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About meLosing linguistic diversity (?!)
Noooooooooo! Do not want! According to this Seattle Times piece, China is getting serious about cleaning up the insane English translations that can now be seen on signs in its cities. Something to do with avoiding embarrassment when the Olympic guests roll into Beijing next year.
For years, foreigners in China have delighted in the loopy English translations that appear on the nation’s signs. They range from the offensive — “Deformed Man,” outside toilets for the handicapped — to the sublime — “Show Mercy to the Slender Grass,” on park lawns.
Last week, Beijing city officials unveiled a plan to stop the laughter. With hordes of foreign visitors expected in town for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing wants to cleanse its signs of translation nonsense.
For the next eight months, 10 teams of linguistic monitors will patrol the city’s parks, museums, subway stations and other public places searching for gaffes to fix.
The guy heading this effort is Chen Lin, a professor who “got hooked on English in high school by reading simplified versions of Shakespeare” and was sent to a rural labor camp to rid his mind of those evil Western ways during the Cultural Revolution. It’s a great thing that he’s made it back from those dark days to his current posiition of influence, but it will be sad when he makes beautiful menus like this harder to find.
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One Response to “Losing linguistic diversity (?!)”
Posted by: Aceface - 02/15/2007
Fragrance flies around the coconut wood…..
さすがは中国。詩聖の国だ。
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