No striding

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Another photo from Dean Barrett:

This one is super simple, but charming enough to merit separate treatment.

jìnzhǐ kuàyuè 禁止跨越 ("it is prohibited to cross over")

"No striding" is more or less standard Chinglish for jìnzhǐ kuàyuè 禁止跨越, but we also find more exotic variants: "Prohibition surmounts".

kuàyuè 跨越 has, among others, the following meanings:

  • step across / over
  • cross (over)
  • stride (over / across)
  • leap over
  • cut across
  • span
  • surmount (an obstacle / barrier)
  • go beyond

Since people who don't know English, or don't know it well, usually pick the wrong option, it is always best to consult a native speaker before posting a notice.



5 Comments

  1. Laura Morland said,

    April 20, 2015 @ 1:41 am

    "Since people who don't know English, or don't know it well, usually pick the wrong option, it is always best to consult a native speaker before posting a notice."

    Great advice, but will anybody listen? A few years ago I purchased a lavishly-produced, bilingual guide to Port wines (in Porto), and there were howlers on every page, sometimes as many as four or five. I asked a friend living there why a company would consider publishing a book that expensive without hiring a native speaker to proofread the English. He replied that most educated Portuguese people feel as if they have an excellent grasp of English; they would never be convinced that their knowledge was insufficient to the task.

    As a professional translator (French to English) I find these "errors of arrogance" particularly galling. An Italian restaurant I know in Paris proudly features, for example, "lawyer salad." When the bilingual menu first appeared, I asked the owner about it and, he exclaimed proudly that he had used "a computer" and happily "didn't need" to hire a translator. Ten years on, he is still apparently decimating the attorney population of the city.

    P.S. Very cute sign, though! I love the carved wood.

  2. Rubrick said,

    April 20, 2015 @ 2:22 am

    Poor Aragorn.

  3. Adam F said,

    April 20, 2015 @ 3:39 am

    @Laura Morland: "lawyer salad"! I wonder if they serve innkeepers' wives too.

  4. Jerry Friedman said,

    April 20, 2015 @ 3:53 pm

    Adam F: Sure, if an innkeeper's wife goes there, she can get a crunch-sir like anyone else.

  5. said,

    April 23, 2015 @ 2:31 am

    It is not "more or less" standard Chinglish. It is. This sign is numbered 1-17 on Chinese national standard GB 2894-2008 Safety signs and guideline for the usepage 7 and used at dangerous areas such as ditches, brooks, pipes, rails, conveyors and so on.

    Although not native, "No striding" makes some sense to me because you need to take a longer step to stride over something than simply walk or cross over something.

    By the way you can find more Chinglish on that national standard…

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