Thursday, March 15, 2012

Move to dump Chinglish from Beijing menus

Fri, 03/16/2012 - 08:32 — Anonymous by CNNGo staffNext time you travel to
Beijing, you will be less likely to find a particular Chinese specialty on
restaurants' menu: hilarious Chinglish dish names. The Beijing authorities
have published a manual listing the official English names for 2,158 Chinese
dishes and 944 foreign foods, hoping to help the city's 70,000 restaurants
rectify their English translations. Chinglish is funny, but might be
misleading  Jointly published by the Beijing Foreign Affairs Office and
Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme (BSFLP), the 196-page book covers
most mainstream Chinese dishes in the country's eight most influential
cuisines, from the RMB-5 hand-pulled noodle soup to the extravagant braised
abalone and seafood in casserole. "[Chinglish] might be a funny culture to
international travelers, but the translation of dish names shall not be
misleading to foreigners," said an anonymous officer from BSFLP, a
governmental organization dedicated to raising Beijingers' awareness of
foreign languages. If you have never read an English menu in a local Chinese
restaurant, here are a few examples of what you've been missing.read more

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