More Chinglish

I found these Chinglish pictures among my photos from the Great China-Palooza of 2006- otherwise known as the month my parents visited us and we travelled a bit around China. I realise that I have yet to post any of those pictures, other than the ones of Manny, but now that I have sorted through most of them I'll be able to do it soon. Yeah, I know, I'm such a tease.

A warning at the summit of Mt Emei:

Not so much Chinglish but rather cocky if you ask me:

Read it all the way through...

("Steamed what??")

Here, the toilet is called a stool pot, and after using it you are politely requested to erode in time.

The official souvenir stand at the Leshan Grand Buddha:

Great Chinglish Names (Vol 3)

I have written before about the proliferance of unusual English names in Shanghai, but it still never ceases to amuse me. It is pretty much the norm that most kids and young adults in Shanghai have an English name (just as I have a Chinese name). These English names are not official names but rather something chosen for the students by their parents, English teachers and sometimes by themselves.

As with names in all cultures, the English names here reflect popular culture. As such there are a lot of Kittys (of the 'Hello Kitty' fame), Mickeys and Minnies (Mouse, of course). Some names get even more inventive with creative spelling, or even miss-spellings that become the norm, for example Anmily and Samul (instead of Emily/Amelie and Samuel.

I have been here so long now that I usually barely batt an eyelid when marking new names into the student rolls. However last Wednesday I just couldnt help but laugh.

I had a new student join my English class, and his name is Peter. Now we already have one Peter in the class, and in order to be able to differentiate between them I asked him his family name.

"Pan," he replied, straight-faced.

Yep, that's right, his name is Peter Pan.