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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Is Chinglish beginning to be not so funny anymore
I've seen more and more discussions between people about learning Engilsh vs. learning Chinglish. I've always thought it was funny and ridiculous that, especially in big cities, NO CAN FIND ONE PERSON TO DO A SPELL/GRAMMAR check.
I watched a guy at Kinkos print up a 1000+ flyers with misspellings and some really special grammar. I told the kinkos worker, before he started, that he should probably mention to the customers a few errors to help him out. I was told by the mr. kinkos "we saw overt it, its correct". I smiled and said "oh ok" and it all made sense to me how so many signs, so many things in print are just wrong.
I'm wondering if Chinglish isn't this cute thing to make fun of anymore. Maybe its becoming a 'real' language. I'm not sure I will laugh so much at the signs (of course I will because they are really great sometimes)
12 years 30 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - Shanghai
"Mushroom with rape" is still funny
MissA:
Well, if anything's going to make eating endless mushrooms bearable....
I have found that often times people understand my chinglish better than my chinese. That said, I only use it as a means of last resort to communicate when all else has failed.
I used to work for a company that hired six well educated foreigners (this was before I was teaching), and they still produced pages of irregular Chiglish, generally translating everything that went to press, but without ever asking a single one of use to edit.
It has to do with the fact that some very proud Chinese consider asking a foreigner for help to be equivalent to pissing on the flag. Because they're not as in-tune with English, they don't realize the loss of face over Chinglish (making China the laughing stock of the world) is far greater than the loss of face over asking a foreigner for a little help.
Localla:
don't exaggerate face issue here, ok? it's a stereotype for years. Time to change it!! face to China isn't simple as most of foreingers think here. face what? does face make you live better? be respect better? got more friends?......LOTS OF CHINESE have thick faces as a matter of fact i believe you haven't learnt it because you can't distinguish different Chinese.... lol..so face to them are defintily not in their dictionary.... it's weak and lame to use face issue as a defence nowadays. too out of dated, not fashionable....corny
Better get ready to start my career in the CSL industry.
Chinglish is still funny outside of the professional world. Finding a good sign of a store or on a shirt makes my day, but the horrible English companies send overseas makes those companies just look like a joke.
I have never in all my time in China seen anything with perfect proper English. Everything from store signs to wall poster ads, to menus. Only China Daily is proper English.
I used to take pictures of funny Chinglish store signs all the time when I first arrived, but it got old fast. My favorite was "Fukang Store"
MrTibbles:
My favorite during a business trip to Kunshan - I found a grocery store that had a sign: "You not happy with product, manager will pleasure orally."
Never forget how much the Americans have butchered the English language. They can't spell.
In China, I have tried many times to introduce the concept of the F7 key to check spelling and grammar in my classes. However, because it isn't in the Chinese version of Windows, nobody seems to think it has any purpose.
Also, maybe we need to start accepting it as a dialect the same as in every other country in the world. My first trip to China was a university lecture tour on vernacular English in USA, Pacific and Australia. I find vernaculars fascinating, just as I find Chinglish fascinating.
But there is still a need for Chinese to understand that in business, vernaculars are generally not accepted. A balanced mix of formal and natural language is needed in English, just as it is needed in Chinese.
MrTibbles:
Sorry for taking the French influenced "ou"s out of stuff to make it more awesome and less French... Like honor, flavor, etc. Sorry, but flavour looks way to French for my liking. :D
Croquantes:
So why are you using the american spelling of Traveller?
bike-gypsy:
"maybe we need to start accepting it as a dialect"
"Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result (Einstein)"
from your comment and your tag line
Traveler:
Bike-boy: It is annoying when people post comments, without providing any reasoning for doing so. Most of us post here to put forward opinions and reasons, to assist each other with making sense of the environment in which we live. Your post doesn't do this. Perhaps you could explain exactly why Chinglish couldn't be considered a dialect, and why you have posted an irrelevant quotation from Einstein. Alternatively, there is an old saying: it is better to remain silent and let others think you are stupid, than to speak and remove all doubt.. You might consider this in the future when making unqualified comments.
It is only the business being lazy and cheap and arrogant
Chinglish could be fun at some point. But I feel that my English is getting really rusty since I mostly talk to Chinese people using Chinglish...
After being here so long 'Chinglish has become my language"
I just come here to read some mis-spelled improper English now and again!
i spent 2 years teachiing basic english to university students and only talking to chinese friends now that i must teach more advanced students i feel so stupid.
I hate when they speak chinglish and get mad when you don't understand what they say.
"Why you no understand? Are you stupid?" I always nod my head and laugh like an obnoxious jackass.
For me, Chinglish as a phenomenon isn't funny - it's sad. It's a bad example of what China is, compared to what it could be if only a little effort, a little money, and a little pride (in oneself, and one's business) existed and used.
For individual examples, though, yeah - it still amuses me! I like to read some of the t-shirts that abound.
My best local mate here went for a job in Shanghai, a job that involved internet sales to around the world. He was going for a job that required English, to be able to communicate with international buyers. The companies flyer was obviously not done by a native, with the best example I recall being "No mediocre staff, only mediocre management".... bwahahahahahaaaa..... As another example of the cheapness of this company, my friend did NOT learn English at university (except the mandatory bit in the first year), HATED doing English in school and failed it miserably. He only started using English because he liked to hang out with us teachers... his English was still the best (or second best) in the entire company....GOOD for him!
Who the f..k are you deefoe to be making any kind of comment about poor English grammar and incorrect spelling. Your post is littered with spelling mistakes and diabolical grammar! Shame on you!!
I learn the words from the above comments. be littered with and diabolical
Actually it's kind of sad...but still funny. I think it has a lot less to do with arrogance and a lot more to do with ignorance. Unlike most of us foreigners, many Chinese use things like translators and Chinese based websites with translations as if they are valid. Students will 'borrow' other Chinese students translations in the belief that they really are correct, when they're not- and business use a translator hoping they won't print giant signs with "Translator Server Error". (By the way I saw a business sign that was quite large that read "Translator Server Error"...what a waste of money)
What really, really annoys me is seeing an English school with errors in its own advertising. Or being asked to read a text in Chinglish, pointing out that I'll look like an idiot if I do this. The reply: 'It's okay, nobody will understand anyway' just doesn't cut it with me. The only thing to do is refuse and rewrite.
I have to admit... I wondered really how bad it could possibly be.
Then I was given the engrish.com address. They have a chinglish section, and while some of it had me laughing so hard I almost peed... some of it was sooooo bad I couldn't make sense of it. If that's what should be "accepted" as a real language. no one will ever understand the other.
So I vote no... no official chinglish language.
Never mind the Chinglish...what about the differences in usage? Or the words that are particular to one English-speaking country and not to other and still find their place in Chinese-English textbooks?
We had a visiting delegation of (very proper, God-fearing, white, hats-to-church-on Sundays) teachers from Texas that came to visit our classroom. The young, inexperienced Chinese English was literally using the textbook, British content. The lesson was something like this:
"Where is your rubber? When you sit at your desk, please take your rubber out. Your blue rubber, not the red rubber. Don't use your pencil. Use the rubber".
The delegation, which was not particularly international in stature, nearly fainted. Later they said something to their guide, who said something to the headmaster, who then scolded the teacher, who then lost face.
That didn't stop her the following week from using the book to teach the story of the (rooster) (but not this word, rather a word more often associated with a part of the male anatomy) was walking on the wall. Same story, except that it was a female foreign teacher was who in the classroom who then reported it, etc., etc.
Chinglish is dreadful, indeed. So are these kinds of mistakes.
Shining_brow:
Those aren't 'mistakes' - they're ignorance about the English language used in other parts of the world. COMPLETELY different to the problems with Chinglish.
kchur:
White? How would it have been different if they were black or olive, Mr. Bicycle Man?
981977405:
Kchur, your comments add nothing -- not here nor anywhere else, which is probably why so many of them end up being removed. Try to say something constructive, if you can.
981977405:
Shining_brow, since you are making comparative, in this case, the proper usage is completely different FROM, and not TO. Just FYI, of course, given your state of erudition.
Language is about communication - to pass information to someone who can take it in and understand what you are thinking. If it fails to do this, then you're not communicating.
Chinglish, however, stops communication flat to those who don't understand it.
I went to a restaurant which had a 'western' menu. There was an item which I couldn't understand the chinglish on it.. so I turned to my 2 Chinese English teachers... who also couldn't understand it. So, that menu item was a complete waste of time.
As is many ads that I see... and company brochures, etc etc etc....
I do think there needs to a standard English...or, in the next century or 2, English will get really confusing!
If i had a dime for every misselled or wrong translation photos i took while i was on a tour i would have close to $1000000.
Last time i was on the trian.." NO OCCUPATION WHILE STABILISING".
I guess neither spelling nor pronunciation matter while learning english in china
english is no standard. british speak british english. america speak american engish....
I feel clingish is a stranger accent too as a chinese. It sounds funny. But, I think you cannot model after clinglish in the west. I will think you are racist. It is hard to distinguish you just feel fun or funny. (by the way, my accent is fine)
Shining_brow:
True, there is no 'standard'.. which is a problem! But, while part of what you say is true (that it doesn't matter what type of English you use), if you want to be able to communicate with other people from other parts of the world (as is the general idea behind all Chinese students learning English in school), then really, Chinglish is unacceptable! It leads to confusion, misunderstandings, lack of communication. True, there are native versions of English that fall into the same trap, and they, too, need to get with it... IFF they want to chat with others around the world!!!
I am afraid Shining_brow think clingish refer to not only accent but also grammar, spelling. if native speakers dont understand manu, it means traslation is wrong. Chinese can speak Clingish.But, cannot change grammer and spelling. wrong word is wrong word.
No, not at all.
How can "F..k the duck until explodes" or "Deformed Man's Toilet" not be funny?