Third Intermittant Chinglish Post

We seem to be in a post-Holiday energy funk. We parents, that is. As is usually the case when the kids are filled with energy, the parents are drained. As my sister-in-law Carol said "it's because they suck the energy right out of you!".

Ann has been too tired to post, and since my brother was looking for more Chinglish, I decided to post a short one. Too tired to scour all our files, I will find the rest of them within a week or so and post again on Chinglish.

Below, you see a true to its essence Chinglish sign. This is like the Platonic form of Chinglish signs (to you philosophers out there). We saw it at an upscale restaurant with our Chinese tutor Vicki and our neighbors Deborah and Kate.

In fact, Ann couldn't figure it out for the longest time until we explained it. It means (I think): don't bring any alcohol beyond this point.

Below was a sign at the newly opened tourist site Guang Zai Shan, a mountain area we hiked with our Xiamen U. colleagues. The carver seemed to have high aspirations and an equally high level of concern for hikers.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out.

The sign below doesn't count as Chinglish at all, but I liked it a lot.

We didn't go to the toilet or the tourist service center, but we did stay under the Banyan tree and enjoy the cool shade.

I want to warn you that the menu below has one of the more disturbing items of information we have come across on any continent. No, we are not discussing the "Condon Blue Pork Chop". [And isn't that just one letter away from a complete loss of appetite?]

Nope, just above it they are offering "Donald Duck" for a mere 38 RMB. I've missed Donald. I've not seen him in Disney features for quite a while, and now we know why. He's been served on a platter in Longyuan, Fujian, China.

The sign below is befuddling for two reasons. First the spelling is so atrocious that you cannot grasp what it means at all. Apparently, based on the little picture, it says "No Crossing".

But not only is "No Oyossihg" difficult to grasp, the notion that anyone would jump off this roof is truly absurd. We were 4 floors up in an old Hakka roundhouse [see the December list of posts]. You can look at the pictures and recognize the danger. Certainly if anyone were stupid and daring enough to jump, they wouldn't be held back by a "No Oyissihg" sign.

Last night we had dinner with some Chinese faculty in the English department. The subject of Chinglish came up, and, true to English teacher form all over the world, they began yelling and screaming about all the atrocious grammar and spelling. It is good to know that wherever there are English teachers, there is a concern for good spelling and grammar!