Created: 2008-1-21 1:14:09, Updated: 2008-1-21 9:57:26
Author:Zhang Xiaobin
"AFTER first under on, please do riding with civility." If you cannot understand what this means, you're not a frequent metro rider in Shanghai.
Those words were on a signboard at many stations on Metro Line 2 for nearly a year. It was simply advising riders to stand in line and be orderly, not to push and shove and block doors.
Similar poor translations are not uncommon at city metro stops.
The purpose of translating metro signs is clear and simple: to help foreigners from around the world. It is even clearer, however, that poor translations are more misleading than useful.
On Line 2, I was told by a signboard cartoon policeman to "Keep you valuables snugly and Be aware the people press close to you designedly."
Please note this is a loyal rendering of the propaganda, case sensitive.
I could see "Caution, Gap" on doors in each compartment. Where is the lady or the gentleman whose name is "Gap?"
Is that a volunteer, ready to give riders in need a hand? Why "Caution?"
Fortunately, the illustration above the "advice" helped me out. Most probably, "mind your step" is what the metro operators intend.
As a New Year's gift to Shanghai citizens, especially those commuters who depend on metros to avoid traffic jams in rush hour, new metro stretches went into operation at end of 2007.
"It was a giant leap to the future," Shanghai Daily reported on November 28. "It was a giant leap to overtake Paris to have the seventh-longest subway network in the world."
The audio translations in the subway, though updated, remain as strange today as they once were.
"Next stop is..., please get ready to alight from the left side." According to my understanding, "alight" is descriptive rather than imperative. "Get off" would suffice.
Which side is the "left" side? Obviously, operators took it for granted that all riders would agree that they have to stand facing the driver's cab to judge left and right.
Is this an international or, at least, a widely acknowledged, practice?
If "Zhangjiang High Technology Park" and "Zhangjiang High-tech Park" are not going to mislead passengers, how about "Shiji Avenue" and "Century Avenue?" Are they the same? "Century" was adopted for Line 2, the same version that was used on the road signs above ground before Line 4 opened.
However, "Shiji" was considered to be more "appropriate" by some "experts" and was therefore adopted.
Since then, passengers get off at "Shiji Avenue" and find themselves surrounded by road signs, which read "Century Avenue" once they leave the metro station.
Almost all elevators designated for "the differently abled" or "the inconvenienced," whatever the euphemism, were renamed "disabled elevator" before the latest metro expansion.
Every time I saw the phrase, I felt strange and uncomfortable. What sane person would use an elevator that is declared disabled?
Yesterday I was surprised and amused to see a revised translation: "accessible elevator."
Gosh. It does not make any sense at all. Why is it not accessible?
"Wheelchair accessible elevator" could be what the metro operators wanted to say although "elevator," a simple word in its simplest form, with the internationally acknowledged wheelchair symbol could suffice.
More mistakes and typos were posted at a local Web portal (www.metrofans.sh.cn) famous for metro news among frequent metro riders.
I am not demanding much of metro operators' English capacity. It is not a task beyond them to provide correct and accurate English signboards in Shanghai, an international metropolis.
They can consult language experts with local universities or expats.
They could even launch a campaign to attract Shanghai students studying overseas to provide correct usage from English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.
It is the attitude that matters.
As always, bad news does not come singly but in pairs.
An official was asked in an interview about criticism of a 10-centimeter-wide vertical gap between the platforms and the thresholds of carriages at Line 6 and Line 8. He responded that the gaps were there for technical reasons and were in line with national standards.
The height difference would gradually disappear as the train's wheels wore down on the tracks, according to a Shanghai Daily report.
Ubiquitous poor translations, finding excuses and turning a blind eye to the real needs of travelers are all signs of poor attitudes on the part of the operators.
Think twice before deciding on translations, think about what the riders need.
That's my humble request to local metro operators.
(The author is a freelancer in Shanghai.)
Those words were on a signboard at many stations on Metro Line 2 for nearly a year. It was simply advising riders to stand in line and be orderly, not to push and shove and block doors.
Similar poor translations are not uncommon at city metro stops.
The purpose of translating metro signs is clear and simple: to help foreigners from around the world. It is even clearer, however, that poor translations are more misleading than useful.
On Line 2, I was told by a signboard cartoon policeman to "Keep you valuables snugly and Be aware the people press close to you designedly."
Please note this is a loyal rendering of the propaganda, case sensitive.
I could see "Caution, Gap" on doors in each compartment. Where is the lady or the gentleman whose name is "Gap?"
Is that a volunteer, ready to give riders in need a hand? Why "Caution?"
Fortunately, the illustration above the "advice" helped me out. Most probably, "mind your step" is what the metro operators intend.
As a New Year's gift to Shanghai citizens, especially those commuters who depend on metros to avoid traffic jams in rush hour, new metro stretches went into operation at end of 2007.
"It was a giant leap to the future," Shanghai Daily reported on November 28. "It was a giant leap to overtake Paris to have the seventh-longest subway network in the world."
The audio translations in the subway, though updated, remain as strange today as they once were.
"Next stop is..., please get ready to alight from the left side." According to my understanding, "alight" is descriptive rather than imperative. "Get off" would suffice.
Which side is the "left" side? Obviously, operators took it for granted that all riders would agree that they have to stand facing the driver's cab to judge left and right.
Is this an international or, at least, a widely acknowledged, practice?
If "Zhangjiang High Technology Park" and "Zhangjiang High-tech Park" are not going to mislead passengers, how about "Shiji Avenue" and "Century Avenue?" Are they the same? "Century" was adopted for Line 2, the same version that was used on the road signs above ground before Line 4 opened.
However, "Shiji" was considered to be more "appropriate" by some "experts" and was therefore adopted.
Since then, passengers get off at "Shiji Avenue" and find themselves surrounded by road signs, which read "Century Avenue" once they leave the metro station.
Almost all elevators designated for "the differently abled" or "the inconvenienced," whatever the euphemism, were renamed "disabled elevator" before the latest metro expansion.
Every time I saw the phrase, I felt strange and uncomfortable. What sane person would use an elevator that is declared disabled?
Yesterday I was surprised and amused to see a revised translation: "accessible elevator."
Gosh. It does not make any sense at all. Why is it not accessible?
"Wheelchair accessible elevator" could be what the metro operators wanted to say although "elevator," a simple word in its simplest form, with the internationally acknowledged wheelchair symbol could suffice.
More mistakes and typos were posted at a local Web portal (www.metrofans.sh.cn) famous for metro news among frequent metro riders.
I am not demanding much of metro operators' English capacity. It is not a task beyond them to provide correct and accurate English signboards in Shanghai, an international metropolis.
They can consult language experts with local universities or expats.
They could even launch a campaign to attract Shanghai students studying overseas to provide correct usage from English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.
It is the attitude that matters.
As always, bad news does not come singly but in pairs.
An official was asked in an interview about criticism of a 10-centimeter-wide vertical gap between the platforms and the thresholds of carriages at Line 6 and Line 8. He responded that the gaps were there for technical reasons and were in line with national standards.
The height difference would gradually disappear as the train's wheels wore down on the tracks, according to a Shanghai Daily report.
Ubiquitous poor translations, finding excuses and turning a blind eye to the real needs of travelers are all signs of poor attitudes on the part of the operators.
Think twice before deciding on translations, think about what the riders need.
That's my humble request to local metro operators.
(The author is a freelancer in Shanghai.)
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