.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!
Frankly speaking, I didn’t realize that those sentences were Chinglish until I read the English version, even though I had been studying English for 10 years. I think the reason for that is so many of our people have been learning Chinglish rather than pure English. Even more, Chinglish has been a habit of most of our English learners, and it is too difficult for them to change it. Of course, using Chinglish may seem uncivilized in the naïve English speakers’ eyes. However, I guess such situation won’t change a lot unless the government pays great effort into it.
It’s really difficult to express my true feeling when I read difference between Chinglish and English translation. To tell the truth, if I were the working staff who translated the instructions, maybe the answers above were my achievement.
Everyone has his own habit. We don’t need or ask others to cater our feelings. So I suppose if this article is facing to the Chinese people, their own language should be used even though it is not very official. We should understand one thing, that is what we write are not wanting to show how official our English is ,but for people as many as possible who can read this passage and use it during their trip. I can understand that guys who write the things above, which is they just want to share their viewpoints with others. In my opinion, we can deliver their ideas to the company and choose a balance between chinglish and official English.
What I am concerning is that maybe this is a progress for China when we compare it to the beforetime. Maybe this is not perfect, but we must emphasis that the administrations already have the awareness to open to the world. We should know the fact that we don’t translate the warnings in the public into English several years ago.
Maybe this is the “So-so” things as you said. We are not sometimes rigorous. General speaking, I believe this “So-so” things has some related to the Face. Rigorous actions won’t be carried out if the performers pay much attention to other people. If they pay attention to the face of other, they are worry about to hurt others and let the others lose face. You know in China lose face is embarrassing. Now when it comes to issue of translation, I guess that the person who translates the warnings must be an expert who has been suffered with Chinglish for many years so that you can find the improper translations. And I believe that in China there must be someone know these translations are incorrect. Because of the face that expect, people all keep silence.
However, despite the face of that expect was guarded, the face of all the Chinese people will lose to the west people like you! How funny is it! It is a shame for all of us.
Martin’s comment on this phenomenon is persuasive. Since I am a Chinese, I never pay attention to those English version “Passenger Service Guidance.” At the first sight of the sentences, I thought they were just all right and I can read them without any misunderstanding. However, when I read the real English expression, I found the latter way is a much more effective and efficient expression.
In fact, it is just another reflection of our social culture that is focus on physical condition or say face project and ignore details of culture or specific behaviors. We all know we have to make change, but since it is hard to measure, those who invest won’t care about it as no one will score for those items.
As for such a specific thing, it can be solved by rewriting it by some native English speakers. Why don’t make change? Why someone thought it is acceptable? Maybe they have already been influenced by “so-so” things.
At the first sight of the “Passenger Service Guidance”, I almost can’t tell right from wrong. But after reading the “English” expression, I realized it is better than the “Chinglish” expression. For this reason, I totally agree with the author that the company should pay more attention to a proper translation. Besides, it’s not an occurrence that happens in China. In fact, it’s common for us to deal with these things with this attitude. Maybe we Chinese can understand the real meaning of these words, but it’s absolutely not proper and polite for the foreigners. So, if we want to enter into the world, we have to confront these problems and seek proper solutions.
It make me feel embarrassed and confused about the reasons. We certainly have paid large amount of money on the project, but we just do not care more about the translation. The brochure written in Chinese is perfect, while the English version is terrible. One foreign friend has asked me about the translation of porridge, because people in restaurant in China Town used a disease to represent the porridge. And my friend felt incredible about the translation. However, I have also found a book talking about the crazy translation which the writer searched all over the world. I can see that the mistakes are also made by people in other countries in case they speak the different language. But I believe that the situation will become better as time goes by.
I usually go back home by the high speed train,with the speed of 187km/h, but I have never find the differences of Guidance between English and Chinglish.Maybe,I was so careless.
But in my opinion,I just agree the western saying“In Rome do what Romans do”,the translation is not a big deal.The effectiveness of each language are to be understood by the people who use it.So,Chinese use Chinglish in China.
At the same time, we must recognize that to learn a language, we must learn to use it as local people.I just recommend a movie ,which tell us the Pronunciation and Ethnic differences between India and the United States.
For an enormous project makes such a mistake, as a Chinese, I felt really embarrassed. There is a possibility: the directors think that their services are mainly facing to Chinese, don’t pay enough attention to the feeling of foreigners. Actually, the Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train is running well all the time. There is may be some bad effect on residents surrounding area. Although the fares have a little expensive for many people, it enhances the transport capacity, and reduces the burden of Beijing-Guangzhou railway. It’s no doubt that there are a large number of poor projects, but most of large projects have a good quality. Of course, in some detail, we also need constantly improve.
I agree with what the author said. It is of great value and importance to make a proper translation.We should emphasis on the quality of translation using in public drumbeating. Providing the correct and proper translation to the pubic is a basis obligation of a company and a country.
I agree with what the author said. Chinese company will pay for the translation and demand a complete refund and hire someone competent to do the job right. Public image is very important ,it must be repaired immediately
When I read the chinglish version, I just think there is something not comfortable but I can’t say what is wrong with the translation until I read the real English version. You said at the class about the story of” how about”and “what about”. Maybe just because when we learn English we don’t get the real meaning and structure of English, we just use the word as we think. So if we want to be recognized by the foreigners we must learn how to use the foreign language properly.
As a matter of fact, similar funny things are pervasive at present in China. On the one hand, China needs pay more attention to connect with world, especially related to the western developed countries. Then, foreign people could learn more Chinese. On another hand, China has his own special conditions. So we can easily find that there are a lot of funny and strange things. For example, the construction of Guangzhou-Wuhan high speed way cause some negative influence which was involved in the above the passage. Form my perspective; the government may pay great emphasis on the economic development and government achievement. On the contrast, they ignore the elementary things about passengers’ services. From now on, we need to make significant efforts to change the similar situations around China.
In my mind, “so-so” phenomena exist in all the societies. Because all societies are consist of different kinds of people. Some of them do not do thing seriously. Even the ex-president Bush of US, made many mistakes when he spoke English. And on the other hand, I know some classmate around me do things very seriously. So, I think, if you just show us the examples in China, it will mislead people to think in that way, “Chinese are always so-so people”. I know you are opposing to the “so-so” attitude, but not all the Chinese.
And absolutely, the “so-so” attitude is not ok in China. We need to change it. If we want to be outstanding, we need more careful, prudent attitude to make things perfect.
Carefully to find that the Chinese high-speed rail passenger service on the guide there are many Chinglish, and take the expression with the Western countries to do a comprehensive comparison, the authors concluded that: too funny. Although the Chinese government has spent heavily in manufacturing high-speed rail should not appear that low-level problems, but I still have something to say, China and the West has always been two of the world, have their own different cultural backgrounds and different of expression. China wants to integrate into the world, but this does not mean that China will become the Western world. China is an independent great power, should maintain their own unique qualities. As the Chinese proverb: harmonized but not identical .
After reading the article above,I think China only attached importance to some “hardware facilities”,but overlooked the“software facilities” such as the“Passenger Service Guide”. In fact, incorrect characters and grammar errors occur often in some Chinese descriptions, not to say the English translation.So this so-so attitude should be taken seriously in China.
With the advent of economic globalization, the exchanges between our country and area all around the world are more and more frequent.In my opinion, we should do a good job of foreign language translation,to make native speakers feel at home here.That is very important for China’s international image.
Yes, its funny.But I would rather give you a suggestion that maybe you should just regard this thing as a local cultural phenomena. In practice, this train is mostly taking Chinese customers,the original purpose of the translation is letting people understand it.Since foreigners can read and understand the Chinglish, then there is no need to discuss the translation.And it is no thing to do with the “face” problem.It is just for fair communication,that is it.
Those sentences roused very complicated emotions in my. To be honest, I wouldn’t do better than the guys who translated those sentences. I even didn’t know those sentences are wrong if I don’t read the English version. I am really worried about my English.
In fact, such funny translations are not exclusive to Guangzhou – Wuhan High Speed Train. I have also seen similar things in other major projects in Shanghai and Beijing.
In my opinion, the central issue of this problem is that, whether the feedback system exists or not? The train company may be blind, the translators may be incompetent, but the numerous passengers are not all fools. Some of them may be well-educated, and want this problem to be properly handled. And if there is a proper feedback system, their voices will be heard by the project managers, all of those funny translations will be redone, and the face of China will be saved.
During the winter vacation, I have taken the Wuhan- Guangzhou high-speed rail. As the article said, the Wuhan- Guangzhou high-speed rail is really very comfortable and fast. But, in the four hours of the trip, I have not read the “Passenger Service Guidance”. If the translation of the “Passenger Service Guidance” do exist so many mistakes, the railway section must pay attention to this matter. In daily life, I am also lake of the sense to pay close attention to the detail. Details determine the general situation. I believe that China will become better if Chinese people could pay close attention to details. However, we can’t deny the comfort and safety of the Wuhan- Guangzhou high-speed rail because of the mistakes of the “Passenger Service Guidance”.
“Fire fight safety device, please don’t move at will” can be found in many trains. Most of people who are invited to write the safety note boards know the spelling of fire extinguisher. He can turn up the dictionary, even though he doesn’t know how to express the device. Why do these happen frequently? There is only a reason that the person don’t arouse his adequate appreciate to the translation to explain the phenomena. We should not have the “so-so” attitude in our work, which may lead to serious consequences. For example, if we had the “so-so” attitude in driving, the accident may happen, which will lose the life.
The Chinglish of the “passenger service guidance” is not a funny thing, but a thing that calls for seriously more attention to it.
The high speed train from Guangzhou to Wuhan is an image which represents our country to people from all over the world. We have our high-tech trains like bullets, and environment in the coaches like that in airplanes, so why not have a pure English brochure to perfect our new train’s service?
In my opinion, there are some merits to perfect the brochure in English.
Firstly, as I have mentioned above, it is public service guidance for people from all over the world, we Chinese are not the only readers of them, we offer them to foreign tourists, and it is also why we have the English version of the brochure. It is not a good idea to translate the Chinese brochure into Chinglish, how about if they make foreigners misunderstood and lead to accidents? In the other hand, what’s your feeling when you travel or study abroad and see Chinese characters be used in a wrong way? It may generate a sense of disrespect to you, right? So, why not show our expectation and respects to those foreign tourists so that have their respects for ourselves?
Secondly, I think English in public environment such us service guide, brochure etc. also provide good resources for us to learn English. It is a good guidance for us. So, under such circumstances, we must get wrong uses of the words and phrases. We do not want to learn non-native English, do we?
As the author says, Chinglish brochures show a so-so attitude, absolutely yes. The quality of our community service is urgent to improve. Only we do well from small, we can make us better day by day.
It’s really a problem. I’m so surprised the vast contrast laid in English translation and Chinglish interpretation. This company really pays less attention to foreign passengers and the English version of guidebook is only a symbol of being a modern enterprise instead of providing good service. They should change their attitude if they want to be a successful company, because those companies always notice every detail.
It is a little embarrassed after reading this article because I think the Chinglish makes sense before seeing the right version. Maybe most of us believe ourselves too much and overconfident. It shows us that we should take this situation seriously. Our English education still needs to be improved.
I think the most appearant difference between Chinglish and English is the thinking logic in composing sentence . For example , when we say something that had happened we chinese used to saying the cause first and then the result , which is absolutely different from the English speaker . At the same way we chinese are likely to explain something that had happaned first and instruct what to do in that situation accordingly .
However , as professor you say “There is no standard in English using ” people in different country will have different habbits in English using , and the English speakers will have little problems in understanding English which is something different from the native . Of course we students should improve our English to reach “the normal English” as possible as we can , after all we have learned English for more than 10 years .
In my point view, it is a common phenomenon in China. In my dormitory which is a dorm for some graduate students in the university, there are several ludicrous mistakes on the direction boards. For example, come out and in, visit register have to. Could you figure out what it means?
After reading this article, I keep wondering what my writings look like to Professor Wolff. I have never known that the difference between English and Chinglish is so big. I have to admire our professor for understanding our Chinglish so well. I also want to see the Chinese statements in foreign countries. I think that Chinese statements in western countries may be much better than English statements in China. The problem is not that no one in China can translate Chinese into English correctly, but that people in China haven’t paid enough attention to serve foreigners. We should improve our serving otherwise we can’t gain respect from others.
As a Chinese student, I can understand chinglish completely.
As a Chinese customer, I should criticize chinglish certainly.
As a company offering the high-tech service in china, as company with international aspect, even as a common company, professional should be the first and most image setting up for the public.
There is a book called Details Determines Success. In my opinion, although the translation may be done by the other company offering such services rather than by the company, it also reflects the inner flaws of the company. It haven’t paid enough attention to its market image even no other department or measures to avoid such things. Why? The monopoly or the other?
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.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.
This article let me think of the English name of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province. It was translated to be “expensive sun” at first and laughed by everyone. Sometimes even a public decision seems so stupid. There are some officials have so little knowledge so they can make such stupid decision. It is a tragedy. But to be frankly, I think the translation mentioned in this article will not cause big problem, at lest much better than “expensive sun”. Yes it is very Chinglish but it can be understand too. However, the so-so attitude should be blamed. Just as this article says, the failure of this small detail makes a person wonder what other small details were allowed to go forward as “so-so.”
I have never paid attention to this kind of service guide in station before. If I have to read the guide, I would rather like read Chinese one because I use to read it in Chinese. I suppose that is true for everyone. So I think the service guide should be designed for formal English instead of Chinglish, as foreigner read them, not Chinese. I agree that the station should change the translations with formal English.
Detail means a lot. However, it’s more efficient to pay more attention to the most important things (such as safety in the case) instead of all the details in a high speeding developing country like China. Many things could not be perfect at the first and the same time, so the public critics are necessary and important for further improvement. And actually, maybe it shows not a “so-so” attitude but a common English level, so the department should search for some more professional translation companies to make the passenger service guidance more suitable for foreigners’ use.
Actually, there are lots of mistakes in our city proper, and many English major students’ papers are talking about this issue. Just like our English movies everyday, there is no one care about this phnomenon. Or maybe there is someone but can do nothing about it.
Maybe I think it’s not difficult to read those things on train for foreign,though it’s may make foreign a little uncomfortable to feel the senstences,and it may need to have a inprovement of the translation,but few will willing to correct it.
FOR ONETHING I KNOW IS THAT MOST PEOPLE IN CHINA HAVE POOL ENGLISH,MAYBE IT IS THE BEST WAY TO LET THEM UNDERSTAND WAT IT MEAN BY USING CHINGJISH!
In my opinion,although the translation is chinglsih ,it is easy for people who have low level of enducation to understand.Because the customer is god,So the company wants to attack more people ,and let them know the rules of trains.Maybe it is just a method which the company to cater the customers.
I surpise why Ministry of Railways didn’t invite a American or English write these orders,sometimes I learning English by offical provid English regulations which at fact are chliglish.I deem that this phenomenon exist everywhere in China,this Negative phenomenon must restained so as to give good sevices to foreigner and enhance our English learners’s language level.
We lived in the special environment that say mother tongue’s people is far excess than English spoken people, in addition, those speak English people’s level is not high, they always speaking chliglish, we are so shamefaced that we aways not say hello to a stranger, especally an foreign person.
To be honest, not until I read this article did I realize that Chinglish was not only ubiquitous and popular but also it was so serious that they made native English speakers feel atrocious. What a embarrassment! Perhaps, it is just not the most important. What the article indeed indicated is that attitude is everything. If company related to safety holds the attitude of “so-so”, just supposing the life of people is no-no. Therefore, some steps should be taken to enhance the government concerned awareness of the important role attitude plays in society. Hope that every one of Chinese can speak English fluently.
I surprisingly find out that many chinenglish expressions employed in this brochure are exactly what i may use. And the most funny thing is, the grammar knowledge our teacher has programmed into our mind falls into a typical Chinenglish category, and many of us may not even aware.
Frankly speaking, when I read the Chinglish, I think it’s OK. While when I read the English version. I maintain that we need promote the propaganda. It’s also good for us to pick up English at the same time it’s convenient for foreigners. We joined the WTO, which means we should keep up with the international world. If our official don’t place high value of using English in a proper way, how could we imagine a citizen take care of it.
I haven’t been on the high speed train yet. If it is true for the translation, I shall be ashamed as a Chinese. It’s not rare that we Chinese take a so-so attitude in details. And we can see many accidents or bad results due to that attitude. If we hope to survive the world and take advantages in the rat race, we ought to abandon the useless “face” and learn from Japanese or German, who is famous for precision.
As we all know,the railway industry is a monopoly sector directed by our goverment.So to giev the foreigners convenience,our goverment should take measures to formulate standard slogans.So far China has jioned the WTO for ten years and has entered the international trail to great extend.But China stil have a big gap with the developed countries.The “so-so”attitude is a stumbling block to China`s development.
I think it is a popular phenomenon in China. I see the same mistakes in some places of interest. Mostly they are translated by people whose major is not English. They don’t think the terrible results of these mistakes. They are signs for foreigners and Chinese. The English is popularized through this way, but it gets the opposite of what we want.
I have never paid attention to this kind of service guide in station before. If I have to read the guide, I would rather like read Chinese one because I use to read it in Chinese. I suppose that is true for everyone. So I think the service guide should be designed for formal English instead of Chinglish, as foreigner read them, not Chinese. I agree that the station should change the translations with formal English.
It’s too embarrassing.And we are told to learn English from daily life.Oh,no.It’s really necessary to correct the signs.Save our faces!
I used to hear the notice in English on the bus and train, and I think maybe foreign people will laugh at our English level. That is really mess work which is recorded about 20 years ago. No one wants to change that face work.
It is really embarrassed for me—-a Chinese to read the article, but I have to admit that it happens a lot in China. We often see lots of wrongly spelt English words or sentences in public places, such as on the street, in the supermarket, outside the mansion and even in our dormitory. Actually, there are also many wrong Chinese characters written on the tablet of restaurants, drugstores, shopping center and even in the TV advertisements. Many Chinese merchants and officials don’t pay attention to details and they think it is of no importance as long as it doesn’t affects profits. What they are not aware of is that it is humiliating to both Chinese people and our country.
It is really a little embarrassed.After all,Chinese and English have different language habits.This results in the improper expressions.
In fact, the translation is not funny at all. It reflects the so-so attitude of the company. When a foreigner reads the passenger service guidance, he may feel confused and ridiculous. When a child reads it, he may think that it is ok to learn something from the brochure. The company should be responsible for the accuracy of the translation. We have had high speed trains, then, why can’t we have pure English passenger service guidance to make the travel perfect?