Focus

Students out to repair broken English found on city's signs

By Liu Yujie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-14 10:27

Multilingual notices welcomed but drive begins to make them better

More than 500 Chinese and foreign university students will hit the streets this week to identify mistranslations into English and French on public signs.

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The project was launched by the Foreign Affairs Office of the Beijing Municipal Government and the Multi-language Service Center (MSC) of Beijing Foreign Studies University on Dec 11.

Zhang Qian, vice-director of the Beijing Foreign Affairs Office (BFAO), said the activity aims to address the incorrect translations still visible in public places around Beijing, and standardize translations in the future.

Wei Jinyi, at the MSC, who is in charge of the activity, told METRO on Monday that while the inspection of public signs in English goes on every year, this year marks the first time that French translations will also be thoroughly checked.

He said the volunteers have been divided into two groups, on-site and off-site. The off-site group will periodically visit public places to take photos of signs, while the on-site group will process the images and do linguistic assessments.

The city's underground stations, Beijing Capital International Airport, the Summer Palace, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Bird's Nest and the National Aquatics Center are among the first places that will be inspected.

Wei said the first phase is due to be completed by the end of December.

"However, the activity will continue into next year, covering more public places in the capital," Wei added.

All the volunteers are selected from universities featuring foreign language studies, including Beijing Foreign Studies University, China Foreign Affairs University, Renmin University of China, the Communications University of China, and the University of International Relations.

Before the launch of the activity, all the volunteers underwent training.

The data collected will be handed over to a team of professional translators including expats and teachers of English who will correct the errors and establish a pool of standard translations for future reference.

Wei said a database of Japanese and Korean versions is also expected to be in place next year.

"With Beijing's fast ride to becoming an international city, the proper use of foreign languages on public signs will become even more important because there will be more foreigners coming."

Li Chen, a sophomore majoring in English at the Communications University of China, got himself registered as a volunteer because it makes him happy to put his learning into practice.

"I have great interest in reading English translations of public signs," Li said. "Sometimes, I come across rigid translations that make me laugh. Other times, I see different translations of the same roads and places. If not corrected, I think they will be confusing for tourists."