Bad English hurts sales of fast trains

China is learning a costly lesson for the casual use of English by many of its companies.

Beyond confusing public directories and hilarious - or sickening - translations of restaurant menus, the lack of accuracy in business documents has become the latest stumbling block to the sales of China's high-speed trains - something that Chinese are most proud of and are eager to sell around the world.

The Chinese-language media reported Tuesday that some of the English terms for China's high-speed trains for export are not standardized, a result that may have arisen from the competition between two high-speed train producers in the country, which are about to merge.