Editor's note: We've all heard about or seen pictures of the hilarious Chinese-English translations written on things around China, and many would (rightly) argue that the topic has been talked to death just about. While the worst/best examples remain pretty hilarious (the unintended  dark-humoured brilliance  of "slip and fall down carefully 小心滑倒"comes to mind), the cold reality is that poorly translated public signs can actually make it more difficult for non-Chinese readers to get by than having no translations at all (if there were no translations, then perhaps non-readers would have more incentive to learn!). Part one of the following article was first published on Hainan.net, and details a few recent examples of poorly translated signs around Hainan that have received a lot of attention. Part two of the article was first published in Modern Express, and identifies the four types of translation errors seen on public signs around Nanjing.

On December 10th, the Hainan Provincial Translators Association held a seminar in Qionghai to discuss Hainan's on-going problem with poorly translated "Chinglish" signs in public places. At the seminar, Professor Shang Zhiqiang, chair of the Foreign Language and Tourism Department at Hainan Software Technical College, and professor Liu Shixiang presented a joint-paper detailing the need to standardise these Chinese-English translations. As the experts pointed out, the Chinese-English translated signs around Hainan are full of errors, reaching what was referred to as a "critical level" of Chinglish. The most commonly spotted problems were typical spelling mistakes, poor grammar, unclear expressions, and literal "word-for-word" translations. While users in online forums may find these signs entertaining, locals are none too happy, as poorly translated signs can significantly inconvenience non-Chinese readers – something that a foreign tourist vacation destination like Hainan cannot afford to do.

Signs on Hainan insult tourists, introduce them to the "Hui Xingfu Family"

At certain scenic spots around Hainan, you'll likely come across a mildly-insulting Chinese-English sign that reads "Watch out, knock head", instead of a sign with the slightly more useful advice to "Mind your head". What happened here was that the last two characters of the original Chinese phrase "小心碰头" were translated separately as pèng "碰" (to knock) and tóu "头" (head), instead of together as pèngtóu "碰头" (to accidentally hit ones head). It's quite incredible really that such a simple and small translation error could transform the originally useful advice into a sign essentially addressing tourists as morons.

While some cases of poorly translated Chinese-English signs present English readers with a distinct alternative meaning (as in the above case), perhaps the greater problem is the abundance of Chinese-English signs used for directing foreign tourists to and from places that are an absolute mishmash of nonsensical English-y words. While recently driving through Qionghai city in Hainan Province, Shang Zhiqiang saw one such nonsensical Chinese-English traffic sign, and it was so bad that he pulled over to take a photo of it.

How did the translator get from the original meaning "urging locals to drive in a civilized manner" to this mess? Let's take a look at a break down of this sign:

Translated Chinglish	Original Chinese	Proper Translated English
On the civilization car	开文明车	drive in a civilized manner
Line of road safety	行平安路	travel safe and sound
The hui xingfu family	回幸福家	return to your happy family

As terrible as this Chinese-English translation is, it is relatively easy to identify the cause of most of the translation errors. Take for instance the trouble of translating the word wénmíng "文明" (civilized, civilization), which is used much more liberally in Chinese as a modifier than it is in English. In the second statement, perhaps the translator was unsure which of the dozen or so meanings for xíng/háng "行" to use. As for the third statement, it appears that the translator opted to use a pinyin translation for huí xìngfú "回幸福" (maybe they thought that it was an uncommon surname, or that it had to do with the Huí ethnic minority), instead of separating the three words huí "回" (return), xìngfú "幸福" (happy, happiness) and jiā "家" (which was translated correctly as family or home).

Identifying the four types of translation error in the Nanjing subway system

Another popular destination for foreign tourists, Nanjing, also recently came under fire for its poorly translated signs in the city's subway stations. Addressing the stations' translation problem, Liu Feng, the chief editor for the Yilin Publishing House identified what he believes to be the four types of translation error.

1) Complete mistranslation
A while back, one netizen posted a photo of a Nanjing subway route that had the worst kind of translation error – a complete mistranslation. In the posted photo, the sign in Chinese said Tiānjīn Lù (天津路), while the English translation read "North Zhong Shan Road". Whoops.

2) Non-unified translations
While not as serious as a mistranslation, non-unified translations may be the most common type of translation error. In the example brought up by Liu Feng, the characters "上海路" were translated as "Shanghai Lu" on some signs and as "Shanghai Road" on others. While they mean the same thing, and neither choice is incorrect, the simple translation error of not unifying the translation could lead to much confusion.

3) Where does the "directional word" go?
Similar to the above "non-unified translation" error, many translated signs in the subway also suffered from non-unified placing of the directional word in street names. For Example, "中山北路" was translated as "North Zhong Shan Road", while "中山东路" was translated as "Zhong Shan East Road". According to Liu Feng, the former, placing the directional word at the beginning of the street name, is correct.

4) Watch out for inappropriate abbreviations　　
In the Zhanfuyuan Station, "中国药科大学站" (China Pharmaceutical University) is translated as "Yao Ke University". Meanwhile, in the Xinjiekou Station, it's abbreviated as "CPU Station", which has a separate connotation in English that may confuse foreigners. Liu Feng says that even though the abbreviated form is correct (as compared to the half-Chinese-half-English translation used at the Zhanfuyuan station), its common alternate meaning in English means that it shouldn't be used here either.
 

Source: hainan.net, cnr.cn
 

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