Information AboutChinglish |
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Chinglish, a Portmanteau of the words '''Chinese''' and '''English''', is a term used to describe poor or 'broken' English employed by native Chinese speakers. Chinglish is usually found in written form. Famous examples include "no q" as a response to "thank you" (often sinicized in Mandarin Chinese as 三Q - ''san q'') and ''ok lah''. (The second example is both Chinglish and Singlish .) It may also be viewed, for English language learners, as their '' Pidgin '' or ''contact'' language; the type of English that they use while learning which falls somewhere between their native Chinese and fluent English. Either way, in English learning, Chinglish is viewed as undesirable, but the use of the phrase "Chinglish" can be viewed by learners as either an insult or a joke. Some foreign teachers also refer to a school's inadequate language department as the "Chinglish Dept." One of the more noticeable cases of Chinglish, especially on Mainland China , is the phrase welcome to. This is used as a direct translation in Chinese. It actually means "we invite you to" or "you are welcome to", and is used more as an incentive to the activity introduced; or is used as a form of "thank you". Its use is almost always cordial, inviting, or otherwise positive. A more confusing matter arises with the usage of the phrase '''welcome again'''. This is used more at the end of, for example, a bus ride, or a visit to a bookstore, and would be translated as a message of thanks, and that the visitor is welcome back at any time. An equivalent phrase in English-speaking countries might be "Please come again." ''Examples:''
TYPES OF CHINGLISH Grammatically erroneous usage of English, which shows the writer "thinking in Chinese while writing in English", may also be considered Chinglish. Such examples include verbatim word-for-word translation. Samples include "Wipe out six injurious insect" (to wipe out six types of insects, including cockroaches and mosquitoes) and as well as "enjoy stand" (a scenic viewpoint). Inaccurate pronunciation or misspellings through typos or poor pronunciation may also "create" Chinglish. PRONUNCIATION For example, the word "temple" and "temper" may be confused, as both would be pronounced similarly to "Tem-po" or "Tem-pah". Note that the two English words, when poorly pronounced, may resemble each other to the extent that the two are indistinguishable; this further creates confusion. Sometimes, the poor pronunciation of a single English word can create a Chinglish pronunciation that is almost nothing like the original English word. For example, the company named " Zellers " (part of the Hudson's Bay Company) is often incorrectly pronounced as "Se La". Also confusion with English names is common. For many Chinese it's difficult to pronounce ''Allen'', ''Ellen'' and ''Aileen'' differently, same with ''Shirley'', ''Shelly'' and ''Cherry''. In Cantonese pronunciation, some consonants are considered equivalent and interchangeable, the most noticeable being between L and N. The cartoon dog "Snoopy" becomes "Sloopy", and the girl's name "Emily" becomes "Eminy". Some sounds are missing entirely, leaving words like "very" to be pronounced "wewy" in true Elmer Fudd style. In speech, there is also a tendancy to add the sound "see" or "chi" at the end of certain singluar letters, such as the letters "S" and "H" ('es-see' and 'hay-chi' respectively). VOCABULARY Erroneous vocabulary usage (e.g. "''to put in'' Jingzhang Expressway " instead of "''entering'' Jingzhang Expressway") can also qualify as Chinglish. Another common mistake is the use of "emergent" to mean "emergency" or "urgent". Many of these errors stem from misuse of, or errors in, dictionaries. Some phrases are confused too. When something is explained, most Chinese will respond with "Oh, I know," when the appropriate response would be "Oh, I see." This is because "知道 zhīdao" is usually translated as ''know'' under any circumstances. "When did you first recognize him?" is also sometimes used for "When did you first meet him?" because "认识 {Link without Title} rènshi" is usually translated as ''recognize'' as in "I recognize him from last week's party." Some simpler errors occur with the use of ''see'', ''watch'', ''read'' and ''look at'' which are all one word, “看", in Chinese and may be confused with each other or just reduced to ''look''. The situation of ''speak'', ''say'' and ''talk'' is similar. So, someone studying English for several years might still say phrases like "Can you say Chinese?", "I am watching a book", and "Tomorrow I will look a movie." Another common area of confusion is "turn on/off" versus "open/close". In Chinese, "turn on" (in the sense of operating a switch or a machine) and "open" are rendered by the same character, and so are "turn off" and "close". As a result, many people would say "open the light" when they mean "turn the light on", and "close the computer" when they mean "turn the computer off". Conversely, but less commonly, "close the door" may be rendered as "turn off the door" (See below #Examples Of Chinglish ). GRAMMAR Chinglish can be "created" by common patterns of grammatical errors. For example, excessive use of "the" when not needed (such as "The China is bigger than the France") and the excessive use of verbs with the "-ing" ending are common characteristics of Chinglish. An excess use of "to", the use of "to" with modals (e.g. "I must to go"), the confusion of ''-ed'' and ''-ing'' adjectives (e.g. "I am very boring" vs. "I am very bored"; "I was surprised" vs. "I was surprising"), the overuse of "very" between "be" and an adjective (reflecting the use of "很" in Chinese), the use of "very" to modify verbs (e.g. "I very like it"), the use of the passive when the active is more appropriate, and wrong usage of verb tenses may also give rise to Chinglish phrases. Often a Chinese grammatical pattern will be incorporated into English grammar, such as the classic examples of "I tomorrow go to Shanghai" or "I this morning eat breakfast". Also, there is much confusion as to countable and non-countable nouns, use of plurals, and the use of "how much" and "how many" and "a lot of," "much" and "many." This leads to phrases such as "He has much money," "I want a soup" and "There are a lot of shoe." CREOLE In the early and middle 20th Century , ''Chinglish'' was known as " Pidgin ", or "Yangjing Bang English" in Chinese (洋涇濱, or 洋泾浜), which derives from the name of a creek in Shanghai where local workers communicated with English-speaking foreigners in pidgin. The term "Chinglish", though generally meaning poor translation, can also refer specifically to an English-Chinese Creole Language . This is particularly true in areas that have both English and Chinese as official languages, such as Singapore and Hong Kong . (When specifically discussing the English dialect of Singapore, Singlish may be more appropriate.) CHINGLISH NAMES Some Chinese pick non-traditional English names, which they do not view as strange because they are not aware of English naming conventions. Such names are derived from vocabulary they learned in their early English lessons, including names such as ''Apple, Space, Can, Sea, Mooncake, Magic, Spider, Thunder, Cloudy, Table, Bird, Eleven, Hifi, H2O, Ice, Puppy, Well'' and other names of animals, plants, weather phenomena, household appliances, days of the week or months. Some people have even unknowingly chosen swear words as names. They might choose western products they like as their name, such as ''Cola'' or ''Nautica'', or other more advanced words that may be picked for their sound or meaning such as ''Victory'' or ''Nation''. Also, names very easy to pronounce in Chinese, but not common in English, may be chosen, such as the very common name ''Coco''. Some others choose to use traditional English names but often pronounce them wrong or alter the spelling. For example, the name Keith is often spelled as ''Keiv'', ''Keif'', or maybe even the more extreme ''Cliff''. Some choose names from other countries like Russia or Japan, such as ''Yuri'' or ''Jun''. Since most European names are widely used in the English community, those will seem less "odd". However, Japanese names like ''Jun'', which English-speakers pronounce as ''June'', may cause problems in that they are unisex, whereas their English sound-alikes are traditionally bound to one sex. These names may just be viewed as nicknames, and some Chinese may choose more common ones if they have to use their name in business or other more formal occasions. Most (but not all) Chinese people living in Asia are given only Chinese names at birth, and choose their own English name at some point after they begin learning English (if they ever do). Although rare, some parents may name their child a Chinese sound translation of an English name, such as Wai-Man (Raymond in Cantonese), On-Lei (Annie in Cantonese), An-ni (Annie or Anne in Mandarin), or Jia-An (Joanne in Mandarin). LANGUAGE HUMOUR Although most Chinglish phrases originated from poor translations, many were created deliberately as Language Humour . For example: #Open the door see mountain (verbatim translation from a Chinese Idiom , meaning "to speak straightforwardly" - 開門見山). Other such example may be "five flowers eight doors" (in Chinese, ''wǔ huā bā mén'' - 五花八門), which means "kaleidoscopic", and "people mountain people sea" (in Chinese, ''rén shan rén hai'' - 人山人海 ), meaning "a sea of people" or "a huge crowd". #Un-''ding''-able (it means "can't stand it". 頂 ''ding'' in .) #You go see see lah (Go and have a look. - 你去睇睇啦) (please refer to Hong Kong English ) #Good good study, day day up (verbatim translation from a Chinese Communist-era saying by Mao Zedong , meaning "study hard, keep improving" (好好學習﹑天天向上).) EFFECTS Chinglish is becoming a problem for major cities such as Beijing . In Beijing, in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, the city authorities are clamping down on the usage of Chinglish and replacing it with proper English. Thus, for example, signs that previously read: "To take notice of safe: The slippery are very crafty" may read, in proper English, "Caution - slippery path". Some other examples include: "Oil gate" (filling station), "confirming distance" (keep space, distance verification), and so on and so forth. It can also be bad for businesses who try to export their products using Chinglish to native English speaking countries, or conversely when a western business goes to China but relies on Chinese to be in charge of translation. EXAMPLES OF CHINGLISH The following are some instances of Chinglish, along with a description of where they may be found and what they mean when correctly translated into English:
CHINGLISH IN TAIWAN Chinglish is also quite prevalent in Taiwan . In Taiwan it is more often known as "台灣英文", literally "Taiwanese English" or mockingly " Formosa n English". Characteristics of Taiwanese English include always answering questions in a very regulated style: "Do you like pizza?" "Yes, I do." "Do you like basketball?" "No, I don't." There's also a well known parody song of the English alphabet going by the lines of "A B C D, dog bites pig" ("dog bites pig" in Taiwanese) in Taiwan. PHRASES USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS Long time no see is often attributed as a good example of Chinglish being used by native English speakers. The phrase is said to have originated from '''好耐冇見(啦)'''(Cantonese)/'''好久不見(了)'''(Mandarin). These Chinglish phrases were used by dock workers to greet sailors from overseas. It began in early 1900's when British and American warships and trading ships often stayed at Chinese docks, and through '' Pidgin communications'' with dock workers, started to communicate in what is now known as Chinglish. The sailors used the phrase long time no see as a joke when they got home and somehow the phrase became widely used even in English-speaking countries. A more grammatically correct phrase of English should be ''I haven't seen you for ages.'' While this story is substantiated by other sources {Link without Title} , this may just be a myth as there are no known records of the origin. The phrase has also been said to originate from trade with American Indians. Similar seemingly grammatically "incorrect" phrases (such as "no pain, no gain" or '''"the more, the merrier"''') are common and native to English; thus "long time no see" may have been just a coincidence. "Chinglish" is also used to describe the broken Chinese interspersed with English used by westernized Chinese (e.g. American Born Chinese ) who are no longer fluent in their parents' language and must use English words to supplement their limited Chinese vocabulary. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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