A popular English learning guide on Chinese Internet community was attributed to Chuck Allanson, who claimed to be on faculty of Zhejiang University. The article was supposed to clarify some misuses or casual wordings that were frequently found in translating Chinese into English. However, some obvious misinformation were mixed in.
At the beginning, when explaining the motive of writing the article, Mr. Allanson said he found many Chinese didn't know the native way of referring dumpling was ravioli. I hope he can't be too serious on this, unless he just descended in a tardis traveling from civil war time America. Later he said the correct way for calling noodles were pasta, with a annotate of using noodles being childish.
Among the 20 some 'Chinglish' mistakes which were listed side-by-side with presumed correct way of saying them as natives, about half of them were false or misleading.
| Chinese | Chinglish | English | Seagull Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 欢迎你到... | welcome you to ... | welcome to ... | |
| 永远记住你 | remember you forever | always remember you(nobody can live forever) | While you do hear 'always' more often, people do use forever. It's just stronger feeling, so that we often say we will love you forever. |
| 祝你有个... | wish you have a ... | I wish you a ... | Mr. Allanson must have been listening too many Christmas songs, but I digressed. I hope you have a good day. |
| 给你 | give you | here you are | Among a thousand ways to convey the same message, 'here you are' actually is somehow a creepier one.;-) |
| 很喜欢... | very like ... | like ... very much | |
| 黄头发 | yellow hair | blond/blonde(there is no saying of “yellow hair” in Western Countries) | |
| 厕所 | WC | men's room/women's room/restroom | |
| 真遗憾 | it's a pity | that's too bad/it's a shame(it's a pity is an old way) | |
| 裤子 | trousers | pants/slacks/jeans | |
| 修理 | mend | fix/repair | How about mending your fences with fellow expat English teachers? |
| 入口 | way in | entrance | |
| 出口 | way out | exit(way out means crazy in oral English) | |
| 勤奋 | diligent | hardworking/studious/conscientious | Nothing wrong with saying 'diligent' |
| 应该 | should | must/shall | nothing wrong with 'should' |
| 火锅 | chafing dish | hot pot | |
| 大厦 | mansion | center/plaza | This will be determined by the context |
| 马马虎虎 | so-so | average/fair/all right/not too bad/OK(so-so is seldom used by Western people) | |
| 好吃 | delicious | good/nice/tasty/appetizing(“delicious” is used to much in China) | It's crazy to suggest a perfect word be given up because it is used in China |
| 尽我最大努力 | try my best | try/strive(“try” means “try my best”) | 'Try my best' is good. |
| 有名 | famous | well-known/renowned/legendary/popular(“famous” is used too much in China) | These words have different meanings than 'famous'. |
| 滑稽 | humorous | funny/witty/amusing/entertaining | Again, the suggested words are of different meanings. |
| 欺骗 | to cheat | to trick/to play a joke on/to con/to deceive/to rip off | Is this a Chinglish lesson or a thesaurus exercise? |
| 车门 | the door of the car | the car's door | Car doesn't own doors, thus 'car door' would be enough. Or if you want to precise, use 'driver side door' or 'passenger side door'. |
| 怎么拼? | how to spell? | how do you spell? | |
| 再见 | bye-bye | bye/see you/see you later/later(“bye-bye” is a little bit childish) | |
| 玩 | play | go to/do(“play” is used too much in China) | |
| 面条 | noodles | pasta(“noodles” is a little bit childish) | The seagull is horrified by this one. The facial expression will be priceless when you find pasta in the plate, expecting noodles with an empty stomach. |
| 据说 | it is said | I heard/I read/I was told | Suggested sayings are of different meanings, and there is nothing wrong with 'It is said'. |
| 等等 | and so on | etc. | You 'speak' English like that? |
| 直到现在 | till now | recently/lately/thus far | Nothing wrong with 'till now' |
| 农民 | peasant | farmer | This can be a tough call, and Mr. Allanson must be very brave to pick them. However, he should not have. |
| 宣传 | propaganda | information | Propaganda is not information. In Chinese context, 宣传 really means propaganda. Until recently, the top ministry within CCP named themselves the Propaganda Department for official English name. They have since changed the English translation to Publicity. |
The 'handbook' had gone viral through Weibo/WeChat among other mobile platforms. Some could be found on the Internet. It is even listed by the Baidu Collection. It is also re-imported to Canada and the US by Chinese who are learning English.
A little investigation suggested Mr. Allanson was an American, and that he knew how to write English, as demonstrated in his letter to PBS and his self description on promotional materials. The Seagull suspect the aforementioned article was not penned by Mr. Allanson himself. It is probably an excerpt of notes from classroom, with essential context left out, by one of his students--perhaps a student who really hates him.;-)
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