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China
seen losing Chinglish battle
Chinglish is alive and well at the Beijing
Olympics and its survival is no 'cryshame', say linguists who have monitored its
quirky progress.
With the eyes of the world on Beijing,
Chinese authorities have tried to eradicate from menus and road signs many
offbeat and nonsensical translations which they fear could offend foreigners.
Gone are exploding shrimp and signposts to
the Garden with Curled Poo. But the Texas-based Global Language Monitor (GLM),
which analyses word usage trends, said that Beijing was fighting a losing battle
and should celebrate 'this delightful mixture of Chinese and English'. 'Chinglish
will persist and even thrive far after the Games have ended,' the Austin
institute forecast.
English is now widely accepted as the main
global language and up to 250 million Chinese currently study it.
As the two vibrant tongues collide, the
verbal gymnastics of Chinglish should be celebrated, GLM argued. It hailed 'the
astonishing complexity and richness of the Mandarin language' and forecast a
rosy future for Chinglish because 'Chinese people evidently enjoy wearing
Chinglish on their clothing'. Garishly coloured and linguistically tortured
T-shirts abound in the malls and markets of this sprawling city.
The Chinese authorities have set up a hotline
for the public to report strangled language and have corrected hundreds of road
signs including the infamous 'Racist Park' signpost for the Ethnic Minorities
Park.
'Some of the translations are confusing or
even offensive to foreign visitors,' explained Chen Lin, a consultant with the
Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme.
GLM said that Chinglish was at the epicentre
of 'cross-pollination between English and Mandarin' and picked some of its own
personal favourites to celebrate the inter-mingling: If you are stolen, call the
police; Airline Pulp (food served aboard airlines); The slippery are very crafty
(slippery when wet); Do not climb the rocketry (rock wall); Deformed man toilet
(handicapped restroom). -- 2008 August
4 Reuters
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