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>What's really screwy is the government has replaced most of the English translation on street signs from a literal translation to phonetic translation of the m
by bohadi 3y ago
>What's really screwy is the government has replaced most of the English translation on street signs from a literal translation to phonetic translation of the mandarin sound.
I don't think this is a fair take for a couple of reasons.
Mandarin is unlike other languages in that it's written form is famously ideographic. Phonetic translation is all that is done in any pair {L, M}. I assure you there is no such thing as a literal translation in any language.
Secondly, english as a global lingua franca is not a given and we in the anglosphere ought to be gracious in it's modern historical role, lest it decline (this is an exact mirror of dollar reserve privilege). Your statement reads as "be more accommodating for me". But through the prism of good manners it smacks of liberal entitlement.
>There is 0 reason to learn
hoo boy, i don't get paid enough for this... carry on
- jamesaurichs 3y agoEnglish IS the global lingua franca TODAY, used by most travelers to navigate through an unknown environment. if the signs in China are not translated into English TODAY, then there's no reason to go there TODAY.
- lstamour 3y agoHonestly tho, as long as the street signs have English characters on them and I can find them and I can match them to Google Maps, I’m good. Compare with the UK where all the street signs are in English but I can never find them! (They’re often attached to buildings rather than anywhere useful…)
- MissingAFew 3y agoNo reason at all?
- yongjik 3y ago> if the signs in China are not translated into English TODAY Could you give me an example? I just Googled "beijing airport sign" and everything seems translated as expected, e.g., Gates, Beijing Capital Airport, International Departure, Drinking Water, etc. I assume you don't mean you want Beijing written as "North Capital"?
- jamesaurichs 3y agohttps://sg.news.yahoo.com/beijing-replaces-english-words-subway-111836674.html https://sg.news.yahoo.com/beijing-replaces-english-words-sub... The English word “station” was replaced with “Zhan,” which is the pinyin or romanised version of the Chinese character. In some places, station names such as Olympic Park and Terminal 2 of the Beijing airport were changed to “Aolinpike Gongyuan” and “2 Hao Hangzhanlou”. https://www.economist.com/china/2022/04/13/why-china-is-turning-away-from-english https://www.economist.com/china/2022/04/13/why-china-is-turn... Why China is turning away from English
- hakfoo 3y agoThis seems like a better choice for the sake of "compatibility". Given that English is not a major local language outside of Hong Kong, I'd expect there's a very high chance that an English-only speaker might need to interact with a Chinese-only speaker. It could be something like trying to relay their goal to a taxi driver or delivery person, or something as critical as trying to gain the attention of emergency services (I'd assume if you called the equivalent of 999/911 and shouted a location in the phone, even if you couldn't explain further, that would be enough to trigger a response) Providing the English speaking audience the Pinyin gives them a chance to be understood in that situation. The translated only name is more likely to be unrecognized by the lisstener. It doesn't seem so bizarre when you go into the Montreal metro and the signs say "Gare Bonaventure" instead of "Bonaventure Station", and that's in a country where English is nominally a supported language.
- trentgreene 3y agoI don’t have a dog in this thread’s particular fight and am basically just doomscrolling on a Friday night. But I don’t think English is a nominally supported language in Quebec. IIRC all of Canada outside of Quebec requires dual signage in english + French, but Quebec only requires French. I’d guess Gare bonaventure is an artifact of that law rather than a translation strategy.
- 3y ago
- parineum 3y agoI'm confused at what you think isn't a fair take. It is pretty screwy to replace existing English translation (useful to people who speak English) with phonetic transcriptions of Chinese words into Latin characters (useful to... who?). Sounds dumb to me. > Mandarin is unlike other languages in that it's written form is famously ideographic. Phonetic translation is all that is done in any pair {L, M}. I assure you there is no such thing as a literal translation in any language. There's no Mandarin/English translation for a "STOP" sign? I expect there is such a thing as a literal translation for most short instructions, the type of which you might see on a sign, for instance.
- lozenge 3y agoThey're talking about street names specifically, not traffic signs. What's the point in having a street name that none of the locals know because they know it by a completely different name? Btw, based on Wikipedia, China uses symbols for traffic signs like Russia and Europe. US and Canada are the exceptions who use text and only a small few symbols.
- laserdancepony 3y agoBtw, the STOP sign is both a shape and text.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- laserdancepony 3y agoEnglish is the lingua franca of planet earth today, and will be in the foreseeable future. No matter what you think.
- ahdkskf 3y ago[flagged]