Civilized urinating
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Is this Chinglish?
Source: "Lost in translation: Chinese government aims to reduce awkward English signs" (CBS News [10/28/17]), with several other prime examples.
The Chinese on the sign says:
wénmíng fāngbiàn 文明方便 ("civilized convenience")
qīngxīn zìrán 清新自然 ("fresh and natural")
We've previously encountered wénmíng 文明 on an airport sign in "Delayed due to some reasons: annals of airport Chinglish, part 4" (3/20/2013), with wénmíng jīchǎng 文明机场 translated as "civilized airport".
I described this type of sign as "un-Chinglish": "Technically, their 'lost' quality is due not to mistranslation but to unfamiliarity with the sociocultural expectations of the circumstances in which they are found."
We've had a long-running series of posts on fāngbiàn 方便 ("convenience") as a polite reference to "number one" and "number two". Here's an incomplete list:
- "Linguistic advice in the lavatory: speaking Mandarin is a great convenience for everyone", 9/11/2007
- "Just the Queen invites irrigation", 4/8/2008
- "Chinese lesson for today", 8/29/2010
- "Next day's Chinese lesson", 8/31/2010
- "Urination is inhuman", 2/6/2011
- "Signs from Kashgar to Delhi", 10/11/2013
- "Greater and lesser conveniences", 6/25/2014
- "Please pee in the pool", 8/4/2014
- "'Please enter your cock after urinating'", 4/9/2016
[h.t. John Rohsenow]
SlideSF said,
November 1, 2017 @ 12:15 pm
Though I have no idea what the Chinese says, the English seems perfectly fine and comprehensible to me. Pee inside like a civilized person, not on the street. If you need fresh air, you can have all you want after you pee.