Chinglish trifecta
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It's been a while.
From Qingchen Li:
The sign says:
kānhǎo értóng
看好儿童
"take care of / look out for children"
wénmíng shǎng méi
文明賞梅
"be civilized in appreciating the plum blossoms"
qǐng wù rùnèi
请勿入内
"no entry"
qīngcǎo yīyī
青草依依
"tender green grass"
qǐngnín àixī
请您爱惜
"respectfully please cherish it"
The fact that we don't see so many of these Chinglishisms anymore is an indication that the overall level of English in China has improved markedly during the two or three decades since we first started tracking them.
Selected readings
- "Tiny grass is dreaming" (5/24/12)
- "More savory Chinglish from Dunhuang" (7/9/23)
- "Omnibus Chinglish, part 4" (8/31/22)
This is but a tiny sample of the hundreds of Chinglish specimens we've examined over the years.
Jonathan Smith said,
November 14, 2023 @ 2:34 pm
kàn hǎo értóng > kān hǎo értóng
orthographic ambiguity problem… kàn hǎo értóng indeed sounds like "regard the prospects of 'children' generally (?) to be bright"
This is an automated translation issue, not Chinglish. Maybe it's improvements to the former that are improving signage quality? And of course simply removing English also helps the numbers…
Pamela said,
November 14, 2023 @ 6:07 pm
that's a great one.