precise, I wonder how many people could understand them. However, it is bad for the real foreigners. Foreigners who do not know more much about China’s would consider that the countries translators are so bad! So, I think it still need improvement.
You know that in China, knowledge, wisdom and diligence are not necessarily reflected in income. Higher wages are not necessarily for those who have higher intelligence. Especially in those state-owned enterprises, this phenomenon is normal. So many of these enterprises are lack of efficiency, but could still stand up because of monopoly and government subsidies. What a big waste of economic resources! I hope they employ well-educated and more professional workers in the future.
EDITOR’S NOTE: LET’S START CORRECTING MISTAKES RIGHT HERE! OR SHOULD WE JUST COLLECT THEM?
I am sorry to hear that. It is a serious problem for the company. They need to invite some professional translators to collect the mistakes. As we all know, globalization has become a trend. We should also provide enough convenience for the foreigners, especially for the language communication. If foreign friends read such Chinglish in the brochure, they may have doubt on Chinese people. And it is also an impolite way for Chinese people to do this. As a result, collect these mistakes as soon as possible!
I am surprised that you are so careful and pay more attention to the details. If I get this brochure, I will not see it carefully. So this article is so useful, we need to learn more. Detail is the key of success.
It is unbelievable! What a stupid mistake they have made! In China, there is a proverb “A small leak will sink a great ship.” It is exactly what the article wants to tell us, So I agree with this idea completely. It makes me self questioning when I read this article. I want to know whether what I have spoken and what I have written in English are as stupid as the “Passengers Service Guidance”. I don’t care the answer, what I care is how to change this situation and how to translate both of them correctly. We should afford the responsibility to save our country’s image, we should get together and correct the mistakes appeared in our public places, we should raise public and government awareness to rectify the error.
Personally, I feel that I haven’t enough ability to do this job, so I want to ask some help from Professor Martin and I really need you to improve my skill of translation. And I want to say thanks to you, thanks for what you did for China. And we really need you help.
It is obvious that, lots of the English translation in this Passenger Service Guide is far away from the required level it should reach. The translators only simplify translated the Chinese into English literally, but didn’t consider the English usage well. I feel so sorry that such a big company has been so careless with the English translation. If this was not the case, then this phenomenon shows that how weak many Chinese’s English is.
This phenomenon also shows us the importance of studying English usage. Only studying vocabulary and gamer is not enough, because English and Chinese is two different language, and each language has their particular culture, usage and idioms. The mastery of a language is not easy and requires painstaking efforts.
EDITOR’S NOTE: HOW ABOUT ATROCIOUS, REDICULOUS, HORRENDOUS, INCOMPETENT, STUPID, IGNORANT, UNBELIEVABLE? IT WILL MAKE MOST FOREIGNERS LAUGH.
Is it too funny? I don’t think so. It is true that those translations are not the standard English, but does it effect our understanding? No. English is just a language for communication, if we can understand, it is ok, just as foreigners can’t speak standard chinese. I do not find excuses for this. I admit we can do better in the translation, and we should do better, but I don’t think funny is a proper word there.
What a shame! Our government has spent 16.6 billions RMB on the project. But we are laughed by the foreigners for the sake of poor translation which only cost a few thousand RMB. No excuses should be found to shift the responsibility off and explain the embarrassment. What we should do is to examine our attitude of working carefully. Details determine whether we can succeed or not. Paying little attention to the details will contribute to a great loss in the future. So many customers judge the quality of the products by details. So the careless producers will lose a lot of customers for the sake of the flaws of their products. If China wants to establish a good reputation on the world market, the attitude of pursuing the perfection is badly needed.
In order to link up to the world, we need to make good use of English that forced by the reality. The company also knows that, but they didn’t care about the details. If a Chinese person uses Chinglish to contact with a foreign visitor, it may a little problem. But for a public institution, it is very insufficient and laughable. I don’t think they cannot find a professional staff to deal with this kind of things, they just don’t take it serious. What they do is to review every detail and correct the Chinglish to English.
I haven been looking forward to take the Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train. But after reading this article, I was really disappointed with the company’s so-so attitude. With respect to the Chinglish translations mentioned above, it is obvious that most of them are stupid and basic mistakes by way of translating word for word, despite the general meanings of the whole sentences. Maybe it is acceptable for the English-learners in the first stage to make such mistakes, while it is absolutely unreasonable to appear in public on behalf of national image, which dishonors on the city and the whole country.
This reflects some problems in our country. Government and state-owned enterprises are not responsible for what they should do. They just have done a project, but have not done a good job.
I have taken this train once. In my opinion, the modernization of our country is only on the material level, and it is far away from the real level.
It is still a long way for our country to become a modern country.
I have no chance to take the Guangzhou-Wuhan high speed train, but I see CHINGLISH translation somewhere else. Actually, I also speak CHINGLISH sometime though at most time I don’t realize it. To some extent, I can accept CHINGLISH, but not all the time. In my opinion, we should not afraid to speak CHINGLISH, but we should do my best to correct it. If we are afraid to make mistakes, we will never succeed. But we should correct our mistakes as soon as we realize it.
Although I embrace the idea that Chinglish is fine in daily oral English, I also agree it is extremely necessary to use Standard English in formal occasion. Not only is it related to “face”, but also reflects the quality of our people, and Chinglish may offer negative effect on the public.
Most of Chinglish is derived from literally translation, which may, sometimes, distort the meaning of original expression and even mislead foreigners. In some circumstances, the Chinese people can barely understand, but for English speakers (English speaker) is completely incomprehensible and even absurd. That would lose the fundamental function of language.
What’s more, informal English in public could mislead beginner, making them believe the expression as formal English. In that case the informal situation would be worse and worse.
So learning standardized authentic expression should be placed high emphasis on our study.
EDITOR’S NOTE: PLAGAIRISM IS A CRIME. THIS POST WAS STOLEN FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE. THIS THEFT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IS PARTICULARLY APPALLING AFTER THE DISCUSSION OF THE MOVIE WORKING GIRL AND THE NEED TO PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU ARE NOW BANNED FROM THIS WEBSITE.
“Chinese English”can be seen everywher. e in China.Ther .e are an estimated 300 to 500 million users and/or learners of English in the People’s Republic of China. The term “Chinglish” is mostly used in popular contexts and may have pejorative or derogatory connotations. Other terms for the variety of English used in China include “Chinese English,” “China English,” and “Sinicized English.” Although Chinglish has caused some controversy among the Chinese, some foreigners are interested in them as well. Some even regard these as China’s disappearing culture.
I believe that the main reason for Ministry of Railway’s neglecting Chinglish is its monopoly in railway industry, and that the mistakes made in translation doesn’t affect its short-run revenue at all. The money spent in infrastructure, technology and safely can never be cut down, because there will be a great loss of money and even lives if an accident take place. However, nothing dangerous would happen even if none of the foreigners can understand the passenger guide.
Well, in the long run, such so-so attitude will take its toll. It will lower the trustworthy of railway department to foreigners, and make it in disadvantage when it enters the global market, such as projects of high speed railway in countries like Russia, India and Viet Nam.
After reading it, I have the same feeling with Martin. Why the Guangzhou railway group corporation so many money on the Whuhan-Guangzhou high railway, with the highest speed of all lines in China. The corporation should pay more attention on the tiny details and every little mistake could lead a big disaster. Thank you for finding it, I am so appreciative that Martin sent a message to the Guangzhou group railway corporation about that Chinglish.
As far as I know, the project of Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train have been at a financial loss. It’s not profitable. Maybe most of the money was spent on the technology and management fees, little was left for the translations. Or the team in charge had “so-so” attitude towards this, they might think that it was enough to make the foreigners understand the instructions and it was insignificant whether the translations were professional or not. But as the author points out, such deeds do make us embarrassed. We should focus on every detail and try to make it perfect instead of “so-so”. So maybe we Chinese should abandon the “so-so” attitude, and start to form a cautious one.
Actually, funny Chinese to English translation is prevalent throughout China. If we pay attention to the guidepost, introductions of the tourist spot or hotel, we can also find that the translation is Chinglish. Therefore, I’m not surprised when professor points out the mistakes in the translation. Most people pay little attention to details. If the so-so attitude is not changed, I don’t think such problem can be solved in a short time.
Some mistakes must be corrected right now!China is becoming a more and more important country in the world.There are lots of foreigners everyday who may take the train.So it is neccessary to write right English directions to let them know cleary.
Wuhan High Speed Train should improve error. For it not only has high speed and the expensive expense but also it indicates that China’s economic development Nevertheless we have entered the era of economic globalization and English used in worldwide. So we should improve our English. By this way China will make progress and well integrate into the world.