What is Chinglish?

Since I have been in China for the past month traveling to exotic as well as modern port’s-O-Call, language has been in the forefront of my daily interactions.  Mostly for us simpletons, it is never even considered difficult getting around or making simple transactions at home like getting directions or ordering dinner.  But, travel to China, or to virtually any weird foreign place, and the world is another universe with different sensibilities and LANGUAGE.  Its a real bitch not being able to ask where the bathroom is when you just sucked down a pitcher of beer “Gam Bei” style.

With these difficulties facing me on a daily basis I decided to do something about it.  You have to realize that my wife is Chinese and getting around for me is a breeze so long as I am a prisoner.  If I want any freedom at all, drastic action has to take place.  My first step was to drop by the local book store at the swanky upscale market in down town Shanghai.  This place has every thing from Mont Blanc Pens to asparagus.  I found the Lonely Planet section and looked up the Mandarin Phrasebook and I was off – literally.  The police were called and several hours later I was found safely enough wandering around the fruit isle.  Well my adventure did not get very far so it was back to the drawing board.

My second thought was to do a search on the Internet for an easy way to communicate with the natives here in China.  What I can up with was the term Chinglish.  Really, what is Chinglish?  Could this be the answer to all of my delemna?  With great hope I did a few more looks and found that no Chinglish would not solve my problem but it was good for a laugh anyway.  So have a look, do a couple of searches yourself with google for Chinglish and enjoy.

The web site of the day is a British one that posted an article that I wanted to share..  A wonderful rag full of signage that somehow missed the translation.  I have my own version of a sign that missed it somehow – I picked up in our Yellow Mountain trek which I will share with you here.  When I took the picture laughing out loud the rest of the company was taken back a bit but got over it.  Enjoy!