Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, December 13 – When we were shopping yesterday, I was excited to find a box of Christmas postcards, 36 cards for 10 rmb ($1.45usd)! Most are nice looking, I even gave some out today at our Dongguan coffee morning, but, there are a couple with “Your Name” printed in the banner across the front! We have seen this before on notebooks and even mall decorations, sometimes reading “Your text here.” All I can figure is that whoever is making these items are copying their pictures from somewhere that you are supposed to customize the items before printing. Since the English level of those making them isn’t good, they are just made and distributed this way. I guess I won't be using those two cards!
Chinglish on Backpack
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 30 – Today marks ¾ of the way through the year! I’m starting to forget what I have already posted! I’ll end the month with some Chinglish. This was a backpack we saw while shopping recently. The brand name of the backpack is Littlesheep. It reads: “Life is like a fad for whirlwind. Wandering in every corner of the self. Full of luggage carrying on the vision for the future of the dream is athand.” It sounds really deep …. If it only made sense! I like to do a little research to see if these sayings actually come from somewhere. This line of backpacks must be popular because I easily found other pictures a few people had posted online! And there are a lot available to buy on Taobao, the Chinese Ebay :-)
Chinglish on Candy Package
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 9 – I think I’ve said before how much I enjoy the sayings that are often found on packaging or actual products, especially food :-) Sometimes, the English isn’t quite right, it’s Chinglish!), but, I’m always thankful for these entertaining little sayings because they make shopping more fun! This is peanut ginger candy and the package says “May the breeze bring you thetenderness and warmth from me. Yet still you are here. At the bottom of my heat (heart?).” :-)
Caution Signs
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, August 7 – I am thankful when “Caution” signs in China have English translations, but I also enjoy seeing the fun translations :-) Caution is小心; the two characters are “xiăo xīn” or literally “ small heart,” but it means “pay attention” or “be careful.” Caution signs must be a difficult thing to translate because they frequently have interesting Chinglish translations. A typical warning sign you see says “Slip Carefully.” These ones pictured were a little different. The top one is a picture my husband took inside of a restaurant he often goes to near his work, so, although sometimes “Be Careful of Landslide” may be correct, and even neccessary, it’s not the case with this sign. It should read “Caution: Slippery Floor.” The second is one my daughter took at the zoo. It should read “Be Careful: Watch Your Step” or “Be Careful not to fall on the stairs.” I guess these are times that those universal little icons on signs come in handy!
Chinglish Sign
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, June 27 – This sign was on the side of an escalator. Leah said it actually reads closer to “Be cautious of running into me” …. Again, it makes me wonder what I end up saying in Chinese when I leave out the little words I don’t know! C
Chinglish Sign
Another fun sign at the supermarket, hanging over the frozen food section.... my personal interpreter (my daughter Leah :-) says that the Chinese characters say "Sliced Fish".
Tourist Boat and Signs
– If we walk along the lake up to the main road, there is a boat you can pay to ride, either one way to another location south of us, or go in a full circle. During the colder months, it had limited hours. Read the first sign carefully, the hours were: “Only on Saturdays, Japan, holidays, and opening up.” I was confused how they would ever have gotten this translation, but Leah explained that the character for “Ri” which means “sun” is the abbreviation for Sunday as well as the first character in Japan or Riben in Chinese, now it makes sense! It seems they changed quite a bit of the English wording for the second sign, however, for the first option, I think for 50rmb I prefer the “Tour around a circle” rather than “Swim around a circle!” :-) As much as I enjoy reading these signs, I think I will have Leah write up a correct translation and give it to them as a suggestion! I’m looking forward to a ride one of these days!
Chinglish Shoes
You don’t usually see things written on shoes, but I guess the company who made these wanted to do something different. I guess they were successful … just not the way they intended! I give them credit for trying, but think they had better use a translator next time! I saw these while shopping at the larger supermarket about 15 minutes from us :-)
Life in China: A Picture A Day, March 9, 2016
These are the "Fire Hydrant" signs in our building :-) There is one just outside our apartment door and another in the lobby that I pass every time I go out. I always picture Scooby Doo saying “Rire Hydrant”! It’s my guaranteed daily smile :-) I’m sure that the Chinese factory workers who make these signs don’t know any English, so, just as we think Chinese is so hard…English is just as difficult to them. As we might confuse two similar Chinese characters, I guess “F” and “R” are confusing to them!
Chinglish Bird Sign
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, Feb 14 - Today we went for a 7.5 mile ride by the lake! Farther than we have gone before, so we saw some new areas. China has been cracking down on people hunting songbirds, so I was glad to see this sign posted, and it gave us a good chuckle too :-) someone made a good effort…and we did get the point! Seeing how in 2.5 hrs, we only saw one other foreigner, and he was with a Chinese girl, I guess we should be thankful they even have it in English!
Chinglish on Notebooks
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, January 20 -I enjoy reading notebook covers in stores, there are always some that make me chuckle for one reason or another. Some are cute, some funny, some just don’t make sense, and some are just…. Different! Now, please don’t get me wrong, I don’t say this in a derogatory way, I’m sure that I would do MUCH worse translating something into Chinese! It’s just another part of daily life to enjoy here! Many a time, a stressful day can be relieved by a funny little translation, more commonly called “Chinglish”