Chinglish

I was washing dishes and listening to CBC, and this guy was talking about Chinglish.  That sure grabbed my attention.  So I decided to google it up.  It turned out that there is a huge market about Chinglish.  There are all these funny signs from China, and they make you laugh!  But after the laughter, you start to think, man, there IS a problem.  Here are some of the signs:

Then I looked up this guy who was on CBC chatting about writing his PhD paper on Chinglish, but I cannot find him.  This is the closest I got: http://www.cbc.ca/news/photogalleries/chinglish/ If you know the name of this person who’s writing a paper on Chinglish, please let me know because I would love to read it.

Other articles I found about Chinglish are:

9 Replies to “Chinglish”

  1. It’s funny but I’m sure the same thing happens when we try to write things in Chinese… or mispronounce something.

    Also, Will, you are beyond awesome! You picked up our slang and everything like it was nobody’s business.

    1. Haha, thanks Shelle. You’ve helped me with my English numerous times! so thank U for being such an awesome teacher 🙂

  2. I actually randomly heard this on the radio while driving the other day as well! I thought it was neat that someone would do an academic paper on this.

    And there is a Japanese counterpart, as well: http://www.engrish.com/ (looks like they have a couple Chinese/Chinglish pics on their site, too).

    1. That’s a funny website. I like the one that says, “To ilet – The Oriental spirit”. I thought I was the oriental spirit, but I guess they picked the toilet over me. What a big confidence booster 😉

      It is interesting that someone would write an academic paper on Chinglish. This guy also went on and talked about how this has become a problem in China in terms of how China is demonstrating itself to the world. Most of his Chinglish signs are approved by the government officials of Shanghai province, but the signs don’t make any sense. He pointed out that to the Chinese government, if anything that looks foreign, then that’s good and let’s show the world that we, too, know English. He also said that China has no time for proofreading because it’s trying to produce, produce and produce. I mean, this guy, who’s German, is hitting a lot of big topics. Hence, my interest in his linguistic, sociological and economical points of view on China.

  3. Hmmmm…maybe if we ever move to China for a while, I could be an official proof reader? 😉
    Better than teaching ESL I think.
    xo

    1. Haha, that would be good! You can start a consulting firm to the government for translation departments and do a lot of Gan-Beis to promote the business 😀 My dad would be very proud of you … with your ability to drink.

  4. Hello I am so excited I found your blog, I really found you by accident,
    while I was looking on Bing for something else, Anyhow I am here now
    and would just like to say thanks for a remarkable post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design),
    I don’t have time to read it all at the minute but I have
    saved it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I
    have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up
    the awesome jo.

  5. Hello, this weekend is pleasant in support of me, because this occasion i am reading this enormous
    informative article here at my house.

  6. It’s really a great and useful piece of info. I am satisfied that you shared this useful info with us.

    Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.

Comments are closed.