Beijing Making Progress in Effort to Clean-up Bad Translations

by Lauren Nemec

It amazes me how interested people are in Beijing's goal to clean up bad translations before the 2008 Olympic Games. Articles on this topic come through my feed reader almost every week. My post, "Beijing Prepares for the 2008 Olympics by Correcting Bad Translations" remains one of the most frequently viewed articles on the Translatus blog.

Okay. I'm sure that most people are not so interested in Beijing's efforts to rid their city of embarassing translations, but are interested in finding examples of 'Chinglish' for a good laugh. But Beijing does not want to be laughed at anymore.

Still, I couldn't help but chuckle this morning as I read about the latest development. Feeling it is outdated and impolite, officials have decided to flush the potty term 'WC' and adopt 'toilet' for all public restrooms in Beijing.

As I mentioned in my previous posts on this subject, a number of groups have undertaken the enormous effort of correcting and standardizing translations across Beijing. So far, they seem to be making progress. For example, linguists are preparing a list of common menu items with their accurate translations. The list will be distributed to Beijing restaurants, and all establishments rated three stars and higher are expected to implement the pre-approved translations into their menus.

No more 'the temple explodes the chicken cube' for you!