| English language is easy to learn even if your don't start learning at young age. As for Chinese language it the other way round, you have to learn it when you are young. English is a Global language and it easy to link people from different race and culture. There are many foriegn investements in China, especially Shanghai and Beijing. They are like many other cosmopolitan cities in the world, we see more foriegners in China than before. So English is very important to the Chinese if they want to communicate and understand the people from other part of the world. I have extracted a news dated 17 Oct 06 from a Chinese paper: 乱翻译 闹笑话 ‘宫保鸡’变‘政府虐待鸡’ （综合电）“Government abuse chicken”（意思是政府虐待鸡），赫然出现在北京一家餐馆的菜牌上，试问有哪个外国游客敢吃？ 原来指的是北京地道菜式“宫保鸡”，罪魁祸首是英文翻译错误。在北京，现时由机场、街道到公共场所，到处都见到因译错英文变成啼笑皆非的指示牌。为免笑坏国际游客的肚皮，北京市政府痛定思痛，决定在奥运举行前推出统一的翻译译规则手册，希望改善目前情况。 北京误译英语问题普遍，英国广播公司报道指，一班驻京的外国人特别开办网页，收集市内用错的英文，网页浏览人数众多，成为很多“鬼佬”谈论的笑柄。 This is just a reminder for improvement and it is not meant to insult the Chinese. |
Why We Use English Signs?