Chinese are well known for their desire to learn English and practice on unsuspecting foreigners, with levels of spoken and written English improving remarkably across the country in recent years. One stand out, however, has not kept pace with the levels of people's English. Every foreigner who has traveled or lived in China will have a story to tell about an Englishlanguage sign that has been lost in translation. These signs around the country not only can create confusion when traveling, shopping or socializing, but are also a continuous source of amusement. Despite the ongoing efforts of authorities to clean up these "informative"  relics, they can still be found on billboards and menus, in supermarkets, banks, train stations and a host of public places.

Authorities in major cities have in the past held campaigns to improve standard English usage at famous scenic spots visited by foreigners, such as the Palace Museum and the Great Wall, where people coming across a confusing sign were asked to phone a hotline and report their find to the relevant bureau for correction. Problems range from obscure abbreviations, word-forword translation of Chinese characters into English, improper omissions and misspellings. The emerging language is known colloquially as Chinglish, that strange marriage of Chinese and English that produces illegitimate offspring.

Some of my favorite Chinglish blooper signs are:

Tender fragrant grass, how hardhearted to trample them - in a Beijing park;

Please keep your legs - next to the escalator;

Reduce signs of premature senility - on a bottle of face cream;

Don't forget to carry your thing - in the back of a taxi;

To take notice of safe. The slippery are very crafty sloped - entrance to mall opposite Beijing Railway Station;

No fight and scrap, no rabble. No feudal fetish or sexy service permitted - in the parking area of Ming Tombs;

Those who are drunk, sick or below 1.1 meters are forbidden to take part in suck game! - at entrance to a Beijing

park; and

Unnecessary touching - above automatic taps at Beijing Airport.

While it is easy to laugh out loud at these and marvel at how they have been up for so long, it is perhaps a good idea for authorities, in the bigger cities at least, to run ongoing campaigns to get Chinglish signs changed. Investing in professional translation and avoiding translation software that is generically unreliable is a good start.

Either that, or the signs are all part of a greater plan to ensure that foreigners keep a permanent smile on their faces as they negotiate the often stressful challenges of daily life in China. Perhaps the term amusement park has a whole new meaning after all...CA