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Still more fun (see parts 1 and 2 on Chinglish examples from WeChat).

(source)

zhǐjīn qǐng rù lǒu

纸巾请入篓

"Please put paper towels in the basket"

(Perfect English translation from GT)

That's "lǒu", not "loo".

A lǒu 篓 is a wastebasket, usually made of bamboo, as indicated by the radical at the top of the graph.

Dogs

wénmíng yǎng quǎn jiù kào nǐ wǒ tā

文明养犬 就靠你我他

"Civilized dog raising depends on you and me"

(Another good English translation from GT)

In this age of pronoun fixation, "nǐ wǒ tā 你我他" reminds me of one of the first chapters in Y R Chao's legendary Mandarin Primer, which is the book I began to learn Chinese from:  "Nǐ wǒ tā sān gèrén 你我他三个人" ("You, me, and him, three people").  For some reason, all the members of the class thought that the title was amusing, so the basic pronouns stuck with us.  The same is true of most of the other chapters in the book, e.g., "wǔxiāng cháyè dàn 五香茶叶蛋" ("five spices tea egg"), bought from a vendor at a train station stop.

For "nǐ wǒ tā 你我他", you could also translate it as "all of us".

Between the pee

xiǎobiàn jiān

小便间

"urinal"

(Also from GT)

"toilet; restroom; bathroom" — esp. in Shanghai:  xiau bi ke (T2)

(from Wiktionary)

We have had so many scores of posts on urinals, urinating, toilets, WCs, greater and lesser conveniences, and so forth, that I won't even bother to list any of them in the "Selected readings".  Well, maybe I'll mention just a few.

CD

wǒ guāngpán wǒ jiāo'ào

我光盘 我骄傲

"I'm proud of [leaving / having] a clean plate"

(GT failed on this one:  "i disc i am proud")

"guāngpán 光盘" means both "CD" and "clean plate"

This reminds me of when I was a little boy and the county sponsored a "Clean Plate Club".  I was always genuinely proud to clean off my plate at the end of every meal and regularly won awards for doing so.

Selected readings

• "Between pee and bad"  (8/15/19)
• "Civilized urinating" (10/31/17)
• "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

August 31, 2022 @ 10:59 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Lost in translation, Pronouns, Signs

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