Wednesday 18 July 2007

Do you speak Chinglish?

OK, so I don't speak Mandarin and I am, after all, in China. Apart from a few useful phrases - such as: Hello, I Am Fine, Thank You, You're Welcome, Meet My Friend ___, Where Is The Toilet, Too Expensive, No Want, Do You Not Understand No? - I am an illiterate and a virtual mute in this huge country. Anyone who understands me when I try to point/gesture/grunt is my hero, and it's great to have at least some signs and notices in English... but sometimes they're just not that helpful.


Some signs are just funny: Handic Raf Tarts and FOCK DANCES.







Some are a little confusing, but still kind of get the message accross... kind of. No dabbling?


But then there's that last category of literal-translations-by-a-five-year-old-with-and-snoopy-and-charlie-brown-dictionary which are just plain unintelligible. Trying to book a flight online, I got the following message:


"If you can accept the way turn in other airports,The following is the Dali that we recommend for you to fly to the Lijiang of in turn(onward flight) the flight path.Please choose you feel quite the cheese in turn the city, we will search the service for you"


Not knowing if I feel "quite the cheese" or not, I elected to abort the attempt and try again later... perhaps when I feel a little more dairy-ing. :P

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