Beijing Wants to Get Rid of Bad English and Chinglish Signs
If you’ve lived in Beijing for a while -- heck, maybe if you've lived here for just a week or two, even -- you'll have noticed some English directional signs that, when read aloud, don't sound quite right. These misspellings, while hilarious to some, have been giving the local government a headache as the city embarks on a mission to fix these badly translated signs.
Even spots of significance, like Wangfujing Pedestrian Street, aren't immune. The entrance to the street sports some poorly translated English. One sign reads "enter", while it should instead say "entrance". There is also another sign that reads "Fire Hudrant" – an obvious misspelling.
These directional signs are there to help people, especially foreigners, when they are having a hard time reading Chinese, but instead of being helpful, they just end up as the brunt of bad jokes.
“Honestly I feel like it’s because lots of people are getting careless when they are making these signs,” one netizen said. “When I say this–careless–I mean it's because they didn't look online to check for errors at all.”
“The people who designed these signs might not understand English well and such mistakes can easily happen when you use translation tools" wrote another.
Even though some may find these awkward misspellings funny, the government has now issued a call to rid the city these embarrassments.
Under the new guidelines, the once commonly used “Escalator Handrail Disinfect Every Half An Hour” will become “Escalator handrails are disinfected every half hour." The slightly confusing "Keep Closed Exit Door" will become “Keep this door closed”.
“Perhaps there should be an official translation for the word bathroom. I have been seeing some really weird translations everywhere,” one Beijinger said.
Have you been seeing some awkward directional signs that totally don't make any sense? Let us know in the comments.
Read:Pedantic Netizen: Stop Using "Station" For Beijing's Subway Stations!
Images: Sohu
