Fuddland
Occasionally I get asked to help with some simple Chinese-to-English translations for company signs and notices, which to be honest I am somewhat reluctant to do—as every ex-pat will testify, half the fun of living out here is smirking at the Chinglish all around us. Nevertheless, I know in the long-run it’s probably a good idea to have warning signs that actually say what they mean to say, and the translation process is not without its giggles, as I found last week when I was asked to look over about 150 signs a company planned to put up all over its factory floor and offices.
The English level of the Chinese woman who had already proof-read the signs was, thankfully, of a high standard, so there were not too many problems: I suggested “locker” instead of “personal storage bureau”; “promotional material” instead of “propaganda”; and a more succinct “Fire Extinguisher Instructions” instead of, “How to Operate the Dye Chemical Powder Fire Extinguisher”.
But one phrase stumped me for a while: I could see that the Chinese version was a 15-word sentence that ended with five exclamation marks, so clearly this was important, but their English suggestion simply said, “Be closer!”
I didn’t recognise all of the Chinese characters, and the part that I could kind-of read with some help from my dictionary seemed to say, “Somewhat closer; say again, somewhat closer. Good manners is closer and closer to you,” which didn’t make a lot of sense in a factory-floor context [or any other context I could think of]. So I asked the woman where this sign was supposed to go; she flushed slightly and said, “In the bathroom.”
I thought for a moment. “Above the toilet, by any chance?” I asked, to which she replied, “Exactly.”
Yup, this sign is to remind people to put their bottoms as close to the ground as they can when they perch over the squat-toilet. I’m still puzzling over how to translate it as politely and euphemistically as the Chinese version.
Comments
martyn | 2009 / 01 / 22 – 04:45
possibly the best sign translation story ever:
David | 2009 / 01 / 22 – 18:26
Re #1: I second that possibly!
Commenting Closed
Commenting on this post is closed. Thanks to all those who left comments. If you'd still like to say something about this entry, feel free to email me.
