Not Quite Chinglish

The worst trend I have noticed over the last few years is the lack of appreciation for the editor and proofreader. I frequent freelance job boards and see a preponderance of job posts that pay less than minimum wage for editing, proofreading, and writing. These are no longer viewed as skilled positions. Businesses believe that anyone can do these jobs and are starting to outsource the work to non-native English speakers. These businesses end up with text that reads like gibberish.

The other day I started looking at the descriptive tags for wines in Jersey City. Here's one that I found:

Delicate notes of mature fruit and floral emerge, while the sapore is fresh thanks to one balanced acidity, very supported from one good wealth of body and structure. For its fragrance the wine is ready to the commercialization and to it since drinks the successive spring to the grape harvest.

 Does this make any sense to anyone? The copywriter for that winery should be ashamed and unemployed. And there were other tags and labels that were almost as disgraceful as that one.

Chinglish Spam

Over the last couple months I've noticed an increase in the amount of spam I've received on my main e-mail address. Most of the spam has been from electronics manufacturers in China. I guess they think I want to buy the junk that American companies no longer want to purchase.

Today, a line caught my attention. "maybe it cant ends the hateful and horrible economic crisis,cooperating with us,however,you would save partial expense.dont hesitate,let'go shopping with happiness!"

I never knew the economic crisis had a hateful personality. And how much would I actually save with only a "partial expense"? The quality of writing in this e-mail (complete with Chinese phone number) is far worse than most of what my students used to hand in (plagiarized assignments not withstanding).

Friday's Alphabet

A new candy store opened a few weeks ago near Haiya Baihuo here in Nanshan. It seems they took it upon themselves to change the alphabet. When I first saw this sign, I thought it said "SWTET," but a friend pointed out that it looks like the letter is a cross between a T and an E (and possibly an F).
Recently, I've come across a few articles that discuss the changes of English language due to the rise of foreign learners. Most of the mangling of English (as if it were truly possible to mangle a bastardized language) comes from China, Singapore, Japan, and Korea. It seems some believe that English will continue to evolve into some language that we native speakers won't recognize or, possibly, comprehend.

As I've read such articles about language, and witnessed the Chinglish translations, I've started thinking about a former teacher's book. Back in grad school, I had class with Bobbie Louise Hawkins, author of "My Own Alphabet." While not a mangling of language, it is an amusing read that makes a lot more sense than "You and I altogether do afforest the bodyguard."

Chinglish-lympics

Yesterday I came across this interesting piece of Beijing Olympic memorabilia--I know, it looks rather ordinary. But you have to take a good look at it to appreciate its wonder.
At first glance I thought it was a real product, but quickly realized it was just a funny knock-off. Since it's difficult to see the details from the photos, here are the descriptions: At the top, it says "Beijing 2008 Olympics" in Chinese. The English below reads, "BeiJinag 2008" with a poor rendition of the Olympic rings below that (it's only four rings and they're all in a straight line). The store had this pen in three colors. I doubt I'll try to collect them all.

All That Jazz

Jia and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. We first headed over to a nice area with a lot of empty storefronts--a situation that doesn't seem to make sense as it looks like a high-traffic area. What we found was a nice coffee shop and a little restaurant. We'll go to the coffee shop today since we didn't eat there last night (no dinner food). The restaurant was alright--nothing really special, but it was good for the price. Still, I think if we want Western food we'll continue to go to the Seattle Cafe--the food there was excellent.

We walked past the construction area, near the new Carrefour and mall, and found some great places. There's Amber, another coffee shop/restaurant with a nice selection on the menu, and the Athens Cafe, with a hilarious Chinglish menu ("Various Types" and "American digs up the pomfret" plus many more). The best find though was the Musibase Cafe (another branch of Musibase Bar). This one is a very quiet jazz bar and restaurant. The music was pretty good and it had a relaxing atmosphere. Unfortunately, the prices are the same as the other branch nearby, which aren't all that appealing for frequent visits. Nonetheless, we'll be heading there every so often to enjoy a relaxing night out.

Which way to Hanoi?

It's been a busy week here. It was rather tiring, but it went well. I met some really interesting people who are new to Shenzhen (some staying here, some just passing through) at dinner and lunch for Rosh Hashanah. I also got confused in a variety of languages ranging from Hebrew, French, Spanish, and others (I can't remember where a few of the people are from). Of course, I made my pathetic attempts to speak Spanish with H. from Colombia. It really makes me wish I hadn't half-assed Spanish class in high school and college.

To go along with the mixture of language, I present a slightly delayed Friday photo from my wife's hometown in Xinjiang province. Please note that the two characters 河内 can mean "inside the river" as well as a city of Vietnam. Seeing as we were in the northwest of China, I think they chose the wrong translation.

Predicting the firewall

Yup, blogspot is blocked again by the government. This means I cannot read any blogs hosted here without the use of a proxy server, which runs rather slowly on these old Internet lines (guess I really am impatient).

So, in honor of our overlords who cannot seem to decide whether to block the blog or not each week, I present to you my favorite sign from my neighborhood in Shenzhen. I hope you enjoy "Truth in advertising."

Trip to the Beach

Work decided to kick off the May holiday with a trip to the beach at Dameisha on Monday for all the staff and students. There were only four students that I know who came along--although I think there were a few lower-level students in attendance. It wasn't a great day for the beach with the cool day and grey skies.

Dameisha is definitely unimpressive. The beach at NanAo was much nicer last summer. This one is just too crowded and the water is definitely not all that clean. It looks as though Shenzhen is turning this one into a resort for domestic tourists--there are a few hotels on the beach, including a beautifully designed Sheraton. On a nice day, this could be a scenic spot with lush mountains surrounding the beach. Just try not to stare out to sea at the cargo ships coming in.


At the center of Dameisha are some large, colorful statues of winged people dancing. Nearby there is also a wishing tower (I doubt there is a long history of wishing from the modern tower that's probably been there for two or three years).


It was nothing exciting for a day out, but it did get me out of Bao'an. The water was too cold for swimming and the town area doesn't have anything of interest. It was a decent day for people watching--it's always fun to see the Chinese in their work suits on a beach. We had a BBQ alongside quite a few factory workers on a day out from work--it's probably not a healthy way to cook over a coal fire.

There was also this bit of Chinglish genius.

Turning Chinglish

I caught myself speaking Chinglish in class. It was in my introductory class. These students are fairly capable in English and need reinforcement in grammar and pronunciation and it doesn't help when I'm not speaking proper English. I constantly have to stop and think of words--I think I'm forgetting vocabulary. I better start using the Merriam-Webster word of the day more often. It's even affecting my writing. I'll type up a bit of a story and realize that I haven't written complete sentences or that my vocabulary is on a much lower level than it once was.

On another note: I read an interesting article about Chiquita Bananas. Apparently they were paying money to a Columbian terrorist organization so that the organization wouldn't kill its workers. Now Chiquita must pay a hefty fine in the US for this.
Remember the anti-drug campaign of a couple years ago? "Buying pot funds terrorists." Well, what about buying bananas and coffee? Do we know who Juan Valdez and his mule are working for?

Mr. W took us out to a KTV in Bao'an last night for some fun before my girlfriend and I leave for Thailand tomorrow. He's been more than helpful in my quest to stay in China.
I'm pretty sure this is a new KTV (or maybe just remodeled). They have a nice buffet for dinner... although I couldn't figure out what a few of the items were because I haven't learned to read those characters yet.
My girlfriend decided to coax me into singing with them. I'm certainly no singer (think Bob Dylan, but less melodic), but after a few beers I took a look through the English catalogue. I was impressed by the near 2000 English songs. Well, that number is a bit lower due to repeated song titles that are simply misspelled. There are also quite a few Chinglish titles that made me laugh. I tried to do The Beatles' "Revolution" (spelled "Revolutin"). Strangely, one line was messed up in the song... and it wasn't the one about Chairman Mao. I was later tempted to sing one of the two versions they had of "Funkytown." I'm glad I decided against that.