Sightseeing English in Beijing

An ethnographic study of Chinese-English public order notices in the linguistic landscape of Beijing

Laura van Bochove

An ethnographic study of Chinese-English public order notices in the linguistic landscape of Beijing

Master thesis Communication and Information Sciences Specialization Intercultural Communication School of Humanities, Tilburg University September 2011

Laura van Bochove ANR: 666975

Supervision : Prof. dr. Sjaak Kroon : Dr. Dong Jie External Examiner : Prof. dr. Jan Blommaert

Abstract

Globalization indicates that the world becomes smaller because techniques have developed to travel fast and easy. With people traveling, they also travel with the language they speak. Therefore languages all over the world meet each other and with English being a „world language‟ it can be expected that English arrives in every country of the world. This thesis shows that English also reached Beijing, the capital of P.R. China and that English displayed in Beijing is not the same as English used in England. The general research question I focused on is also: “What happens to English when it is used in Beijing?” To investigate this I have photographed a total number of 128 signs of public order notices in the linguistic landscape of Beijing. I have analyzed those signs and found that I could categorize them into three groups, respectively spelling deviations; structures in English that refer to Chinese cultural modes of speech, and English where different kind of deviations are all combined. Chapter 6 discusses the signs that belong to the first group, chapter 7 shows the signs I have found that belong to the second group and chapter 8 contains examples of the third group. It seems that although the authorities have prescribed rules for signs in the linguistic landscape, the people that have to construct signs according to those orders vary enormously in education background and level of literacy which is a reason why so many different „mistakes‟ are made. Not all people that are responsible for translating the sings into English have access to the necessary level of English to do it successfully.

Content

Abstract 3 Preface 6 Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 7 1.1 A study of English in China ...... 7 1.2 A linguistic landscaping study ...... 8 1.3 Ethnography ...... 9 1.4 Summary...... 9 Chapter 2 Linguistic Landscape ...... 11 2.1 Categorization of signs ...... 11 2.2 Globalization visible through the linguistic landscape ...... 12 2.3 Linguistic landscape and language policy ...... 13 2.4 Ethnographic research method ...... 14 2.5 Fieldwork and research questions ...... 14 2.5.1 The Forbidden City ...... 15 2.5.2 The Great Wall ...... 16 2.5.3 Bell and Drum Tower ...... 18 2.5.4 The Summer Palace ...... 18 2.5.5 Gate of heavenly peace (or better known as Tian’anmen Square) ...... 19 2.5.6 Signs ...... 19 2.5.7 Research questions...... 20 2.5.8 Interviews ...... 21 Chapter 3 English in China ...... 23 3.1 Language situation and position of Putonghua...... 23 3.2 Changing ideology ...... 24 3.3 Reactions ...... 26 Chapter 4 Concepts applied to the linguistic landscape ...... 28 4.1 Space, sociolinguistic scales and indexicality ...... 28 4.2 Emplacement ...... 29 4.3 Contextualisation, habitus and intertextuality ...... 29 4.4 Grassroots literacy ...... 30 4.5 Communicative problems ...... 30

Chapter 5 General results ...... 32 Chapter 6 Results ‘Unstable English’ ...... 34 6.1 Description of signs ...... 34 6.2 Analysis ...... 38 6.3 Reactions of the intended audience...... 41 Chapter 7 Results ‘Chinesed English’ ...... 44 7.1 Warning in the form of a Chinese poem ...... 44 7.2 Sign with metaphor ...... 46 7.3 Sign with poetical language ...... 49 7.4 A Chinese habit ...... 52 Chapter 8 Results ‘Incomprehensible English’ ...... 54 8.1 Slippery floor ...... 54 8.2 Warning not to open the door ...... 55 8.3 Warning in subway station ...... 56 8.3 Fire extinguisher ...... 59 Chapter 9 Conclusion ...... 65 9.1 Summary of results ...... 65 9.2 Final interpretations ...... 66 9.3 Discussion ...... 67 References 68 Appendix 1 Overview of signs ...... 72 Appendix 2 Interview questions ...... 83

Preface

The present study is an ethnographic investigation of language problems that appear in Chinese-English public order notices. To collect research material to analyze these signs I have spend three months in Beijing, P.R. China. This thesis was a great adventure that started with a coincidental talk on the corridor with Sjaak Kroon about my interest to choose a topic for my master‟s thesis that would give me the opportunity to go to China. Immediately this idea was received very enthusiastically by him, because some projects concerning China were in process. I‟m very thankful to him that he offered me this great project in which I could combine all my studies. From that moment on I was involved in a large cooperation project between Tilburg University (TU) and Beijing Language & Culture University (BLCU). Many hours we have spoken about this research in Tilburg as well as in Beijing where I want to thank him for. Moreover I want to thank Dong Jie who supervised me during my stay in Beijing and who helped me to prepare for the application of the Dante Award that made the trip to Beijing financially possible. I also want to thank BLCU and especially dr. Chen Weiheng and prof. dr. Zhang Weijia for their hospitality, supervision and support. I hope and expect that the completion of this thesis will contribute to the development of the cooperation between TU and BLCU. Next to them I wish to thank BLCU‟s students Hou Mingyi, Chen Yi and Li Jing. They provided me with cultural insights and background material that I used in this thesis and that developed my understanding of cultural differences. My gratefulness to my parents and my brother Tim for their support and understanding is beyond extent, because without them I could not even have been studying at all the past two years. Next to them, I‟m thankful to my friends who saw a lot less of me during these study years and who were always there to listen and think with me about my ideas.

Rotterdam, September 2011

Laura van Bochove

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 A study of English in China

Already since the end of secondary school China has fascinated me. That was partly because of its beautiful writing system and partly because its culture seemed completely opposite to that of The Netherlands in my imagination. It was my dream to visit China and therefore I started studying Chinese after secondary school in 2001. So it came that I was 19 when I travelled to China for the first time. I still remember that when I travelled by bus from the airport to the university campus of Beijing Polytechnic University, I was very disappointed. The landscape was a very dry area without ancient looking Chinese architecture which was shown on television and in travel guides. However, I was very excited when I saw Chinese characters written on road signs. The first test if I had learned something at school. Those characters were real, used to direct drivers to their destination. It made me feel that I really was in China. After a few days in Beijing I started to notice that many signs were not only written in Chinese characters, but that an English translation was often displayed below the Chinese characters as well. These English translations often made me and my friends laugh, because they contained „mistakes‟ which lead to amusing signs as shown in figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: Take out concentration camp

From the moment we discovered that things went wrong in English, we started to make pictures of signs with „mistakes‟ in English for fun. Back then I could never have imagined that deviations from the English language conventions displayed in Beijing would be the topic of my masters‟ thesis research.

1.2 A linguistic landscaping study

What I and my friends experienced during our first days in Beijing is exactly how Shohamy & Gorter (2009) describe it: When immigrants and tourists come to new places signs are the first signals of entering a new culture and a new space. And through these signs people start to make sense of places. The study of what signs and symbols mean and how they are used is called semiotics (Gorter, 2006). Spolsky and Cooper (1991) distinguished eight major types of signs, including street signs, advertising signs, warning notices and prohibitions, building names, informative signs (such as directions and hours of opening), commemorative plaques, objects (such as post box, fire extinguisher), and graffiti. Together they form the linguistic landscape. Research on the linguistic landscape is a relative new discipline in sociolinguistics. It includes the language which is visible in a specific area (Gorter, 2006). In countries that have two official languages such as Belgium, the official State organized linguistic landscape only shows the French or the Dutch language in the neighborhoods where respectively the Walloon and Flemish communities live. It shows that they strongly link their languages to their identities. Therefore investigating the linguistic landscape of the public space can teach us various things. Not only can we evaluate the ethnolinguistic vitality of languages, as Landry and Bourhis (1997) have done, but we can also measure the linguistic diversity in many places around the world and compare the extent to which the different languages play a role in public space. Apart from linguistic landscape research in countries with more than one official language it is also interesting to perform a linguistic landscape research in a country with just one official language, where also other languages are displayed. Such a country is China, of which Beijing is the capital. Another reason why Beijing is an interesting area to perform a linguistic landscape research is that Beijing is a global city. This means that it is a place where different cultures, languages and identities interact. It is a city of an enormous size where many immigrants and tourists reside (Barni & Bagna, 2010,). The total population of Beijing exceeds 22 million people and more than 4 million tourists visit Beijing every year. Also the number of foreigners staying longer than 6 months in Beijing constantly exceeds 110,000 people. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization China will become in the next five to seven years the world‟s leading travel destination with an expected number of 53 million tourists a year. In addition, Beijing is China‟s capital where also the government has its residence. Therefore it has an example function for the entire country. This makes Beijing an interesting city to perform a linguistic landscape research. The enormous number of global residents must have an influence on the linguistic landscape of the city. Therefore as in other places around the world, in Beijing signs often include English as one of the languages (Cenoz & Gorter, 2009). The status of English as a global language has a great impact on the linguistic landscape in Beijing. Since the Chinese economic reform in 1978 led by Deng Xiaoping, modernization has been the key-word for China to survive and compete in the modern world. English was and is the international medium of scientific and technological information, and China links its national development to English proficiency. English has become the language of social and economic prestige and it provides better future prospects to the people that are proficient in it. However, English is

neither a working language nor a second language in China, and therefore many „mistakes‟ in English are visible in the public space.

1.3 Ethnography

This thesis reports about a linguistic landscape research performed in Beijing, PR China, between April and June 2011. The research focuses on order notices in English in the Beijing public sphere. Order notices are chosen because they reveal information between public authority and civil society and as official notices can be expected to convey information or meaning in such a way that it is comprehensible for the citizens that are expected to act or behave accordingly. Order notices control or police citizens by establishing language based limitations (Gorter, 2006). In other words, they order people what to do and what not to do and sometimes even implicitly or explicitly imply sanctions for those who do not follow the announcements made. Although many Chinese like to believe that all „mistakes‟ in English are corrected since the Olympic Games hosted in 2008, I wonder if that is really true and even possible. During the fieldwork of my research I expect to find much English language „mistakes‟. In this research I want to find out which types of deviations do occur in which places and try to explain them in accordance with the context in which they appear. Because as Blommaert (2005; 43) says: „we understand something, because that something makes sense in a particular context‟. To find information about the relations between observed language and its use in a given place I will use the ethnographic research method, because quantitative research does not provide such information (Barni & Bagna, 2010). In section 2.4 I will give an elaborated description of the ethnographic methodology that I followed.

1.4 Summary

To frame this thesis in a theoretical context I will make use of the concept of „Truly Moving Texts‟ developed by Kroon, Dong & Blommaert (forthcoming). They argue that due to globalization, people are increasingly moving around the world and with them their language moves around too. Due to the mobility of languages and the multicultural backgrounds of the receivers of the messages that these languages convey, meaning derived from the language might be differently perceived in different places. The question is which features of language displayed are interpreted similar for everyone and which features of language are interpreted differently. However, to fully understand why some signs “move” good and some don‟t, it is not only important to observe the language displayed, but also to analyze the background of the audience and of the producers of the signs. This background information can answer the question why the language is displayed as it is and why it doesn‟t reach the intended audience. These two questions are the focus of this thesis. To categorize my data I use the framework developed by Kroon, Dong & Blommaert (forthcoming). They present three different categories of problems with English in China. The first problems regard problems with language form. These problems regard typo‟s and word choices that lead to different levels of 9

successful communication as will be shown in the result part (chapter 6) of this thesis. The second category consists of problems whereby the English grammar and orthography is quite „good‟, but that needs some knowledge of Chinese culture before readers will be able to interpret it. Kroon, Dong & Blommaert (forthcoming) define this category as genre or cultural problems. The translation of signs in English that belong to the third category fails at all linguistic levels. Therefore Kroon, Dong & Blommaert (forthcoming) don‟t define this problem anymore as a language problem but as a voice problem (see section 4.1). Because while the problems of the first two categories are still producing and conveying some intended meanings, the audience that read signs of the third category cannot interpret the message or have serious difficulties interpreting it. The theoretical context is developed within the framework of linguistic landscape which is more thoroughly described in chapter two. In chapter three I will give a short description of the language situation of China and the ideology development towards English. Chapter three will also present the methodology. In the fourth chapter I will describe aspects that influence the linguistic landscape such as globalization, the space and time in which the linguistic landscape is organized, sociolinguistic scales, multimodality and grassroots literacy, because these concepts have all communicative consequences. The results will be presented in chapters 5 - 8 followed by chapter 9 that concludes this thesis with a summary of the findings, final interpretations and a discussion.

Chapter 2 Linguistic Landscape

The linguistic landscape refers to language that is visibly presented and displayed in a specific area. It is semiotized, which means that it is socially and culturally constructed (Gorter, 2006). It is people that create the linguistic landscape and before they produce signs they have to think about which language to use and how, design the letter type, the colours and the symbols. In other words, the sign is designed with certain motivations and intentions from which information can be derived about social facts that relate to these people‟s identity, wishes and cultural heritage. People need those signs in order to know how to act or what they should not do. They make these signs part of their social behavior (Sloboda, 2009). However, nobody has access to all forms of language. Who has access to which particular context reveals the power relations in a given society (Blommaert, 2005). Therefore research on the linguistic landscape also shows how relations between language groups are ordered and how relations between public authority and civil society are established (Gorter, 2006). In sum, linguistic landscape analysis investigates aspects of social reality. Because it results in knowledge about the relationship between language and society, it is an important part of sociolinguistic research.

2.1 Categorization of signs

Shohamy and Gorter (2009) and Gorter (2006) collected articles of various linguistic landscape researchers that record linguistic diversity in various places in the world, such as Taiwan, Italy, Japan, Israel, Ethiopia, Thailand, Sweden and the Netherlands. These researchers developed different methods to organize the displayed signs in categories that can be useful for future research. Landry & Bourhis (1997) separated signs into two basic functions: informational and symbolic. The linguistic characteristics of a sign provide both geographical information and information about the diversity of the language groups that live in a particular territory. The symbolic function complements the informational function, because the language displayed symbolizes the vitality of the ethnolinguistic groups and symbolizes the strength or weakness of different ethnolinguistic groups in a certain area. Backhaus (2006) used the distinction between official and non-official signs in the streets of Tokyo in his research. Official signs are defined as all signs that are set up by governmental organizations including public transport facilities and all the other signs are categorized into non-official signs. The main finding of the research is that although in both types foreign languages are displayed, the official signs express and reinforce existing power relations and the non-official signs are designed to express solidarity with non-Japanese things. A similar distinction is made by Ben-Rafael et al. (2006), where signs are divided into top-down versus bottom-up. The category top-down refers to language in the linguistic landscape that is produced by public authority directed at common citizens. They are committed to serve official policies, whereas signs that are produced by individuals or corporations to communicate with potential clients are categorized as bottom-up. Their findings resulted in an analysis about Jewish-Palestinian relations in East-Jerusalem.

Reh (2004) categorized the signs of his research in a Ugandan town into three types in which multilingual information is arranged. The first category involves signs where all information is displayed in both languages, so that people being monolingual in one of the languages can be reached (Backhaus, 2006). The second category comprises signs with partial translation, and signs with different information in each language form the third category. Spolsky (2009) developed a theory on why a certain language has been written on a sign. The language choice is based on three conditions. The first one is that a sign should be written in a language that the author knows. The second condition that needs to be considered is that a sign needs to be written in the language that can be read by the people it is meant for. The third aspect is that people prefer to write a sign in a language with which they want to be identified and often this language is their mother tongue.

2.2 Globalization visible through the linguistic landscape

In all linguistic landscape studies performed all over the world, an expected yet remarkable issue attracts attention. English, often together with the local language is displayed in every country. Due to European colonization, economic globalization and (refugee) migration, English has become a global language. It has become the language of scientific and technological information, of business and commerce, and the command of English provides better future prospects. Therefore in every country of the world people have started to learn English. And as Cenoz & Gorter (2009: 55) noticed: „when more people use a language, it becomes more useful to other people which has an effect on the attractiveness of particular languages‟. Taking this into consideration, it is not strange why English is displayed on such a large scale. In the globalizing world, English is displayed within different contexts, and the space in which it is placed becomes part of the meaning of the message. Because people move around the world in cases of war or extreme poverty or because they like to travel voluntarily for experiences that change their everyday lives, it is likely that a message is read by people from various backgrounds. They all might interpret the message differently. That might cause communicative difficulties. Therefore governments try to design the linguistic landscape in a way that the visible language in public places is communicative and authentic for local citizens, and comprehensible for tourists (Kallen, 2009). In addition, because English is the language of globalization, it is English that is mainly used for communication with tourists. However tourists are not only coming from far away, tourism within a country‟s own borders also exists. Therefore signs are often multilingual and try to announce similar messages in the local language and in English (Blommaert, 2010). Although English on public signs is often directed at foreigners, it can also just function as a symbol of modernity. Huebner (2006) investigated among others the influence of English as a global language on the linguistic landscape of Bangkok. He argues that the display of English is directed towards international tourists and other foreigners in Bangkok, because English is mainly displayed in districts where foreigners live, and in neighborhoods with tourist attractions, whereas English is not displayed in traditional Thai neighborhoods. In addition, multilingual Thai-English signs first display Thai, followed by an English translation. However, Huebner (2006) also found advertisements with English words in between a Thai 12

message. In these signs he argues English is not directed at foreigners, but at educated Thai people that are proficient in Thai and in English. This clearly reflects the official language policy of Thailand where Thai serves as the official national language and English as the language of international communication.

2.3 Linguistic landscape and language policy

The impact of language policies on the linguistic landscape is investigated by different researchers in different countries. Backhaus (2009) compared the visibility of language policies on the linguistic landscapes of Tokyo and Quebec. Where Tokyo can be considered a monolingual city, Quebec is certainly not. Quebec is a French enclave in a further English- speaking country. The French majority in Quebec is continuously protecting their language against English influence, whereas Tokyo embraces the concept of internationalization. This can be derived from the signs. The public space of Tokyo displays besides the Japanese language also English and more recently even Chinese and Korean since they are Japans largest minority groups. Conversely, the linguistic landscape of Quebec due to an official language law, only displays French on public signs, and commercial advertising. Backhaus (2009: 167) concludes: „it appears that a monolingual environment like Tokyo favors multilingual signs, whereas a linguistically much more heterogeneous environment like Quebec is anxious to enforce and preserve a monolingual landscape‟. Sloboda (2009) made a similar conclusion after investigating the relationship between linguistic landscape and state ideology of Belarus, Czech Republic and Slovakia. She found that ideologies are reflected in the placement of the languages in the sign. Positioning of placing a new sign of another language below the original one in a smaller size and in a different color creates symbolic hierarchy. In countries where there is no such need to emphasize hierarchy, languages appear together on one sign with more or less the same size and design. Another signal that relates to the extent of the visibility of state ideology in the public space is the presence of regulatory notices. The Belarusian city of Minsk shows much more regulatory signs than Prague or Bratislava do (the capitals of Czech and Slovakia respectively). The regulatory signs in Minsk moreover focus on overall behavior which is related to the prominence of order and dirigism in the state ideology of Belarus whereas regulatory notices in Prague and Bratislava focus on warnings, e.g. for pickpockets. Sloboda (2009: 184) formulates the overall conclusion as follows: „Different state ideologies may bring about different systems of signs of behavior regulation in public places‟. This conclusion again shows that all the signs in a linguistic landscape form a semiotic entity. However, not only do state ideologies have influence on the linguistic landscape, also globalization, space, time, and culture have their influence. In chapter 4 I will explain how these concepts also constitute the linguistic landscape.

2.4 Ethnographic research method

As I showed in the overview above, research that has been done into linguistic landscapes in cities all over the world is mainly descriptive. Via the categorization of signs researchers interpret the material to derive meaning out of it. This research on the linguistic landscape of Beijing will combine this descriptive method with the concepts of globalization and „grassroots literacy‟ in order to understand how the sender and the receiver of the message intended and perceived the message. Then it is possible to describe what can go wrong in communication in the linguistic landscape, why it goes wrong, and how people individually interpret the messages communicated to them in the public space. Linguistic landscapes are usually investigated in ethnographic fieldwork. Ethnography is a research methodology originally used in the field of anthropology, but is later extended to be used in other social sciences as well. Ethnographic fieldwork discovers things that are not seen important at first, but belong to the structures of people‟s lives (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). Ethnography is an inductive science which means that a theory is conducted on the bases of empirical evidence. The data that are collected suggest particular theoretical issues (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). Depending on the kind of data that are collected, the researcher emerges a theoretical framework from the data. In this way unique events can reveal a lot about processes going on in society (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). Data of the ethnographer consist of various materials that are collected during observations of or interactions with people. Examples are photographs, interviews, field notes and texts. They are collected from informants that act and communicate in real-time moments in real-life environments. The ethnographer is always a part of the data, because he/she and the informant interact in what Blommaert & Huang (2009) called a specific space-time. Therefore the interpretation and analysis of the data must always take into account that they are collected under certain circumstances in a specific time and a specific environment. In the words of Blommeart & Dong (2010:12) ethnography is: „a methodology in which one uses case analyses to demonstrate theory‟.

2.5 Fieldwork and research questions

My research is on order notices in Beijing and since it is impossible to photograph all order notices in the complete linguistic landscape of Beijing, I will focus on the sites that are visited by a foreign student living in Beijing, like I was. That includes touristic places, parks, restaurants / bars, the university campus of Beijing Language & Culture university, the subway public transportation network (mainly The West side of the lines 1,2,4,5,10 and 13 (see figure 2.1). The fieldwork took place between 26 March and 30 June 2011. The touristic places described below were only visited once, but other places for example the subway network were visited many times, because I needed this transportation system every time I wanted to 14

go into the city center. In total I collected 128 signs of public order notices (see appendix 1). When I arrived in a chosen area, I photographed every order notice I discovered. Although all pictures are public order notices, they do not all have the form of a public order notice as can be found in an overview (see appendix 1) of all the 128 pictures made.

Figure 2.1: Map of subway lines in Beijing

For the touristic places I visited Beijing‟s most famous places which are recorded in most travel guides, including The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Great Wall (Jinshanling and Mutianyu), The Bell and Drum towers and the Tian‟an men square. In the next sections I will give some background information about those touristic attractions.

2.5.1 The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City (Gugong in Chinese) is located in the center of Beijing and has served as the imperial palace for 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties from 1368 when the construction of the palace started till 1924 when China‟s last emperor was driven out. It is the world‟s largest palace complex with 9,999 buildings and covers 74 hectares. It was highly forbidden and impossible to enter the Forbidden City for the inhabitants of Beijing. Only with special permission of the emperor the doors were opened. The imperial palace is divided into two parts. The Nothern section (also called the Inner Court) was the part where the emperor lived with his royal family. The Southern section (or Outer Court) was used by the emperor to reign over his people.

Since 1987 UNESCO listed it as a World Cultural Heritage Site and has become now one of the most popular tourist attractions world-wide.

2.5.2 The Great Wall

Also The Great Wall was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. It was originally built to protect the borders of the Chinese empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. It has not been built at once. Succeeding Chinese emperors continuously built new parts with different materials. The main wall has a length of 2,400 kilometer. Since it is more than 2000 years old, some sections have disappeared or are in ruins. However, some sections have been renovated for tourists to climb the wall. For this thesis I have visited two sections which are Mutianyu and Jinshanling. Mutianyu Great Wall is located in Huairou County. It only needs about a 80 kilometre drive from Beijing and therefore can be reached easily by tourists with a car or touring buses. When visiting the Great Wall most tourists go to Mutianyu or Badaling. Jinshanling Great wall on the other hand is not located in the area of Beijing and much harder to reach. This part of the wall can be visited in Luanping County, in Hebei province. The distance from Beijing is more than 110 kilometre. Touring buses don‟t drive to this part of the wall. I reached it by taking a public bus for 1 hour to a town from where I took a taxi that drove me another 1,5 hour to the Great Wall. The Jingshanling Great Wall is the best preserved part of the Great Wall. Although it is harder to reach, tourists that travel individual and international students that live in Beijing for some time like to visit a quieter spot of the Great Wall. Since it is less touristic I hoped to find interesting material there. Figure 2.2 provides a map with the different places where tourists can climb the wall. They are indicated with a white point.

Source: Wikipedia Figure 2.2: Map of the Great Wall

2.5.3 Bell and Drum Tower

The Bell Tower and the Drum Tower of Beijing are protected cultural relics by the municipal since 1957 and by the state in 1996. The Drum and Bell Towers (Gulou and Zhonglou in Chinese) are located at the northern end of the central axis of the Inner City,

Figure 2.3: The Drum Tower Figure 2.4: The Bell Tower

The Drum Tower was used to inform the citizens about the time. Drums were beaten to mark the hours and water clocks marked the quarters. The Drum Tower is a wooden, two-story building, a height of 47 meters and was built in 1272. Behind the Drum Tower stands the Bell Tower. Also the Bell tower was built in 1272. It is a little taller than the drum tower at 47.9 meters and still holds the original bell, but the bell is not used anymore. The bell in the Bell Tower was uses to mark the time during the night. Both buildings can be visited. Steep stairways take tourist to the top where they can look out over the city. In the Drum Tower drumming performances are taking place every hour.

2.5.4 The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace dates back to 1750 when it was constructed to serve as a luxurious royal garden for royal families to rest and entertain themselves. In the end of the Qing dynasty it became the main residence of the royal family. UNESCO also included the Summer Palace in its World Heritage List. The park is a mixture of natural landscape of hills and open water with pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges. Together it forms a harmonious ensemble. Now it has Figure 2.4: The Summer Palace become a popular tourist attraction and also serves as a recreational park.

2.5.5 Gate of heavenly peace (or better known as Tian’anmen Square)

The Tian‟anmen Square is maybe even the most famous item of Beijing known abroad. It is a very large square in the center of Beijing across the entrance of the Forbidden City. With a surface of (440,000 m² - 880m by 500m) it is the second largest city square in the world. The square has been used in history to host a number of political events. Among them is the proclamation of the People‟s Republic of China on 1 October 1949 by Mao Zedong, and the protests of 1989.

Source: Wikipedia Figure 2.5: Tian‟anmen Square

2.5.6 Signs Let me first describe what a sign is. According to Scollon & Scollon (2003:3) „the word sign means any material object that indicates or refers to something other than itself‟. A sign can refer to that something in various ways. It can communicate a message using different means which is called multimodality. Apart from printed words, also symbols, pictures and materials, letter type, and color are used to enhance the understandability of the message. All those techniques contribute to the meaning of the message (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996). The Chinese authorities have made detailed regulations how signs in public places should be constructed. An example is the document: „Regulation of the construction for signs at A- level sightseeing spots‟ (see http://www.51zzl.com/jiaotong/jingqu.asp). A-level sightseeing spots include the most famous sightseeing spots of China that are further categorized in 1A to 5A. In Beijing the 5A sightseeing spots are Great Wall, Forbidden, City, Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Article 4.5.3b of this regulation orders that all the signs in the sightseeing spots 4A and above must use Chinese, English an two other foreign languages (which can be chosen according to one‟s own preferences). Another example is the regulation for signs in public transport. Article 5.1.3.1 of the document: „General principles of public transportation signs for passengers‟ (2009) mentions that signs should use Chinese and English. In addition should the English be in line with Chinese and the Chinese should be more attractive than the English text. The Chinese should use the standard font and the English should be decorated according to the regulations of DB11/T 334. All lexical items should carry a capital (freely translated by myself).

Although I made pictures of signs, one picture not always represents one sign. Some pictures may contain 2 or more signs. In this thesis I describe a sign to be a „material object‟ that just communicates one message. For example figure 2.6 contains two signs.

Figure 2.6: One picture, two signs

That figure 2.6 contains two different signs can be clearly seen, because not only they communicate different messages, but also the layout (letter type, background color, letter color) and size are completely different. In other words, these signs are two different material objects. In the overview of all 128 signs found (see appendix) I gave every sign a separated number. Sometimes I selected a part of a sign to make a separated picture. Those pictures then are part of a larger sign (see figures 8.3-8.4 and 8.5-8.6). That is why I gave numbers to the signs and not to the pictures. If figure 2.7 should be regarded as one sign or as two signs is disputable. I have considered it to be two different signs, because although they both have the same layout and are a small part of a larger sign, a black line surrounds the separated messages to divide them from one another. Therefore they communicate different messages. In my data a sign communicates just one message. Therefore it happens that various signs are displayed on one material object. In other words, I don‟t regard a material object as one sign, but an individual communicated message.

Figure 2.7: Two signs both part of a larger sign

2.5.7 Research questions In preparation to the Olympic Games the authorities have produced and spread a brochure in 2006 which contains general specifications of English translations of public signs (see chapter 3). Since then, many signs have been replaced by new signs.

After this „cleaning operation‟ of the signs translated in English, the inhabitants of Beijing, as I experienced, are convinced that the English displayed in the linguistic landscape is free of errors. In this thesis I will show the opposite. In various places in the city English translation on signs still display deviations varying in degree of scale as I mentioned briefly in the first chapter and which will be better explained in chapter four. With scale I mean here the level of literacy in which the Chinese people produce English on the signs which lead to different degrees of the quality and understandability of English. In this research I am interested to find out which deviations occur, what the reasons behind those are and how the different types are valued by the intended audience. Following from these questions I also want to find out what the influence of the Chinese written language is on the English displayed.

2.5.8 Interviews To answer the above research questions it is not enough to collect photos of signs, because as described in the paragraphs above an ethnographic researcher is always part of the research and I might interpret my data biased, based on my own experiences in the past. Therefore it is important to measure my ideas to others. Combining multiple research methods to increase the validity and credibility of the results in qualitative research is called „triangulation‟. Triangulation can take different shapes. It can consist of using different methods but also of involving multiple researchers who can add their evidence to support or elaborate analyses. This can even result in international comparisons in which a concept is developed to understand certain differences and similarities across borders (Kroon & Sturm, 2007). To apply triangulation in my thesis, I interviewed three Chinese students who provided me with background information of society, and Chinese language, and I recorded two interviews with foreign students to verify how the intended messages were interpreted by them. However this so called „triangulation‟ is not the only reason to include interviews in the research. Not only what the interviewees tell me is interesting but also how they tell it reveals information (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). I met the Chinese students when I participated in one of their classes of the course „Discourse Analyses‟ and the course „Grammaticalization‟ at BLCU. One student was studying sociolinguistics, hereafter referred to as CH1 and two students were studying English translation, hereafter referred to as CH2 and CH3. Since they had a linguistic background and interest, they were very enthusiastic about my thesis topic which made them very good informants. Besides Chinese students I also interviewed Professor Huo Jianxin working at the Capital Institute of Physical Education („Shoudu tiyu daxue‟ / 首都体育大学) as director of the Gymnasium administration and the vice president of the ground equipment association. He provided me with information about the construction of the signs in the swimming pools in China (see section 5.2). The foreign students I interviewed were male students from the United States that participated in the interview together, hereafter referred to as US1 and US2 and a male student from Venezuela, hereafter referred to as VZ. The Americans visited Beijing for three weeks to follow an extensive summer course Chinese language and the student from Venezuela intends to stay in Beijing for 2 years to study Chinese as well. They all visited Beijing for the first time and stayed there less than three months at the time of the interview.

The interviews all lasted between 1.5 and 2 hours. To prepare the interviews I selected some 20 signs out of my data and prepared a list of questions for the Chinese interviewees and a list of questions for the foreign students (see appendix 2). During the interview I showed the interviewees one by one the signs that I selected and asked them the same questions with every sign. The interviews took place in public places on the university campus where foreign students often come together to talk and have a coffee. I deliberately selected native speakers of English and a non-native English speaker, since I expected that this distinction would provide me with different perspectives.

Chapter 3 English in China

In the first chapter I have explained the concept of linguistic landscape and I have emphasized that due to globalization English became visible in the linguistic landscape all over the world. In this chapter I will first present the language situation and the position of Putonghua in China. I will continue to describe how English arrived in China and how the attitude towards English of the Chinese authorities has developed over time. I will end this chapter with critical reflections of the current language situation.

3.1 Language situation and position of Putonghua

The official national language of China is Standard Mandarin Chinese, also called Putonghua, or Hanyu. This means that Putonghua is the language that should be used in certain places and situations (Shohamy, 2006). In the case of China it is used in state affairs, politics, economics, legal affairs, education, media and the press. It is not only the primary language used in the country, but it also functions as the language of communication between its peoples (Huang, 2003). Putonghua is spoken by the Han-majority who comprises approximately 92% of the population. The remaining 8% consist of minorities who speak in total more than 120 different languages. This makes China a linguistically diverse country. However, the majority-minority distinction is not the only one in China's diversity. Diversity also means the varieties of languages spoken within Han communities. Seven major dialects can be distinguished: Guan (dialect of Beijing), Wu (dialect of Shanghai), Hakka (among Cantonese speakers), Min (spoken in Taiwan), and Yue (Cantonese). Those dialects differ to the extent as Italian varies from French (Dong, 2011). Already since the establishment of the Constitution of the People‟s Republic of China in 1954 are all the languages of all officially recognized ethnic groups given equal status. However, Zhou (2004) argues that although efforts are made by the authorities to maintain minority languages, the language rights between minority languages and Putonghua are far from equal. Zhou (2004) gives three reasons for this phenomenon. The first reason is that the Constitution in every Communist country only serves to legitimize the party‟s control, which means that it sketches a brighter picture of events than actually will be implemented. The second reason relates to the first reason to the extent that linguistic diversity is just used to promote solidarity with the country‟s citizens, but will actually be gradually changed into ethnic and linguistic integration. The third reason he gives for the unequal attitudes toward minority languages lies in the chauvinism of the Han-majority, since Han Chinese (or Putonghua) became a symbol of the nation (Feng, 2009). How Putonghua became a symbol of the nation is presented by Dong (2010). She clarifies how the standardization of Putonghua is related to the process of unifying the People‟s Republic of China. Although the Chinese script is more than two thousand years old, she argues, a standard pronunciation did not exists until the early twentieth century. Before that time China‟s territory expanded and decreased several times and since people were unable to travel long distances they managed to make themselves clear using only their local

languages. However, after the last feudal dynasty lost its power, the new authorities wanted to create a unified modern nation-state and therefore searched for a national language. The local pronunciation of Beijing was chosen to become the national standard and the lingua franca among China‟s citizens. Promotion processes of Putonghua started in the beginning of the 20th century by launching campaigns and regulations to enhance efforts of correction in primary and secondary schools, training the mastery of Putonghua of teachers, broadcasting TV programs in Putonghua all to enhance the prestige of Beijing Mandarin. In the year 2000 new legislation was determined in the Law of the National Common Language for the People‟s Republic of China that specified Putonghua to be the working language of newsreaders, anchor-persons, actors/actresses, teachers and civil servants (Dong, 2010). The language policy measures are so successful that people that do not acquire Putonghua perfectly, become marginalized and are negatively qualified which lead to fewer chances of successful education and success in the labor market. As Dong (2010: 272) concludes: „Putonghua is up-scaled to be accent-less‟. It evolved from a local variety to become a prestige linguistic resource with high social status. So, although Putonghua and minority languages are given equal status, in practice Putonghua is far more valued than any other language spoken by China‟s „ethnic‟ citizens. Not only minority languages are valued inferior, but also, even more remarkably Putonghua contrasts to the many mutually unintelligible dialects (Dong, 2011). Saillard (2004) describes why Putonghua can even be regarded as a thread to the existence of minority languages. Because Putonghua is a national language, it is used for specific functions, for example in official settings, in education, and for communication among different social groups. However, the extensive promotion campaigns to encourage the use of Putonghua lead to the development of use in more domains. Therefore local varieties of Putonghua come into existence with new features related to the minority language communities. These so-called vernacular varieties of Putonghua might endanger the minority languages since both languages are used to express group identification, and are used in the same domains (Saillard, 2004). In the above paragraphs I have discussed the relationship between minority languages, the official majority language, dialects and vernaculars. But there is another language that appears in China, which is English. The next section will describe how English arrived in China and it will describe the constantly changing language ideology of the Chinese authorities towards English chronologically.

3.2 Changing ideology

During the feudal period, the emperors ruled with the ideology of China being the center of the world (中国 /Zhongguo, translated as: The Middle Kingdom) and all other countries, were seen as inferior nations (Pan, 2009). This ideology lasted for more than a thousand years till the Qing dynasty in the middle of the 19th century. When Europeans started to sail overseas and arrived in China for trade, the Chinese feudal government needed to find ways of communication with them (Pan, in press). As the British colonists were used to take over the land and established power over the original

inhabitants of the lands they had conquered, it is not a surprise that they also forced the original inhabitants to speak in English with the new declared authorities. Although the British could not conquer China, their language, English, had become the language of trade (Pan, in press). As a result of the British habits during colonization, Chinese merchants managed to develop a Pidgin English for interaction purposes with the British and other Europeans (Wright, 2004). However these Chinese merchants did not enjoy a high status, because foreigners and foreign languages in that time were still seen as barbarous (Pan, in press). That the Chinese authorities still treated other countries as inferior can also be derived from the reaction to the influence and power that The British East India Company obtained in China. When the British traders became very successful, the Chinese government decided only to accept silver in exchange to tea, silk and porcelain. This leaded to an unequal trading balance in favor for China. In reaction to that policy, The British East India Company started to sell opium in China that they imported from India. Soon, thousands of Chinese became addicted to the drug and although the Chinese authorities prohibited sale and smoking of Opium in 1729, the opium still found its consumers via smuggling routes. The disputes regarding opium between China and Britain resulted in the so-called Opium Wars. These Wars ended when the Chinese authorities asked for peace which was secured in several Treaties that among others, made China allow importation of opium, an opening more trading ports. After these humiliations the Chinese authorities changed their attitude towards English. They thought that if they understood Western languages and ideas they could avoid future humiliations. That is the reason why they started to study English (Pan, in press). Similarly, in 1949 Chairman Mao Zedong formulated the goal of studying foreign languages as „make foreign things serve China‟ (Pan, 2009:73). This indicates that foreign languages still did not obtain much prestige and were only used when absolutely necessary, but it became a useful instrument for China. This attitude lasted till Deng Xiaoping started to implement economic reforms in 1978. At that time China began to communicate with other countries and slowly also globalization processes started to develop in China. As a result of English becoming the global language, it became valuable to study it. To compete with the rest of the world the Chinese government wanted a large group of English proficient personnel. Campaigns were launched to make the entire nation wanting to learn English. For example they implemented a policy to reform the education system. In promoting every child to learn English, the authorities implemented English as a compulsory subject in 2001, and invested in Chinese-English bilingual education programs (Pan, in press). Due to the massive promotion of bilingual education in China, it became a symbol for quality education. This has enormous economic and financial consequences for the authorities, because of the increasing demand of instructional facilities, teacher training and development of learning materials (Hu, 2007). These campaigns ended in the high prestige given to the competence to communicate in English today. Especially since China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001 and hosted the Olympic Games in 2008, the demand of English proficiency increased (Hu, 2008). In 2006 the authorities even produced the brochure „ English Translations of Public Signs: General Specifications‟ (2006) that contains a standard English translation for the most common public signs in the city. Volunteers were recruited in

universities to help with the preparation and during the Olympic Games. These volunteers moved through the city of Beijing with this brochure looking for signs that needed correction. Status planning policies to promote studying English succeeded since 350 million people are now studying the language (Pan, in press). The majority in China is convinced that proficiency in English will lead to economic prosperity. Speaking English has become a status symbol which provides social prestige to the people that are proficient in it (Hu, 2005). However, opportunities to learn English are not only provided by the government. Due to the enthusiasm of the population for studying English that the government had created, the private sector saw possibilities for making money. They strengthen the government initiatives by advertising with new and expensive opportunities to study English. These private providers of English teaching make the ability to speak English an expensive commodity. ( Hu, 2009). According to Blommaert (2010) there is a difference between language norms of the state and actors on the market. The state provides official language norms while the private sector focuses its language packages on accent and discourse. In other words, the state provides learning language in its totality and the market offer the language that is adjusted to the wishes of its customers (Blommeart, 2010). This means that people in China reach very different degrees of knowledge of English. They learn different English varieties and repertoires (Blommaert & Backus, 2011).

3.3 Reactions

The increasing popularity of English not only brings opportunities, but it also causes tension within the Chinese society. Because of the increasing numbers of children learning English, the demand of well-trained teachers increased enormously which resulted in a huge gap between demand and supply. To fill the gap the authorities recruited graduates with a specialization in English but without teaching qualifications and retrained teachers of other subjects to English teachers (Hu, 2005). To improve the opportunities for students to learn English, it is necessary to establish norms for English teachers that teach in primary schools and in bilingual education programs, otherwise the quality of the education might not be guaranteed (Hu, 2005). In addition, the scale of having access to English, reveals the inequality of Beijing‟s citizens, since parents of the students from higher economic backgrounds are able to provide better conditions for their children to guarantee their success (Hu, 2007). Another aspect that shows the inequality, according to Hu (2005) is that the quality of English language education differs between different regions in China. Minorities are living most of the time in the less developed areas of China and research found that in small cities, rural towns, and inland areas students perform less well than students from the developed areas (Hu, 2005). So, instead of the aim to reach equality among Chinese nationals, it seems that the Chinese authorities are facing educational inequality as elsewhere in the world. Another reason why not everyone is pleased with Chinese-English bilingual education is that English as a medium of instruction is against the language law established in 2001. This law says that „all educational institutions, excluding minority classrooms, must use 26

Chinese as the primary teaching language and Chinese written characters as the written form‟ (Feng, 2007: 267 ). In addition, opponents blame English for the decline of learners‟ interest in Chinese culture and low levels of proficiency in Chinese. They even claim that learning English reduces the national self-esteem and is a self-despising behavior (Gao, 2009).

This chapter explained the tensions that exist between globalization and China‟s political agenda and between various ideological and social forces (Feng, 2009). Although the Chinese authorities express that they want to create equal status of all languages that exists within its territory, the actual situation can be described as unequal.

Chapter 4 Concepts applied to the linguistic landscape

4.1 Space, sociolinguistic scales and indexicality

Apart from research of linguistic landscapes, also the process of globalization has attracted the attention of sociolinguists, because together with the people of the world, their language is moving with them through time and space. Space becomes a place, when it is filled with different kinds of social, cultural and affective attributes (Blommaert, 2005). When language is used we give functions to forms (Blommaert, 2005). However, when discourses travel across the world it is the shape of the language that travels; the values, meanings and functions often do not travel along. Every space has its own norms and functions and these show us which linguistic repertoires and competences are needed in that space. By moving horizontally through space, people connect to each other and adopt new linguistic patterns and styles (Dong & Blommaert, 2009). However, some linguistic patterns and styles have a higher prestige than others. Not all ways of speaking have equal value. Therefore, the mobility of language does not only explain language variation, but also defines social inequalities. Inequality will occur when the capacity to produce function and the expected or normative function do not match. Function is defined as „the attribution of different meanings and values to the same semiotic action, object or process.‟ (Blommaert, 2005: 172). The way in which people make themselves understood or fail to do so, is called „voice‟ (Blommaert, 2005). To make themselves understood, people have to use the language they have at their disposal. It happens that this is insufficient to meet the conditions necessary in a certain context, and in that case they fail to make themselves understood. In other words, the globalization process reveals people‟s unequal access to global linguistic resources (Blommaert, 2010). Because when people fail to produce voice, it is not on purpose, it is an effect of what they are capable of accomplishing. Blommaert (2010) describes these unequal language patterns as vertical scale-levels where all sorts of socially, culturally and politically motivated distinctions occur. Language can thus not only move horizontally, but also vertically through spaces, because spaces also reveal stratified patterns of language use from local to global. In between there are many intermediary scales (Blommaert, 2007). A scale is a metaphor used to indicate moves of people through space. A higher scale involves for example access to a standard language variety or multilingual literacy skills (Blommaert, 2010). Higher scale levels dominate the lower scale levels and therefore it is that people that obtain access to a higher scale level will also obtain more power. A move in scales indexes the identity and the roles in the society (Blommaert, 2010). In other words, language indexes to which scales people belong. While communicating, people give signs about themselves to their environment. Other people use these signs to interpret them. Likewise people also interpret messages displayed in the linguistic landscape. The relationship of signs to their environment is what Scollon & Scollon (2003) call „indexicality‟.

4.2 Emplacement

Apart from the linguistic message, also the way in which a message is presented gives meaning. Scollon & Scollon (2003) argue that a sign can give meaning in three ways, (1) „Place semiotics‟ which explains that the context in which the sign is placed is very important in understanding how the sign has to be read, (2) „Visual semiotics‟ which explains what an used font, design, or material symbolizes, (3) „The interaction order‟ which explains that the interpretation of signs is influenced by the historical background of readers. The language used in a certain space not only indexes the kind of community living there, but it can also symbolize something that has nothing to do with the place in which it is located. Therefore did Scollon & Scollon (2003) distinguish two ways in which a sign can make meaning, one through indexicality and one through symbolization. When a sign makes meaning through idexicality, the meaning is derived from the location and physical characteristics of the sign, or it‟s placement in combination with another sign. But when a sign represents something else than literally communicated or is used metaphorically, Scollon & Scollon (2003) call this a symbolization process. Denis & Pontille (2010) show in a study of the placement of subway signs in Paris, that signs need to be interpreted during their placement in combination with other signs, because the context in which they are placed might change over time and new signs might contradict old signs or overlap each other. To avoid confusion by its readers, it is important that workers that place the signs in the right position treat the sign as a text that gives its readers information and not just as objects with the only purpose to place signs in the physical environment. This means that the people that place the signs are a very important link in the communication process of the sign (Denis & Pontille, 2010). If a sign is placed on the wrong spot, the information might be meaningless for its audience. In addition to the placement of a sign giving meaning, also the time in which it is observed gives meaning, because time limits the way a message must be interpreted (Scollon & Scollon, 2003). For example an order notice that forbids you to camp after dawn can be ignored in the afternoon.

4.3 Contextualisation, habitus and intertextuality

Signs and other acts of communication are all contextualized. That means that we understand them because they make sense in a particular context, a context in a particular place in a particular time. This makes clear that a textual content cannot be separated from the visual form (Blommaert, 2005). We understand these signs because of what Bourdieu calls habitus ( Bourdieu, 1985; cited in Scollon & Scollon, 2003: 15). Habitus is a concept that covers three aspects of a human being. With these three aspects a person interprets the world around him or her. The first aspect is someone‟s social cultural psychological knowledge. This involves the history of experiences, knowledge, interests, motivations and personality. The second aspect involves the behavior of someone, because a person is a „social actor‟ and all our actions show others our role or position and our identity. But not only do we show others our

identity, but also our body „gives off‟ expression, for example moods, but also race, age and gender. Since the habitus of an individual is shaped in a particular culture, and comes into existence in different discourses, it can be expected that the habitus causes troubles in communication when someone travels through spaces. In sum, not only the so called grassroots literacy (see below), but also the habitus of an individual are obstacles a person has to deal with in „jumping scales‟. How habitus functions linguistically can be explained through the concept of intertextuality and the example of figure 1.1. Intertextuality stands for the fact that when we communicate, we use words that others also use and we connect these to already available meanings (Blommaert, 2005; 2007). Therefore it can happen that sensitive terms in one culture are reused with another meaning in another culture, because as Blommaert, (2007:8) says: „terms are never sensitive to everyone, everywhere and all of the time‟. A word as „concentration camp‟ in the example of figure 1.1 operates at a different scale level for Chinese people that do not derive a negative connotation out of it as for people from countries where such camps are historically connected to the Second World War.

4.4 Grassroots literacy

When language moves through space, as I showed in the example above, it travels across different orders of indexicality, and what counts as good language in one particular context, might be inappropriate or wrong in another context (Blommaert, 2010). This leads to various forms of written texts, since not everyone has access to the same scale level/linguistic resources. Blommaert (2008:7) describes the writing by people that do not belong to the scales where elite forms of writing are produced, and that do not achieve the literacy level of information, technology and economy, as „grassroots literacy‟. In other words, people that due to all kind of reasons have to communicate in a scale (a particular linguistic level) which does not belong to their acquired level fail to produce voice in that scale. These people are very often not even aware of that (Blommaert, 2008). Examples of texts that can be identified as grassroots literacy may include sentences without punctuation, excessive use of capitals, spelling deviations and other forms of „orthographic instability‟. It includes texts produced by people that do not have access to the necessary normative resources in that particular genre, because they construct the text only based on available local knowledge. The combination of all grassroots characteristics potentially lead to literacy that is only locally meaningful and valuable (Blommaert, 2008).

4.5 Communicative problems

When English is displayed in Beijing, it is most probably written by Chinese people from China. It happens quite often that the sender who is a non-native speaker of English designs a message in the language of a native speaker who is the receiver of that message. It can be expected that the communication in this way will lead to messages that are not understood by 30

the receiver. Due to the grassroots literacy of the sender and/or receiver different types of deviations from the norm can occur in the messages that vary from spelling deviations to the use of informal styles in formal genres. Different scales / different linguistic levels lead to different types of deviations with different consequences for the result of information delivery. I conveniently arranged those scales, deviations and consequences in table 4.1.

Linguistic scale Type of deviation Information delivery consequences 1 Unstable English, orthographic Problems with language form Successful delivery of instability, caused by accident message 2 Chinesed English, language based Problems with genre Successful delivery, but needs on local knowledge, deliberate understanding of the „context translation of production‟ 3 Incomprehensible English, not Problems at all linguistic Unsuccessful delivery, fails to enough knowledge to produce a levels produce „voice‟ text in English, no responsibility for produced text

Table 4.1: Three linguistic scales

In this thesis I will analyze my data on the basis of these three literacy scales that Kroon, Dong & Blommaert (forthcoming) have developed. The English that is produced in the Unstable English scale is characterized by problems with language form and can be identified with all the grassroots literacy characteristics indicated by Blommaert (2008:4) as „orthographic instability‟. Because this scale still leads to successful communication of the intended message I will indicate this in the rest of the thesis with the first scale or category. To understand signs characterized by features of the second category that I called „Chinesed English‟, readers need to have obtained some knowledge of the underlying culture or in Blommaert‟s words (2008: 14) „context of production‟. The people that produce English on this level translate the message in a kind of English that stays close to the original Chinese text. Signs produced by people in the third category are different from the other two categories since they contain deviations on all levels of the language system so that it becomes „Incomprehensible English‟. The messages and signs in this category are made as they are because the author of the message has not enough understanding of the language he uses for writing.

Although many „mistakes‟ are made with English in Beijing, not all signs contain deviations from the conventional norm. Many signs are correct and perfectly understandable. In the next chapter I will give a general overview of the data I have found and I explain how I divided them into the three categories. The following chapters will then consecutively discuss the three categories of communicative problems. Every chapter will first describe the text on the signs. After that I will analyze why the sign is translated like it is in the context of the Chinese society and the last part of each chapter will provide information about how the intended audience received the message.

Chapter 5 General results

In this thesis a total number of 128 signs have been collected. Because this large corpus of signs provides various contents of texts, it is difficult to analyze it as a whole. Therefore I have organized the signs into the before mentioned categories. In addition, I have mentioned the place where I have found them, and which languages are visible on the sign. Finally I have formulated if the sign uses multimodal means to deliver its message. This information is orderly recorded in a table that can be found in appendix 1. This chapter will provide information that can be derived from this table. After that I will use some examples out of this data overview to specify the results in chapters 6, 7 and 8 where I respectively will discuss the three categories in more detail.

To classify the public order notices that I found into the three categories I asked myself two main questions which are:

1) Is the English displayed in a conventional way? and 2) Is the English displayed understandable for its potential? (see table 5.1)

Conventional Yes No

Understandable Yes X Category 1

No Category 2 Category 3

Table 5.1: Grid for categorization of signs

As will turn out when studying the overview in the appendix the divisions are just an indication, because sometimes it happens that the English of a sign is conventional and understandable, but still is categorized in the second scale or that a sign is not conventional but is understandable and still ends up in the third. My considerations for categorization then are respectively if understandability of the context of production is necessary and if deviations occur on different levels of the language system. Sometimes it also happens that a sign is only partly correctly translated, and the rest of the sign is not translated into English at all. Therefore it is just partly understandable for the not Chinese speaking audience. Still I have not considered those as signs with deviations from the conventional norm, because symbols or the correctly translated key words provide enough information to interpret the sign. The overview sometimes mentions that the translation does not completely matches with the original text. I have not categorized those signs in a certain category because the English displayed is according to the conventional norm and is in line with the intention that the original Chinese message communicates. This will be explained when analyzing figure 7.4. 32

Off all the 128 signs 34 can be categorized in the first category, 6 in the second and 18 in the third category. The majority of 70 signs are all according to the conventional norm. Therefore I have not analyzed those in the result chapters. Some signs are categorized in the first as well as in the third scale. Those signs have much text with some spelling deviations and only parts of those signs are not understood. Almost all signs are bilingual in Chinese on top and the English translation under it. Sign number 120 -2 however is only in English, but had a Chinese equivalent (120-1) on the opposite wall. Therefore I have counted them as two signs with one number. Six signs are multilingual of which two have also a Japanese translation next to Chinese and English, two have a fourth language Korean added and two even have a fifth translation in Russian.

Chapter 6 Results „Unstable English‟

6.1 Description of signs

The first picture in this chapter is taken in the swimming pool on the campus of Beijing Language and Culture University, hereafter BLCU. When I entered this swimming pool for the first time to go swimming, I noticed that many signs were put on the walls and all the signs were translated in English. All the signs in the swimming pool are regulatory notices that consist of both signs to regulate overall behavior and signs that warn you for possible dangers as shown in figure 6.1 (Sloboda, 2009).

Figure 6.1: Front wall of swimming pool with many different regulatory signs

1) No diving underwater diving or splashing in the pool 2) Safety is heavier than Mount Taishan 3) No Spitting and No Littering 4) Information For Deep- water Swimmng 5) Mind the slippery floor 6) Follow the Advices of the “Staff” and the “Lifeguards”

Because all the walls are full with warning signs as shown in figure 6.1, to me the swimming pool seemed to be a very dangerous place. In the Netherlands most children learn to swim in the first years of primary school. The signs in the swimming pool of BLCU show that this is certainly not the case in China. When I entered the swimming pool and wanted to jump in the deep water area, the lifeguards

stopped me. First I needed to show them in the shallow water zone that I actually could swim. The criteria which give you access to the deep water zone are described in the sign of figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2: Information For Deep-water Swimming

After I showed them that I met those criteria I received a plastic card, a certificate, with my picture on it and I had to write in a little book a telephone number of a friend that they could call in case of emergency. In my eyes these were very extreme precaution measures. However, signs in other swimming pools (for example at the Capital Institute of Physical Education in Beijing) only have the blue signs with red characters and yellow English translation. The safety instructions in the swimming pool of BLCU are placed there with a reason. Four years ago a student drowned. Back then the swimming pool was a place with a very relaxed atmosphere. There were no barriers that divided the shallow water zone from the deep water zone and radio was played through the speakers. After the girl died, the management wanted to prevent this from happening again and therefore they have changed the atmosphere into a more serious one.

Apart from the severe safety instructions, I also noticed that some signs were placed two times in the swimming pool; one in the front of the swimming pool and one on the other side. Typical is that only one of those signs has a spelling „mistake‟ as shown in figure 6.3. and 6.4

Figure 6.3: Follow the Advices vs Figure 6.4: Lollow the Advices

Obviously the first word of the English translation should be „Follow‟ and not „Lollow‟. This can be regarded as a deviation on the first category. Except for this spelling deviation, and the fact that „instructions‟ would be a better translation than „advices‟, the message is understandable. What also attracted my attention was that in Chinese as well as in the English text the words „Staff‟ and „Lifeguards‟ carry quotation marks. In English, quotation marks are used to mark the beginning and end of a quotation, to indicate that words are used in an ironic sense, or just to emphasize a word if special terminology or slang is used. In all cases quotation marks add some information to the words that carry them, sometimes only to let the reader pay attention to certain slang or terminology. I have been told that the use of quotation marks in Chinese is the same as in English. To use quotation marks in this sign therefore seems unnecessary in Chinese as well as in English.

I also found signs with spelling deviations in other sites in Beijing. Below in figure 6.5 and 6.6 I show two signs that I photographed in the subway.

Figure 6.5: Driction Figure 6.6: Forbid to beam on

For these signs it can also be expected that the audience will not have difficulties to understand the message. Instead of „driction‟, the correct word is spelled „direction‟. The reason why this type of deviation is made is explained by Cook (1997). She found that much of the errors made by adult L2 users of English reflect sound/letter correspondence. In the 36

example of figure 6.4 it is likely that a pronunciation mistake is transferred in the written form. However, a more serious spelling deviation in the sense that it does not fulfill the function of warning people against something, is shown in the second picture. This sign was found on the door inside a subway train. The advertisement of the woman and the child in the background does not belong to the sign. The material of the sign is a transparent sticker on the door. Therefore I needed the light of the advertisement to be able to photograph this sign. The text displayed in English is „Forbid to beam on‟. The original Chinese text is „Forbidden to lean on‟. Because „beam‟ is an existing word in English, the reader could be confused. It is likely that the automatic correction is not as directly made as in figures 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5. When only reading the text people might not know what is forbidden. However the sign also consists of a symbol. When looking carefully one might see a person leaning against a wall. A red round circle is drawn around and a red stripe diagonal crosses it. The symbol alone is enough to understand the meaning of the message. This sign is an example of multimodality (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996).

Problems at the level of orthography involve more than just spelling deviations. The next three pictures show three times the same Chinese text „ 禁止通行‟ (jinzhi tongxing).

Figure 6.7: No Entry Figure 6.8: No Thoroughfare

Figure 6.9: No Passing

In the brochure „English Translation of Public Signs: General Specifications‟ (2006), that was spread in 2006 under the volunteers during the preparations of the Olympic Games „ 禁止通行‟ 37

(jinzhi tongxin) should be translated as „ No Entry‟. That means that only one of the three signs carries the standardized translation. These pictures are taken in different subway stations. The first two in the transfer station of Xizhimen where different subway lines come together and the third sign was found on the train platform of the station Zhichunlu of subway line 13. On the signs also different symbols are visible. Since the content, the color and the symbols vary, it indicates that it is unlikely that Beijing developed a standardization of signs like the Parisian subway (Denis & Pontille, 2010). In addition, although the sign „no entry‟ is the correct translation, this sign according to Scollon & Scollon (2003) does not fully obtain its meaning because the context in which the sign is placed does not correspond with its content. The sign is placed right before the entrance into the underground subway station. The picture shows that the intended audience (people that want to take the subway) all ignore the sign. The sign is therefore not functional. The reason why the sign is placed there, or differently said, is still present there, is that this station is renovated and under construction. It is likely that this entrance is a temporarily one which will be replaced by another entrance when the construction is finished. Another interesting detail arises by looking closely to figure 6.9. Under the sign with „No Passing‟ a second sign can be seen. This sign indicates that the space under the sign leads to an exit. However, one is not allowed to „pass‟ through it. The incorrect translation of „ 禁止通行‟ (jinzhi tongxin) with „No Passing‟ instead of „No Entry‟ makes it an amusing combination. If the sign would have carried the translation „No Entry‟, it would have been clear that this passage leads to an exit and not to an entry into the subway station.

After the description of these pictures, a few questions came into my mind. Is the translator responsible for these deviations or someone else? How is it possible that in one swimming pool two identical signs can be placed with one of them containing a deviation? Why is a Chinese text translated in three different ways? How is it possible that signs with deviations are placed, is there no control? In the next sections I will answer those questions.

6.2 Analysis

I will illustrate the answer on the first question with figure 6.10 and 6.11. These signs show that spelling deviations are not only made in English but also in Chinese. The „mistake‟ is in the word „feiqiwu‟. The meaning of „废弃物‟ (feiqiwu) is waste, but „费弃物‟ (feqiwui) doesn‟t exist in this combination of characters. The meaning of this „fei‟ (费) is costs or expenses and therefore not relevant in this message. Typos in Chinese are of similar natures as typos in English. To explain how they can be made I first need to go briefly into the Chinese writing system.

Figure 6.10: 废弃物，feiqiwu Figure 6.11: 费弃物，feiqiwu

A Chinese character does not represent a phoneme like in the Latin alphabet, but a syllable. These syllables have meaning and words are often made out of two syllables or characters. The Chinese script has much more signs than the Latin alphabet, but not many more sounds. However, different words are differently written even if they sound the same (Sybesma, 2009). To type a Chinese character with the computer, a software program is needed. This program displays every character that goes by a particular pinyin (pinyin is an official system that transcribes Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet). In other words, the normal Western keyboard is used to type pinyin. The software then displays several possible characters and all you have to do is to choose the right one. Sometimes when someone types very fast it is possible that the wrong character is chosen. That is how it can happen that when using the computer writing Chinese, a mistake can be made easily by choosing the wrong character. In short, the translator that translates Chinese into English is probably not the responsible person for the spelling deviations made, because deviations of a similar nature are also made in Chinese. Probably these are made in the preparation phase when written texts are transformed into print. This presumption is confirmed by Professor Huo Jianxin. He told me that the entire country‟s swimming pools all have the same blue signs with red characters and yellow English translation under it. The blue signs are the new signs that needed to replace the old red and white signs shown in figure 6.1. Only BLCU didn‟t remove the red/white signs, which is, apart from the extra safety precautions, why BLCU has many more signs than the swimming pool of CIPE. The project to replace all signs in swimming pools by new signs had finished only last year. The responsible person for that activity is the general manager of all swimming pools in China. That manager decides the lay out and the text of the signs. Afterwards he informs all the swimming pools in China how they have to place the signs. I assume that this instruction is spread digitally. The individual swimming pools are responsible to assign some local printers to fabricate the signs. It seems that the people that fabricate the signs do not speak enough English and that only the translator knows English and that he or she will not check the signs anymore after delivering the translations. I think that after the fabrication signs are not controlled anymore but just placed. Although I assume that the general manager of the swimming pools in China digitally informs the individual swimming pools about what the signs should look like, I think that the local printers do not receive a digital example. If they had had a digital copy of the created

sign, spelling deviations would not need to be made. The printers probably see a letter mistaken for another and just type the one they think to recognize. If this is the way how they work, it is not likely that signs will be produced in accordance with conventional English spelling, because the majority of the people in China don‟t have access to English or don‟t use it anymore after their school career. In fact, English has prestige but it is not functional. After this possible explanation of how signs with deviations from the conventional norm are placed without any control, the remaining question is how it happens that in one swimming pool with two identical signs one can be correct and one can be wrong. Also this is explained by Professor Huo. Local printers are used to fabricate the necessary signs, but those printers are often small companies that cannot accept big orders with a tight deadline. Therefore a swimming pool might choose several printers and each of them can make different deviations. This also counts for the signs in the subway. Since one of the Chinese girls that I interviewed studied to become an English translator I asked her for an explanation of how the same sign in Chinese could get three different translations. She reacted as follows:

Fragment 1: Reaction on figure 6.7-6.9 of Chinese student (CH2) CH2: They are from different lines I think and maybe each line is made by different companies, subway companies. And some may have formal translators and some companies may have translators that do the translation and some other they may just look it up in the dictionary. Or they ask their own staff to do it, their own workers. Some may do know a little English and he uses the dictionary to translate it probably.

She told me that different subway companies are responsible to construct the subway lines. Some of those companies might use official translators and others let employees who know a little English translate the signs. Those people might just use a dictionary and use the first word they find in it. We tried if this could be true using an electronic dictionary. This type of dictionary looks like a little computer with just one function which is translating Chinese into English and the other way around. Those dictionaries are sold in every shopping market and electronic store in Beijing with different brands and different prices. Therefore I expect that the quality of those dictionaries vary enormously. Many Chinese people posses one of those since it is very convenient to use. You just type the word you are looking for and the dictionary provides an equivalent in another language. All three of the Chinese interviewees possessed one on which they relied. Consequently one of them was very surprised that the electronic dictionary translated „禁止通行‟ with „no thoroughfare‟. This indicates that the translators might have used an electronic dictionary to translate it. However, there is another very convenient translation method available that has probably reached millions of people world-wide. This method is called „Google Translations‟ and makes use of a kind of database to provide automatic translations which is called „statistical machine translation‟. The search engine Google has a special tap for translations. It offers the possibility to translate any word or even complete sentences from and to 57 different languages. Therefore I wanted to know which English translation Google would provide me for „禁止通行‟. It came up with the same translation as the electronic dictionary. This means that indeed the sign has been translated by

a person that doesn‟t know English very well and used the electronic dictionary or Google translations to translate it. After this discovery I was curious how the translation of „no passing‟ was found. I decided to split the two words and find a translation for each of them. Well, first „禁止‟ means „prohibit‟, and „通信‟means passage (according to Google translation) or „pass through‟(according to my own dictionary). This means that the people that translated this sign with no passing might have used a different method to find a translation. The explanation on the question why people do not control their work comes from the first interview I conducted with a Chinese student studying sociolinguistics (CH1). She said that people just do their daily routines and if nothing goes wrong everybody is happy. In the economic situation around 1978 she says the state owned all the factories and companies. In that time it didn‟t matter how much work you did or how many problems you solved. You just had to work enough hours and then you received your payment. But when you work in your own company things are different, she explains. Then it matters to work harder since then you will receive more money. People in China have worked many years in these state owned companies and they have developed a routine there which might have influenced their attitudes towards work. In the words of the interviewee CH1: “Their work is just a routine, they never think they work for themselves or for society”. She means here that the people just work to receive money and not to develop themselves and also not helping other people while working.

6.3 Reactions of the intended audience.

In sections 6.1 and 6.2 I have described the signs and I have explained the source of the problem. In this section I will show how the intended audiences (foreigners in Beijing) understand those signs. I will make use of the interviews that I held with two American students having English as their home language and the student from Venezuela having Spanish as his mother tongue as mentioned in section 2.5.8. To all interviewees I have asked the question if they understood the sign and if they thought it matters that the sign is not spelled according the conventions. The Americans immediately understood that „lollow‟ should have been „follow‟, but the Venezuelan needed a few seconds to think. That can be regarded as a difference between native speakers of English and non-native speakers of English. They agreed that this deviation didn‟t matter, because with one wrong letter you still can understand the message. When I asked if the picture was useful on the sign the Americans thought it was not. The picture indicates a swimming pool, but with the picture alone they said not to be able to derive the meaning out of it. For the reaction of the Venezuelan student I refer to the next fragment.

Fragment 2: Reaction on figure 6.4-6.4 of Venezuelan student NL: The picture does it help you to understand the message. VZ: Yes, what I understand is, it is ok, this is a place where you can be with people laughing and having a good time. I think it is not the same idea (with the text) no. But it is difficult to draw this idea on a picture.

Also, the Venezuelan noticed that the picture does not match the text. Although, according to him, it is difficult to draw the text into a picture, now it shows a place where you can be with people laughing and have a good time, whereas the text is much more serious. However, when studying the picture a little longer, the picture does seem to match the text perfectly. Obvious is that the men with the whistle belongs to the staff. The figure next to the lifeguard seems to wear a similar outfit and is talking to the swimmers. Therefore he might belong to the staff as well. The lifeguard smiles as well as one of the swimmers which might indicate that the swimmers behave appropriately and that they are happily following the instructions of the staff. About figure 6.5 I asked the interviewees if the spelling deviation in „driction‟ bothered them. The Americans replied that it even amused them to see a word that didn‟t exist. One of them did not even see the misspelling at a glance, but only when he looked a little longer he discovered it. This can be explained that when reading a word you often in fact do not really need the vowels, because you look at the word as a whole. Also the Venezuelan thought that it didn‟t matter to him, because English is not his mother tongue. If a spelling deviation would have been made in Spanish it might have bothered him, because it should be done well. Interesting is that I have also asked the CH2 to give a reaction on this sign. The following fragment shows that she has a completely different vision.

Fragment 3: Reaction on figure 6.5 of Chinese student (CH2) NL: This is in the subway. CH: Haha, how can they misspell it! NL: Do you think it matters if you see this? CH2: Yes, the image of Beijing! And it is very, some people might think it is very embarrassing sign. Because Beijing is a very big city and this kind of sign. There is this kind of sign in the subway station. A very formal place and, Is it still there? NL: Yes, I made it three weeks ago. CH2: But in the Olympic Games it should be checked I think. NL: Yes, and it is an new subway station this one, it is line 13 which is pretty new right? So, this sign is not very old. CH2: No, it is not very old. 5, 6 years I don’t know. NL: To whom does it matter? CH2: Foreign people. NL: And Chinese people being embarrassed? CH2: Yes, some Chinese people. Chinese people themselves are also not happy. We make also take photos of this kind of mistakes in English translation. And we think it is funny and some think it is not good. And it is a kind of common in China I think. You can see a lot of wrong translations; I don’t know how they do it!

She even reacts on it a little embarrassed with: “Haha, how can they misspell it!” She thinks that it really matters, because it harms the image of Beijing. A subway station is a formal place and spelling deviations are not expected in a big international city as Beijing. She said that this should have been checked in the preparation time before the Olympic Games, especially because the sign is found in a relative new subway station that is only five or six

years old. She thinks it matters to foreign people and also some Chinese people are not happy with these „mistakes‟. That figure 6.6 gives more trouble in understanding it, is also supported by the foreign interviewees. Both Americans were fixed on the text. They understood that they were forbidden to do something but didn‟t know what. Beam is an existing word but not something that you do, therefore they were unable to interpret the message as how it was meant to be interpreted as can be derived from the next interview fragment.

Fragment 4: Reaction on figure 6.6 of students from United States US2: Forbid to beam on. US1: Forbid, not allowed, ok I get that. US2: You can’t do something here. US1: But it doesn’t explain. NL: Do you understand the picture? US2: I am not completely sure. To take a wild guess? Don’t pee on something maybe? NL: Don’t pee on something! Is beam not a word? US2: Beam is not something that you do? It is on the ceiling, ceiling beam is to hold on the ceiling. Is he leaning against the light pole? US1: The door. NL: He is leaning against the door. So, it should be. US1: Do not lean against the door. US2: Who, I never would have got that! NL: No. Does it matter? US2: Yes it is important. In the subway if you lean against doors, you can fall and hurt yourself. It is very important. I would say that sign needs to be changed right away. US1: The sign and the writing.

For the Americans the picture was not helpful. When looking at the text and the picture their first guess was that it was not allowed to pee on something. Although they didn‟t care that the sign with „driction‟ was spelled wrong, they thought this sign with „beam‟ instead of „lean‟ did matter. They answered my question if the „mistake‟ matters with: “Yes it is important. In the subway if you lean against doors, you can fall and hurt yourself. It is very important. I would say that sign needs to be changed right away; the sign and the writing”. The Venezuelan‟s attention however, was drawn to the picture first and he didn‟t even read the text. From the picture he could tell immediately that it was not allowed to lean against the wall. He did not even know the English word „leaning‟. Therefore the text didn‟t matter much to him and he could not reveal the text to be correct or not. In the interview he said more than once that his English is not that good and therefore he didn‟t read many signs. He used the symbols on the signs to get instructed. This example shows a clear difference in understanding of signs between the non-native speaking English student and the English native speaking students.

Chapter 7 Results „Chinesed English‟

In chapter 6 I have described what can be categorized under problems with language form and I have tried to sketch the circumstances in which these problems occur. However, working routines and no access to learning English are not the only reasons why English translations contain so many deviations in the linguistic landscape of Beijing. In this chapter I will describe another type of deviation that often leads to, in the eyes of foreigners at least, amusing messages.

Figure 7.1: Prevent the thief

7.1 Warning in the form of a Chinese poem

Figure 7.1 shows a photo I made on the campus of BLCU. The initiator of the sign is the Security Department of the University. The sign is bilingual because many overseas students live in dormitories on the campus of this university. The reason why this sign is placed is because the university wants to inform the students that it is their own responsibility to take care of their personal belongings. The English is a literal translation of the Chinese characters. Shinei Wuren （室内无人） means: „inside room not people‟; Suishou Suomen （随手锁门）means: „On ones way lock door‟; Fangzhi Qiezei（防止窃贼）means: „prevent the thief‟; and Renren Youze （人人有责） means: „everyone is responsible‟. In Chinese it happens very often that a sentence is constructed in parts in which the first part consists of a topic and what follows is a comment on that topic (Sybesma, 2009). That is also the case in this sign. In every part of four characters the first two are the topic and the last two give a comment about that topic. Obviously the English tried to copy that style, which results in an awkward English text. In sum, the sign contains English with Chinese grammar. In addition, what also attracts the attention is that this is not one sentence with one topic and one comment, but with four topics and four comments. It is a kind of proverb with

characteristics of the form of a traditional Chinese poem. In traditional Chinese poetry, one type of poems are formed by 4 to 8 lines and each line consists of 5 characters. Each dynasty had different poetry styles as is shown by famous Chinese poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu. The picture however does not consist of five but of 4 characters per line. The interviewee CH1 told me that poems in earlier times had fewer characters. When people find that they need to express more feelings, they will add more words in one line, which is the way in which poetry has developed, the interviewee said. She also told me that this style in the sign is chosen because it reads easy. When a message is written in four characters it is easier to acquire it. If it is written in a long sentence she said, nobody would bother to read it, because you have to spend too much time. The last point that can be noticed is that the texts in English even rhymes just like the Chinese text, which means that explicitly some effort has been put in the translation. In addition, given the fact that the producer of the sign is the Security Department of BLCU, it can be expected that they have easy access to people that speak English very well, because it is a university where various languages are taught and its campus hosts many foreign students and foreign teachers. However, CH3 mentioned that she is quite sure that the original Chinese text is not written by the Security Department of BLCU, but that they copied it from somewhere else and probably there is also a translation in English that goes with it. Unfortunately in this case it was impossible to find the source. However, more important than finding the source is investigating if the message is understood by the intended audience. Therefore I have asked this question during the interview with the before mentioned foreign students. Neither of the students had seen this sign before. Referring to fragments from the interviews below, it can be concluded that they all were able to interpret the message and they didn‟t care that the message in English was written according to Chinese grammar.

Fragment 5: Reaction on figure 7.1 of Venezuelan student NL: How do you interpret it? VZ: If there is anybody in the room, lock the door behind you. If you are not in the room, lock. Don’t leave the room open without lock. NL: Can you say this is English? VZ: No. Yes, it is English words but not English grammar. NL: What do you think this English being wrong, does it matter to you? VZ: No, I don’t care.

VZ can understand what the message communicates, because he uses his own words to interpret the message. Further he suggests that the author of the sign tries to fix English words in a Chinese sentence structure. And that is exactly what happened here. He doesn‟t mind that the English language in this sign is not written in the conventional way.

Fragment 6: Reaction on figure 7.1 of students from United States US1: I think I get the message? US2: I understand the message. It is just funny. NL: In what sense?

US1: Well, if you are leaving your house, and you close the door. There are no thieves and nothing happens to you. That is what I get. US2: But it seems that a better English translation could have been made. US1: Yeah. NL: Does it offend you? US2: No. NL: Your language being messed up? US1: No. Because it is a foreign language. It should be correct, but if they got that far, I am not going to be that angry about it. US2: Yes, I will understand that this is simply a literal translation. Word-for-word literal translation. That doesn’t offend me, if it is anything then it is amusing.

US1 and US2 also say to understand the message. US2 reads the message in four separated parts what makes it funny and amusing according to him. However US1 doesn‟t seem to interpret it as an order notice that orders the reader to lock the door for everybody‟s safety. He reads is as a warning that when the door is locked, nothing will happen to you because thieves can‟t enter.

7.2 Sign with metaphor

The sign in figure 7.2 is found in the swimming pool of the Capital Institute of Physical Education in Beijing. The same sign is also found in the swimming pool of BLCU as shown in figure 6.1. In both swimming pools this sign is placed on a prominent place, above the chairs of the lifeguards. Therefore these sings cannot be missed.

Figure 7.2: Safety is heavier than Mount Taishan

This phrase is a metaphor that emphasizes that something is highly important. This sign compares the importance of safety to the weight of Mount Taishan. However, Chinese people use this expression to compare anything considered very important with the weight of that mountain. That is why many things can be put before „zhongyu taishan‟ (heavier than Mount

Taishan). The phrase dates back to a Chinese historian Sima Qian (145 BC – 90 BC). His original phrase is: 人固有一死或重于泰山，或轻于鸿毛, Ren, guyou yisi, huo zhongyu taishan, huo qingyu hongmao. It means: “For everybody death is inevitable, sometimes it can be heavier than Taishan, sometimes it can be light as a feather.” He wrote this famous phrase in （报任安书，Baoren Anshu）. It implies that if death is as light as a feather, someone‟s death is worthless, when death is heavier than Mount Taishan, it means that someone‟s death is for a good purpose. The Chinese interviewee CH3 explained: “It is talking of people having high morality that even when you die, you die for a great cause. Then your death is heavier than Mount Taishan. And if you choose to be coward or a traitor then you are worthless. So whether you are alive or death it doesn‟t matter.” Apart from Sima Qian this phrase was also used in another moment in history. Chairman Mao Zedong has used the phrase in his article（为人民服务, wei renmin fuwu） where he used it as follows: "To die for the people is heavier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather." He said this in memorial to the death of one of his guards that tried to prepare as much coal as he could for his headquarters, and was killed. Mount Tai (shan means mountain) is located in the province Shandong and it is one of the five famous holy mountains in China. It is associated with birth, sun and renewal and already a place of worship for more than 3,000 years. Therefore this translation is obviously a literally translation originating from a cultural issue. Chinese people often make use of proverbs to show that they are knowledgeable. The question I asked myself is whether this translation is a good translation or not. Although the original expression is recorded in the dictionary for Chinese proverbs, this metaphor doesn‟t make sense in English. Foreigners with none or little knowledge about China would not know what Mount Tai is. However, with the English words here is nothing wrong. The Chinese girls do not think that this translation is done by a translation company. However, I think that it is translated by a professional translator who is not a native speaker of English. Exactly the same sign (also in terms of layout) can be found in every swimming pool in China as I mentioned in chapter 6. It is an example of a compulsory sign.

Also this sign I have shown during the interview with foreign students. The next fragment shows that the student from Venezuela is very enthusiastic about the sign.

Fragment 7: Reaction of figure 7.2 of Venezuelan student NL: Have you seen this one? VZ: Yes, this is another piece of Kongzi (Kongzi / 孔子 is the Chinese name for the philosopher Confucius). This is good, this is really good. NL: You like it? Do you understand it? VZ: Yes, safety. If you are in a pool, what is safe, you know, your common sense will tell you what is safe. You don’t need to explain a lot of things that you know. This is really nice. And they make a metaphor, they compare with a mountain. This is really good. This is the best one. NL: What do you mean with the best one? VZ: The one that gives you a really good idea about what they are trying to say, haha. And they do it in a very good way.

NL: Do you know what Mount Taishan is? VZ: I don’t know, but it is really heavy, the mountain. I don’t need to know what Mount Taishan is; I know that it is heavy! NL: So, but then safety is heavy? VZ: No, yeah it is not good translated. Safety is heavier; I can understand what they are trying to say. NL: Yes, what? VZ: Is important. NL: Yes! VZ: But if they use important it will lose all the impact. And safety can be heavier too. NL: You think? VZ: Yes, this is poetry. You can do this in poetry and it is good. If you use the good word for safety you will not have the same result. Yes, I like this one, and I read this one. It is my favourite.

Although this interviewee never heard about the holy mountain Taishan, he was able to interpret and even appreciate the message. That the audience appreciates the message is very important, since it means that they are then willing to cooperate with the given instruction in the public order notice. That is also the goal of such a sign. Although the translation of this sign cannot be found in an English speaking country, it communicates successfully with its readers. Also the students from the United States gave a similar reaction on this sign.

Fragment 8: Reaction on figure 7.2 of students from U.S. NL: This is in the swimming pool. Does it make sense? US2: I think I know what it means but it is a funny way to say. US1: Yes, maybe it should say safety is important? Safety is first. US2: Be safe. NL: This is also a quote. US2: Another quote hm. Is it literally translated; something like safety has more than a weight to it that this mountain does? I have no idea what Mount Taishan is. Is it a famous mountain around here? NL: Yes it is one of the five holy mountains. US2: So a holy mountain would carry even more weight. So, safety is very important, if it is heavier than a holy mountain! NL: What do you think of this? US2: I understand the meaning, it is only kind of confusing and funny. NL: And do you think does it matter? US1: It should, but it is common sense in a swimming pool as well, so. US2: It is not that important.

US1 and US2 understood that the sign is emphasizing safety, and they thought the message was expressed in a funny way. When I told them that this was a quote, they started to think deeper about the content of the message. They were able to guess that Taishan is a famous mountain in China. So after a while studying the message of the sign they were able to understand the comparison as well.

7.3 Sign with poetical language

The sign in figure 7.3 is found in the imperial garden of the Forbidden City. The sign is made of wood and the letters are written in white paint. The lay-out of this sign is used in all signs that are located in other touristic hotspots as well.

Figure 7.3: “A Single act of carelessness leads to the eternal loss of beauty”

The text in Chinese reads as follows: “Wu yin yishi shufu, poguai yongheng meihao”. Literally is says: „Do not do like this, in short time to make a small mistake, since that small mistake will lead to the eternal destruction of perfection‟. It means that it will be very regrettable if you destroy something, because it will never be back as it was before. The first line of the Chinese text contrasts with the second line. „Yishi‟ means a very short time and „yong‟ means eternity, a long time. And also shufu is in contrast with meihao. „Shufu‟ means a small mistake and „meihao‟ means perfection. It is a characteristic Chinese way of expression. The reason why things in Chinese are said in this way is explained by CH1. The girl says that if a message directly forbids you to do something, this is a very strong way of transmitting a message in Chinese. Chinese people like to be approached more subtle so that they understand and act according to their own heart. This girl thinks that this sign is perceived very well by Chinese people, because of the philosophical contrasts and even the tones (the melody in which the characters are pronounced) are very well formed, she said. In her opinion it is impossible to translate this message appropriately. Chinese interviewee CH3 has a different opinion. She said: “I think it is an ineffective sign and too dramatic. They dramatize you to impress you. Because even if I step on the grass, it will grow back next year. It will not destroy the beauty forever. This one actually sucks!” So, the question to be asked again is if signs are written in metaphors or in a poetical way, the translation should try to keep close to the original content or should the signs be translated according to the minds of the English speaking receivers. When signs are translated more freely, the translation is very functional because the receiver is able to make sense of it.

That is off course the aim of a translation. This is very difficult for translators because they need to learn to think with the mind of a person that thinks in another language. Although poetic and philosophical ways of communication can express something that moves you or touches you as a CH1 says, it might cause some problems for the receivers of the message. The meaning can be predicted and contextualized, but it is likely that the exact meaning cannot be derived out of the words. In the following part I will show how the intended audience reacts on this sign, but first I want to discuss a sign in which the translator did not follow the original Chinese words but did manage to translate the meaning of message in a way that is appropriate in English.

Figure 7.4: Thank you for your visit, have a nice day

The Chinese text says: “Visit ends here”, which does not sound very polite in English. However the translation implies the same but sounds much friendlier. Signs in figures 7.3 and 7.4 are photographed in the Forbidden City. However the translation ideology (to stay close to the original text while translating or translate more freely) is not consistent. In one sign the translator stays close to the Chinese text and in the second sign he or she has decided to deviate from that.

That the exact meaning of the sign in figure 7.3 is difficult to interpret is clearly shown by the next fragment of the interview with the student from Venezuela.

Fragment 9.1: Reaction on figure 7.3 of Venezuelan student NL: First I want to know like what do you think of this. What do they tell you? VZ: You need to be aware of what you do, yeah! The loss of beauty. I don’t know what the loss of beauty for Chinese people is. I think maybe here in this one is a cultural difference. Because maybe a loss of beauty for them is something really, means something. But for a person who speak English. Maybe for them loss of beauty has another meaning. Maybe it is not good translated. It is a cultural difference; it is not a translation problem. I don’t know.

The interviewee clearly struggles with the interpretation of „the loss of beauty‟. When I ask him what he thinks the meaning is he answers: “Only with a small mistake you can make many harm to your life, something like that. Yes, because is the eternal loss of beauty, hehehe”. This interviewee interprets it personally, when I ask him that he says: “Eternal, you will be eternally punished”. The conversation continues with:

Fragment 9.2: Reaction on figure 7.3 of Venezuelan student NL: Yes, that is not written in Chinese. If you destroy something in this area then you will damage something and you never get it back. VZ: Ohhhh, yes that could be. But it is too complicated.

After I tell him what I think the meaning is, he understands it better but answers that it is very complicated. However, although he had some interpretation difficulties, he still likes the way the sign talks to him, because it gives him the opportunity to interpret it the way he likes it, which is off course not the intention of a public order notice.

The native English speaking students from the United States have less problems to interpret the meaning of the message.

Fragment 10: Reaction on figure 7.3 of students from U.S. NL: It is in the Forbidden City. So, what should you do or not do? US1: If you damage something, you will completely damage the beauty of it. US2: Where I am from, we have signs similar to it about starting fires in the woods. Like one careless act leads to the death of the forest or the death of other people because of fire. They have similar sign for this where I am from (which is a small village in Montana). US1: For me it is correct. US2: For example drawing with a black pen on a part of the city. You will deface ancient property and that will be a loss of its beauty. So the sign does make sense, it is just worded funny. ‘Don’t destroy property’ would make more sense to me. We understand the meaning. Don’t destroy the stuff here, because it is older than you are, and we will never get it back.

A reason why they are able to interpret the message correctly is given by the interviewee himself. Also in the place where he grew up signs are written in a way to make the readers aware of the influence their behavior might have on the environment. That habitus of these students matches with the sign.

7.4 A Chinese habit

The picture of the sign in figure 7.5 is taken in a hotel room of the conference center of the University of Geosciences (Beijing Dizhi Xueyuan) that is located across the campus of BLCU. When a friend from The Netherlands was visiting me, we booked a hotel room there, because the conference center of BLCU didn‟t have rooms available.

Figure 7.5: “Indirect potable water”

In the Netherlands as in most other European countries it is possible to drink water directly from the tap. Therefore it is necessary to be informed when this is not possible. When I am informed that I cannot drink water from the tap, this means to me that it is unsafe to drink it because the water from the tap is not clean enough and may be not good for your health. When this is the case I often not even use this water to brush my teeth. This sign clearly implies that it is not possible to drink the water directly from the tap. Although potable water means that the water is drinkable, the word indirect suggests a negation. The English words are a literary translation of the Chinese words. The meaning of 非 (fei) is „not‟, 直接 (zhijie) means „direct‟ and 饮用水 (yinyongshui) means potable water. However, the negation indirect is not so strong. So, this sign might cause some confusion to foreigners. Although it is clear that you cannot fill your glass with water from the tap, it might not be very unsafe for your health. Because I have been in China regularly and stayed in various hotel rooms, I know that every hotel room provides an electric water boiler to their guests with which they can make tea, since the hotel also provides tea bags in every room. Therefore I could interpret the meaning of the sign as to use the water from the tap to fill the water boiler for preparing your tea. So, indirectly (after boiling the water) it is possible to drink the water from the tap. When I talked about this sign with the interviewees they confirmed my interpretation and added some interesting information. In CH1 said the water from the tap is clean, it is possible to drink it. However, they tend to boil the water before drinking, because the pipes that transport the water are very old and might not be very clean. Therefore you cannot drink the water directly from the tap. She formulates it as follows “We say the pipes are very old and who knows what is in the pipe. We do not have a machine in our home. If we have a

machine connected the pipe in our home than we can drink the water from the pipe. But most of the time they do not have this machine, so we tend to boil the water.” Also here the English is a literally translation from the Chinese. For Chinese people it is perfectly clear what is meant by the Chinese sign and how they have to interpret it. But obviously the translator didn‟t anticipate on the perception of foreigners. This brings me to a next question to answer: How do foreigners perceive the message? As expected the interviews with the foreign students both show that they understand that this water cannot be drunk directly from the tap. The Venezuelan student‟s reaction is as follows: “It is not potable you cannot drink it! Oh, this is horrible. Because if you use potable water it would create like complication. Don‟t drink the water, they should do that.” Potable water is water made to drink. The student from Venezuela is obviously confused that the message suggests that the water from the tap is potable water but cannot be drunk from. The students from the United States both had a different opinion as shown in the next fragment.

Fragment 11: Reaction on figure 7.4 of students from U.S. NL: Can you drink it or not? US1: no, yes, no. Because indirect is a negative term. US2: It says potable water, so I think it is ok, because it says potable water. US1: But indirect. I would say no. US2: I will see potable water, because I will take away what I understand. But with the sign it makes sense. Don’t drink this. I would say not potable, because indirect doesn’t quite fit.

One of them focused immediately on the term indirect which indicates a negation, but the other student focused on the word potable water because that is a word he understands. However, when watching the sign he doesn‟t doubt anymore since it clearly demonstrates not to drink the water. The symbol in this picture is therefore very important. Using more multimodality to communicate a message enhances the success of the delivery to various people and decreases the number of possible interpretations (Coppoolse, 2009).

Chapter 8 Results „Incomprehensible English‟

In chapters 6 and 7 I showed some examples of what goes wrong with English in Beijing. In chapter 6 this was due to problems with language form and in chapter 7 the translator didn‟t take the Chinese cultural background of the contents of the message into account. What also became clear out of the interviews is that the deviations in chapter 6 and 7 still lead to understandable notices. In this chapter however, I will show some examples where messages fail to communicate. Here not only orthographic deviations occur but they are combined with syntactical, semantically and pragmatic deviations. I will start with an example of not so much importance and end this chapter where communication completely breaks down in an essential situation.

8.1 Slippery floor

The sign in figure 8.1 is found in a Mac Donalds between subway station Dongsishitiao and the area Sanlitun. The sign of figure 8.2 is found before the entrance of the Bell Tower (a famous touristic attraction, see section 2.5). Both signs have the same Chinese characters but the English translation is different.

Figure 8.1: Be careful of landslide Figure 8.2: Caution! Slippery

Just as in the example of differently translated ways of „no entry‟ in chapter 6, also the signs that warn visitors for a slippery floor vary enormously. The total overview of all the signs that I have found (see appendix) includes all the variations. Although the translations of all those signs vary, they all mention the word slippery or slip, except the sign of figure 8.1. Therefore I just want to discuss two most divergent examples here.

The literally translation of 小心地滑 (xiaoxin dihua) is „mind the slippery floor‟. The official translation of 小心地滑 (xiaoxin dihua) as written in the „General specifications of English translation of public signs‟ (2006) are Caution! Slippery, or Caution! Wet floor. That means that the sign placed at the Bell Tower is the standard translation prescribed by the authorities. Therefore it can be said that this sign is an official sign (Backhaus, 2006), produced by public

authority directed at common citizens, and categorized by Ben-Rafael et al. (2006) as a top- down sign. The definition of „landslide‟ in the „Oxford Idioms Dictionary‟ (2010) which is used by the Powerword1 software is: A slide of a large mass of dirt and rock down a mountain or cliff. The word „landslide‟ makes the sign completely meaningless, since inside a building the chance that a landslide takes place is very small. The question is how the producers of the sign choose to translate 小心地滑 (xiaoxin dihua, mind the slippery floor) with „be careful of landslide‟. I have asked this to CH2. Again we used the electronic dictionary to see what translation is given for dihua. The result was as we expected: dihua is translated by this dictionary with landslip, landslide. Therefore I expect that the electronic dictionary is used to translate the sign. However, if we search the Chinese equivalent for landslide in the dictionary, it provides the word 滑坡 (huapo) and not dihua. This proves that one cannot completely rely on a dictionary. In addition, not only the content of the signs vary but also the symbols on both signs are different. The symbol on the sign in the Bell Tower shows a person almost falling on the ground, while the symbol on the sign in the Mac Donalds shows a person walking. The symbol on the sign of the Bell Tower in fact adds information to the content of the message whereas the symbol on the other sign not even expresses the content, not to mention supporting it. According to Ben-Rafael et al. (2006) the sign in the Mac Donalds can be categorized as bottom-up, because this sign is produced by a corporation to communicate with its clients. In sum, the English translation of the top-down sign here is correct whereas the translation of the bottom-up sign leads to communication breakdown.

8.2 Warning not to open the door

The picture of the sign of figure 8.3 is made on the stairs leading to my yoga class inside the Gymnasium of BLCU. The sign consists of a yellow paper attached with tape to a door. The Chinese text reads literally as follows: „wudong, 无动 (don‟t move), weizhe,违者 (violate person), bijiu, 必究 (must punishment,)‟. Translated freely it would say: Don‟t open the door, the person that violates this, needs to bear the consequences. Several aspects of the English translation attract the attention. First the sign shows a spelling deviation in the verb tense of the last word. The conventional verb tense should be „punished‟ instead of punish. This is a deviation that can be categorized in the first category. However, more aspects produce problems here. Many people to whom I showed the sign of figure 8.3 laughed, because the tone of the language seems inappropriate since the consequences that follow from this order notice seem to be too severe. That happens because while translating the translator stayed too close to the original Chinese text. In addition, although the sign makes quite clear that it is not appreciated

1 Kinsoft PowerWord 2010: Oxford Special is a software program with two digital installed dictionaries (1) New Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary and (2) Oxford Idioms Dictionary. By clicking on any word of a text in the computer screen PowerWord will give you the equivalent of the source language in English or Chinese. 55

to move, it is not clear from the text itself if I‟m not allowed to move or if I‟m not allowed to move something. The obvious thing is that punishment will follow if I move (it).

Figure 8.3: Don‟t move, or you will be punish!

Still I experienced that most people understand that they are not allowed to open that door. According to Scollon & Scollon (2003) this is an example of a sign that makes meaning through indexicality. The context of the placement and the physical characteristics of the sign give readers extra information. The sign is placed over the split between the two closed doors so that it actually functions as a door chain. Because the sign is attached to the door with tape and the fact that the sign is made of paper, indicates that the sign is placed there for a temporary period. The door gives access to another area in the building. Probably this is an area where they don‟t want students to come (yet). When this sign would be placed on for example a wall or on a tree, it would give a very scary feeling to its readers. This sign is clearly contextualized (Blommaert, 2005). It only makes sense in this particular context.

8.3 Warning in subway station

Before I discuss the English used in the sign of figure 8.5 I first need to give some context information about the content of the sign in figure 8.4. The sign informs about how to use a gas tank appropriate and how to act in case of a dangerous situation. Chinese people used to use these gas tanks in the kitchen for cooking. When I asked CH2 if her family still uses it she answers that people living in apartments don‟t use this cooking equipment anymore, but people living in hutongs (Beijing‟s traditional residences) still use them. Many of those hutongs do not have pipelines for water, gas and electricity. To avoid accidents the authorities want to inform the inhabitants how to act in case of emergency. Because every day thousands of people take the subway in Beijing, the subway is a place where an enormous audience can be reached. In the overview of all pictures taken (see appendix 1) I have added similar signs informing the subway audience about different subjects. Figure 8.4 shows the complete sign, whereas figure 8.5 shows a part of that sign which I will discuss in detail below.

Figure 8.4: How to use a coal gas bottle Figure 8.5: Don‟t roast steel bottle

This sign is interesting from different perspectives. The first question to ask is why this picture has been translated into English. Off course foreigners also travel by subway, therefore foreigners will meet this sign along their way through the subway station. However, it is not likely that foreigners use gas tanks while cooking in Beijing, since tourists are on holiday residing in hotels and hostels, and are dining in restaurants, expats live in neighborhoods where gas tanks are not in use, and also international student dormitories prefer to install electric cooking equipment for the safety of their students. Therefore it can be said that this sign is not made to be read by foreigners. CH2 thinks that it is translated because it makes the sign more international since Beijing is an international city. It is most likely that the sign has been translated because a regulation has defined that. After searching this on the internet, I indeed found a regulation for public transport signs (see section 2.5.6.) A second aspect that attracted my attention was that the person displayed on the sign doesn‟t look like a Chinese person, because she has red hair and round eyes. This Western style cartoon seems to be a new tendency because also people on signs of the police and on signs in the swimming pools are displayed with varying hair colors, skin colors and different eye forms. The American interviewees were just like me also confused by the cartoon. They thought the cartoon has an English appearance. Therefore they thought it is not directed at Chinese people. The question that arises then is who is the intended receiver of the message? I asked CH2 what she thought of that. Her reaction was as follows: “The pictures don‟t matter, because in a lot of cartoons in China, in the public signs are not in black hair for example”. The reason why cartoons don‟t have the characteristics of a Chinese person is that Chinese

people in general think that dyed hair and big eyes are more beautiful than small eyes and black hair. Therefore she still can identify herself with the cartoon. The third interesting part is the way in which the text is translated. The Chinese says literally: Buyao hongkao yehuaqigangping（不要烘烤液化气钢瓶）do not roast LPG steel bottle，buyao suiyi qingdao yehuaqishiyou canzha (不要随意倾倒液化气石油残渣）do not do as one likes dump the liquid gas oil remains. Hongkao can also be translated more freely with burning off. Then a proper translation would become: „Don‟t set the LPG steel bottle on fire and don‟t dump the remains of the liquid gas as you please‟. The first question I ask myself is why on earth should I want to roast a steel bottle, and what do they mean with „rave‟ in this context. According to the English-Dutch dictionary of „Wolters Handwoordenboek‟, rave means „raaskallen‟ (talk nonsense) and „in extase zijn over‟ (to be excited about something). I cannot find out how the Chinese people that translated this sign have translated qingdao （倾倒）with „rave‟. This English word makes the sign completely meaningless. In addition, in the middle of the symbol, the sign displays two other characters. These are 静止 (jinzhi) and it means „forbidden‟. The meaning of this sign then is that it is forbidden to burn a gas tank and forbidden to dump the gas remains at any place one wishes. However these characters are not translated which makes it confusing what the woman on the picture of the sign is doing. The picture shows a woman that is lifting the LPG steel bottle and she looks in the direction of a bottle that is on fire. So, that may imply that when an LPG steel bottle is on fire, one have to extinguish it with the liquid gas from another bottle. Well, this is obviously just my own imagination. However, if I can think like this, other people can do that too which makes this sign a very dangerous one. So, it can be said that apart from being linguistically inadequate, the symbol on the sign is also not informative. Using multimodality in this sign does not help to develop a better understanding.

After studying the sign for a while very well, people will probably be able to interpret the meaning of the message, because when using common sense every well thinking person might understand that it is not wise to burn a gas tank and to empty the remains of gas at any place. This sign warns the readers to prevent a dangerous situation from happening; the sign discussed in the next section on the other hand reports what to do in an emergency situation.

8.3 Fire extinguisher

The sign of figure 8.5 is found in a corridor in the underground subway station Xizhimen before choosing taking line 4 or line 2. However the same sign is seen in various subway stations.

Figure 8.5: Fire damage to facilities prohibited block

In an emergency situation it is important that the text is short and simple, so that you don‟t need to think about it. The sign in figure 8.5 completely fails to be understood in such a situation.

The background of the sign is red which indicates danger, therefore this sign must report about something very important. The first line of this sign informs about something that is prohibited. However, it is totally impossible to understand what is prohibited. Let‟s have a look at the Chinese text. That might explain the word order in English. The first word 消防 (xiaofang) means „fire fighting‟, the second word 设施 (sheshi) means „facilities‟, the third word after the space 禁止 (jinzhi) means „prohibited‟, the fourth word 阻挡 (zudang) means block/stop, and the last word 损坏 (sunhuai) means damage. The translation „fire damage to facilities prohibited block‟ is almost a word for word translation. All the individual words are used but they are not placed in exactly the same order as the Chinese words. Therefore I think that the person translated this has inserted the complete sentence into a translation computer at

once and that the translation computer randomly ordered the words. However, because of using this translation method, the message completely fails to be informative. It indicates that the translator of this sign doesn‟t have any knowledge of English. If he had he would have changed the output of the translation computer according to the rules for English word order. The Chinese text just like in the example of figure 7.1 is a topic-comment construction. The words 消防设施 (xiaofang sheshi) can be read as one word meaning fire extinguisher (literally; the fire fighter facilities). That is the topic. After the space starts the comment which is „prohibited to block and to damage‟. The right translation then should be: it is prohibited to block and damage the fire extinguisher. CH2 explains the reason why the Chinese language makes use of this construction very often and how it should be translated: “This kind of sentence structure is actually emphasized by our studies, because this is what makes authentic Chinese. And when you do translation from English to Chinese you actually do not come up with the Chinese with English grammar. You have to use this sentence structure because it is more authentic and easier for Chinese people to understand. You do not foreignalize (she means using words from one language with the grammar of the original language) your translation. And also because it is sign language you don‟t need to have a complete sentence. So it is all in like separated clauses that save space and is more eye-catching. Because a full sentence runs like this and it is not clear where the emphasize is, so you put two simple phrases and people know how to make the connection between the two, what is the relationship between the two clauses. And most Chinese people are able to make sense of it”. This girl understands what goes wrong which indicates that the possibilities in the society are present to have correct translations everywhere, but the people directly involved don‟t see the necessity of it. CH3 supports my reasoning by saying that the Chinese people involved in constructing the sign will probably think that foreigners are not going to read this and that it only has been translated because of prescribed rules that all signs in subway stations should be in Chinese and in English (see section 8.3). CH3 also thinks that Chinese people are more likely to take the responsibility in case of a fire in the underground subway system. To quote her words: “But again if a fire really breaks out I guess we are not counting on English speakers to use the fire extinguisher. Let‟s just hope that some Chinese will be smart enough to work with these machines.” The next question to ask is how do foreigners receive this sign. Do they understand the meaning and do they think it matters? I have asked these questions to the interviewees. The students from the United States answered my question of how they interpreted it as follows:

Fragment 12: Reaction on figure 8.5 of students from U.S. NL: If you interpret it, what do you think? US1: The fire damage is prohibited? US2: I can only assume it means don’t use candles. Don’t operate anything that would start a fire. US1: Yes, do not burn anything. Do not play with fire. US2: Don’t burn your garbage, don’t light candles. Don’t use hot kitchen instruments.

This shows that just like me they are unable to interpret the meaning of the message. And they also think that for this sign it is very important that the text is written in correct English because in an emergency situation you don‟t understand what to do. The sign further shows how to use the fire extinguisher in case of a fire. The steps are structured in order of time. First a picture is shown, below the picture a text in Chinese explains what to do and under the Chinese text an English translation is visible. In almost all the pictures the English translation is wrong. The next fragments from the interview with the student from Venezuela show well how he received this sign. Not only did he not understand it, but it also shows his frustration that this sign is not informative as how it should be in such an important situation.

Fragment 14.1: Reaction on figure 8.5 of student from Venezuela NL: First read the first line. VZ: Fire damage to facilities prohibited block. I don’t know. NL: What is this? VZ: I don’t know. It is really bad! It is not good. Ok, fire hydrant use. Hydrant I think this word is not good. NL: Yes, that is good. VZ: Ok, open the door? Is does not open any door! By hands on report? No! Connection hose. Connect water gun. Open the valve. Fire water! What is that, like shot water? Remove the fire extinguisher. It is not good. I would not follow those. It is too complicated. I think the whole building will burn, after you understand that!

Fragment 14.2: Reaction of figure 8.5 of student from Venezuela NL: What about this one? VZ: This one, unplug the insurance sales. NL: What does it mean? VZ: I don’t know. Something. No, it is impossible. It is too hard. NL: Do you think it matters? VZ: No, this matters! This matters, because you need to know really fast how to use this. I think they should. The pictures are not so good. In this case I think it is better to draw pictures really nice like cartoons. Because the people who work there often pass through that way. So, if you put some good pictures explaining, they will know that. Then they do not need to read this when the building is on fire. They can read it in other moments. If you are new in this place and you read this, I think you will die.

Fragment 14.3: Reaction of figure 8.5 of student from Venezuela NL: To come back to the first sentence. Do you have any idea what this is? What is your interpretation? VZ: I don’t know. NL: Try! Use your imagination. VZ: Fire damage. The fire is prohibit the fire. It is not allowed to fire, to burn the facilities. The block I don’t know. I think that cannot enter in this phrase, block. O yeah. Don’t burn the facilities, like block, don’t do that. NL: Yes, what do you think. Well good interpretation, almost. It means do not block the facilities. It is prohibited to put something (block) something before the fire extinguisher. VZ: Woh! Why do they do such a bad work, I don’t understand! I think why do they translate it so bad. I think, because they don’t care. NL: You think they don’t care? VZ: Yes, they don’t care. They think oh, we don’t have a lot of foreigners here. Maybe they do it, because a Chinese law said, you need to put the English so they don’t want to spend, to pay translators and they use google and just put it there. But they just don’t care. They only care about the Chinese words. They want to

save money. Yeah, but they do the job. If someone from the government comes, they see ah they did it in English, this sign is good. But I think they should have a new law that the English should be good. NL: They tried to make this with this book. VZ: Yes, but they should put fines.

Apart from the frustration of the interviewee about the bad translation there is another aspect that attracted my attention. This interviewee who is not a native speaker of English does not know what „hydrant‟ means although this word is a correct translation. Because the proficiency level of the Venezuelan interviewee of English is not that of a native speaker, it is for him even more important that the text is correct; otherwise he will be confused if his misunderstanding is caused because of his knowledge of English or because of the incorrect English on the sign. Apart from the word „hydrant‟ there are more words used out of the terminology of firefighting equipment. Examples as „hose‟, „valve‟ and „nozzle‟ may lead to the same difficulties for non-native speakers of English. The American students confirmed me that those words are the right words to use for these parts of the fire extinguisher. In short, the specific terminology is translated correctly, but the rest of the message is not interpretable. That terminology is not only difficult to understand for non-native speakers is shown by a CH2. She said that if she reads only the Chinese text she will not understand what it is, the picture helps her to understand the meaning of the terminology.

Finally, I want to discuss one part of the sign in more detail (see figure 8.6).

Figure 8.6: How should the fire be extinguished?

The Chinese text in a word for word translation says: Duizhun huomiao genbu penshe / Aim at flame root spray. A better translation then should be „direct the spray to the root of the flames‟. Other translations are possible too, for example „spray in the direction of the root of the flames. The Chinese sentence contains two verbs, which are the first and the last word, the two words in the middle is the comment for both verbs. During the translation the translators might have been struggling with the English word order and they haven‟t found the right one. But it is also possible that they didn‟t translate it word for word but inserted the complete

sentence into a translation computer and just used the result just like what happened in figure 8.5. The second sentence, leads to more interpretation problems. The first thing that attracted my attention was that the sentence is placed between brackets in Chinese and in English, although this is essential information. One possible explanation is that the first phrase doesn‟t allow a place in the sentence construction to specify where to stand while spraying. It is possible to put it in front of duizhun followed by a comma, but because this information is not the most important they put it at the bottom in brackets. And because it is placed in brackets in Chinese, the same is done for its English translation. The translation of ren zhanli zai shangfeng word for word is „person stand in windward‟. My dictionary (FLTRP Collins, En-Ch, Ch-En Dictionary) gives another translation for shangfeng as well which is „advantage or get in the upper hand‟. A part of the transcript with the interviewee CH1 uses the following words to explain this:

Fragment 14: Explanation of figure 8.6 by Chinese interviewee (CH1) CH1: Feng is a metaphor in Chinese here (refers to ‘get in upper hand’). But it is just used here to express the real meaning of wind. So that is why it is wrong. NL: So, the metaphorical meaning is translated, but here it should be a literal translation. CH1: Shangfeng is used metaphorically and used in real wind. I think they just look it up in the dictionary and off course they use Chinese-English one. They just enter shangfeng and then on the screen appears upper hand. But shangfeng is used in metaphorically.

The right translation of the complete instruction that goes with this picture should be: „Direct the spray to the root of the flames. People should stand in a position where the wind comes from‟. Also with watching this sign the Venezuelan interviewee first looks at the picture before he reads the text. The first thing he says when I show him this sign is: “This is funny! The fire has a face”! What the students from the United States and Venezuela thought about this message can be concluded from fragments of the interview. The first fragment is taken from the interviews with the Americans the second from the interview with the Venezuelan student.

Fragment 15: Reaction on figure 8.6 of students from U.S. NL: What is upper hand? US1: Advantage. But normally what I interpret is, is that you are in advantage of the fire. For example it say it is burning in this area. And you want to move somewhere where you can attack it better. That you have a better tense of the fire without harming yourself. That way you are in advantage of the situation. That is how I interpret. NL: Ok, that is pretty close. Because it says you have to stand in the direction where the wind is coming from. US2: I would not have any idea of the wind. It would not have even occurred to me that it was talking about the wind.

Fragment 16: Reaction on figure 8.6 of student from Venezuela VZ: Who stands in the upper hand. I don’t know if this is good translated. NL: Do you understand it? VZ: No.

NL: What does it tell you? VZ: Nothing! And they put it in the brackets. (reads the Chinese…..) Shangfeng, what is that? NL: That is that you have to stand in the direction where the wind is coming from. VZ: Woh! No, that is not the same. Yes, it is horrible. They only did that to say: “ we did that, it is in English”. But, too bad. Maybe the person, where will you buy this, who do this. Can you buy this those signs? Is there a company who make this? You know this? I think you have to investigate this!

Unfortunately I was not able to investigate this for this specific sign, but I expect that a similar process of the development of signs in swimming pools can also be applied to the signs designed for the subway. Concluding from those fragments it again seems that the native-English speaking students are better able to interpret the message than the non-native speaking student. In addition, not being able to make sense out of seemingly important information leads to frustration. However because the Venezuelan interviewee is aware that his English might not be proficient enough to understand it correctly he first doubts about his own knowledge (I don‟t know if this is good translated). Only after I said that he is not to blame for it, but that the translator did a bad job, he showed his frustration.

When a message cannot be interpreted, not only „mistakes‟ are made in spelling, but also in word order, in tenses, in wrongly used words. However, with using common sense, enough time and some cultural background knowledge you can come very far.

Chapter 9 Conclusion

In this thesis I have discussed the results of English translations on signs in Beijing produced by Chinese people. I have categorized the deviations into three categories and by recording interviews I have found out how the signs categorized into these categories have been valued by foreign students living in Beijing. In this final chapter I will first give a short summary of those values, then I will give some final reflections on the results and finally I will provide some ideas for future research.

9.1 Summary of results

To answer the research question: “What happens if public order notices in Beijing are translated in English?” I can conclude that various types of deviations lead to different levels of communication problems. Chapter 6 shows that typo‟s in English still lead to understandable messages. The interviews with the foreign students show that they don‟t care about those deviations, because these are regarded as „mistakes‟ that sometimes even amuse them. The signs in chapter 7 are not translated by mistake, but are deliberately constructed as they are, because of cultural established ways of communicating. These signs make good sense in Chinese, but sound strange in English. To be able to interpret language it is important to understand the historical context of the message, therefore often only Chinese speakers will understand exactly how it is meant, but they don‟t need an English translation. This chapter also gave some arguments why it is better to translate a text free from the exact words of the original text, because confusion by English readers also often arises when the translator translated the message word-for word. However, the interviews show that although readers of the signs need to puzzle and think carefully, they are capable of understanding the intended meaning of the message on the sign. Chapter 8 provides some examples of signs where the audience gets completely confused. Those English translations in signs use English words but result in „misnomers‟ or in a „soup of words‟ (Kroon, S., Dong, J., Van Bochove, L, & Blommaert, J., forthcoming). These signs often form a collection of different deviations, leading to incomprehensible messages. If the message is still understandable it seems not be so important to the foreign students, like the examples in chapter 6 and 7 show, but when they are unable to make an appropriate interpretation, they get annoyed. What also leads to confusion with English readers of signs is the trend to display Chinese people without Chinese characteristics. Chinese people are often displayed with big eyes, various hair and skin colors. This enforces my perception that not only the English language is regarded very prestigious, but also looking like a Western person is highly valued. The last aspect that appeared to be important is that people with only a very little knowledge of English are sometimes also responsible for making translations. These people then completely rely on translation tools like the electronic dictionary or „Google Translations‟, which results in signs that I categorized in the third

category. These signs don‟t make any sense in English. While translating the translator should know that dictionaries are just tools, they don‟t do the work for you. Translating a text needs understanding of as well linguistic aspects of both languages as understanding of cultural matters.

9.2 Final interpretations

Chapter 5 shows that problems with language form that constitute the first category happen more often than language problems that fall within the second and the third category. I have suggested that deviations of the first category are not made by the translator, but by the people responsible for the production of the material sign. People that produce objects are often less educated and literate than designers of those objects. According to Blommaert (2008) does grassroots literacy happens more often when literacy levels are low. Although the authorities in Beijing have established regulations and norms for signs in the linguistic landscape, in the construction process, due to grassroots literacy of the constructors of the signs things go wrong. Deviations therefore are displayed in bottom-up signs as well as in top-down signs. All signs that I analyzed in this thesis contain features of grassroots literacy. The English language is only standardized on the level of the authorities. Only a very small part of the Beijing population has access to that standardized level of English, but English is used on many more levels inside the population, therefore different varieties or accents become visible. These accents originate from existing local resources. For example using singular and plural incorrectly. In other words, people from differently stratified levels of the Beijing population use a language (English) they don‟t control.

What can be derived from the results as well is that sings that can be placed in the second scale are scarce in comparison with the number of signs in the first and third scale. This can be explained because as the examples show those signs use Chinese „cultural modes of speech‟ and in daily life these ways of expression are also used only at special occasions.

The theory of Spolsky (2009) that the language choice in a sign is based on, among other things, the condition that a sign should be written in a language that the author knows doesn‟t hold in Beijing since chapter 8 showed some examples of English translation attempts that result in meaningless messages. The consequence is that also the second condition that a sign needs to be written in the language that can be read by the people it is meant for is not fulfilled. The question to ask then is why English is still chosen to be displayed. Is it the third and last aspect Spolsky (2009) mentions? Do the Chinese people want to be identified with English? Or differently said, does English give them something that identifies them as what they wish to be(come)? According to the prestige that English has obtained as described in chapter two and the fact that Chinese people display themselves in a Western style, this could be true. However, the results show that the importance of correct English is mainly supported by the authorities and therefore more a top-down phenomenon. In practice there is a wish to do it, but not much importance seems to be attached to doing it correctly. The underlying

attitude seems to be that it doesn‟t matter what is exactly written, if there is English it is good. There seems to be a contradiction between the importance attached to English and the command of the English language that people have reached in Beijing.

9.3 Discussion

In this thesis it is discussed that due to globalization people increasingly travel and take their languages with them. In line with this tendency the present study provides some insights into the entrance and development of English in Beijing. The study also contributes to the still developing literature in changing linguistic landscapes of metropoles around the world. The data collected in this thesis can be used to contribute then with other data collections to acquire an understanding of the effects of language mobility. Despite the value of the findings, two main limitations can be mentioned. First, this research used informants to discover the background information of the signs. Although several informants were used, the results still depend largely on the knowledge of those informants. Second, it was in many cases not possible to discover the designer of the signs. Therefore the thesis only provides motivated assumptions about how the signs were processed. In future research it would be interesting to focus on the production of the signs in order to get a better understanding why signs are produced as they are. For many foreigners in Beijing English is also not their mother tongue. It seems from the results of the interviews that especially for this group the use of multimodality in signs are even more important. However, to make statements about that more interviews are needed with native and non-native English speakers which could be an idea for a future research.

References

Backhaus, P. (2006). Multilingualism in Tokyo: A look into the linguistic landscape. In D. Gorter (Ed.), Linguistic Landscape: A new approach to multilingualism (52-66). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Backhaus, P. (2009). Rules and Regulation in Linguistic Landscaping: A comparative perspective. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery (157-171). New York: Routledge.

Barni, M. & Bagna, C. (2010). Linguistic Landscape and Language Vitality. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael & M. Barni (Eds.) Linguistic Landscape in the city (3-18). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Hasan Amara, M. & Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). Linguistic Landscape as Symbolic Construction of the Public Space: The case of Israel. In D. Gorter (Ed.), Linguistic Landscape: A new approach to multilingualism (7-30). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: Key topics in sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural Pragmatics 4 (1), 1-19.

Blommaert, J. (2008). Grassroots Literacy: Writing, Identity and Voice in Central Africa. London: Routledge.

Blommaert, J. & Huang, A. (2009). Historical bodies and historical space. Journal of Applied Linguistics 6 (3), special issue on Scollon, 1-16.

Blommaert, J. (2010). The Sociolinguistics of Globalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blommaert, J., & Dong, J. (2010). Ethnographic fieldwork: A beginner‟s guide. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Blommaert, J., & Backus, A. (2011). Repertoires revisited: „Knowing language‟ in superdiversity. Working papers in Urban Language & Literacies, 67.

Cenoz, J. & Gorter, D. (2009). Language Economy and Linguistic Landscape. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery (55-69). New York: Routledge.

Coppoolse, J. (2009). Visuele communicatie en geletterdheid op het Gambiaanse platteland: Een etnografische studie naar de productie en receptie van multi-semiotische tekens in het linguïstische landschap (Master‟s thesis, Tilburg University, The Netherlands). Retrieved from http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=96542.

Denis, J., & Pontille, D. (2010). Placing subway signs: practical properties of signs at work. Visual Communication, 9 (4), 441-462.

Dong, J. (2010). The enregisterment of Putonghua in practice. Language & Communication, 30 (3), 265-275.

Dong, J. (2011). Discourse, Identity and China‟s Internal Migration: The long March to the City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Feng, A. (2007) Bilingual education in China: Practices, policies and concepts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Feng, A. (2009). Identity, „acting interculturally‟ and aims for bilingual education: an example from China. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30 (4), 283- 296).

Gao, Y. (2009). Sociocultural contexts and English in China: Retaining and Reforming the Cultural Habitus. In: Lo Bianco, J., Orton, J. & Gao, Y. (Eds). China and English: Globalization and dilemmas of identity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Gorter, D. (Ed.). (2006). Linguistic Landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Hu, G. (2005). English Language education in China: Policies, progress and problems. In: A. Feng, Bilingual Education in China: Practices, policies and concepts Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Hu, G. (2007). The Juggernaut of Chinese-English bilingual education. In: A. Feng, Bilingual Education in China: Practices, policies and concepts Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Hu, G. (2008). The Misleading Academic Discourse on Chinese-English Bilingual Education in China. Review of Educational Research, 78(2), 195-231

Hu, G. (2009). The craze for English medium education in China: driving forces and looming consequences. English Today, 25(4), 47-54

Kallen, J. (2009). Tourism and representation in the Irish Linguistic Landscape. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery (270-283). New York: Routledge.

Kress, G. & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.

Kroon S. & Sturm, J. (2007) International comparative case study research in education: Key incident analysis and international triangulation. In: W. Herrlitz (ed.) Research mother tongue education in a comparative international perspective: Theoretical and methodological issues, 99-118. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi.

Kroon, S., Dong, J. & Blommaert, J. (to be published). Truly Moving Texts.

Kroon, S., Dong, J., Van Bochove, L, & Blommaert, J. (to be published). English as a Beijing dialect.

Landry, R. & Bourhis, R.Y. (1997). Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49.

Pan, L. (to be published). An overview of the state ideology towards English in China.

Pan, L. (2009). Dissecting multilingual Beijing: the space and scale of vernacular globalization. Visual Communication, 9(1), 67-90.

Reh, M. (2004). Multilingual writing: A reader-oriented typology – with examples from Lira municipality (Uganda). International Journal of the sociology of Language, 170(1), 1-41.

Saillard, C. (2004). On the promotion of Putonghua in China: How a standard language becomes a vernacular. In M. Zhou & H. Sun (Eds). Language Policy in the People‟s Republic of China: Theory and practise since 1949. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Scollon, R., & Scollon, S.W. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London and NewYork: Routledge

Shohamy, E. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge.

Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D. (Eds.). (2009). Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery. New York: Routledge.

Shohamy, E., Ben-Rafael, E. & Barni, M. (Eds.). (2010). Linguistic Landscape in the City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Sloboda, M. (2009). State ideology and linguistic landscape: A comparative analysis of (Post)communist Belarus, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery (25-39). New York: Routledge.

Spolsky,B. & Cooper, R.L. (1991). The Languages of Jerusalem. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Spolsky, B. (2009). Prolegomena to a Sociolinguistic theory of public signage. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery (25-39). New York: Routledge.

Sybesma, R. (2009). Het Chinees en het Nederlands zijn eigenlijk hetzelfde. Houten: Uitgeverij het Spectrum.

Wright, S. (2004). Language Policy and Language Planning: From Nationalism to Globalisation. Hamptshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Zhou, M., & Sun, H. (Eds.). (2004). Language Policy in the People‟s Republic of China: Theory and practise since 1949. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Appendix 1 Overview of signs English tekst Location Conventional Understandable Category of Language(s) Symbol English for English deviation displayed speakers? 1 No swimming, fishing or walking on the ice Chaoyang Park yes yes Chinese and no English 2 Please behave in a good manner Houhai yes yes Translation Chinese and yes and original English don’t match 3 Please behave in a good manner Houhai yes yes Translation Chinese and yes and original English don’t match 4 Don’t move or you will be punish! Campus BLCU no yes 3 Chinese and no English 5 Please keep of the rock, scape and grass Xijiao hotel no yes 1 no garden 6 Please don’t writing and painting Postoffice no yes 1 Chinese and no campus BLCU English 7 Please take care of your bags! Classroom yes yes Chinese and yes Please don’t forget your valuables! campus BLCU English 8 Nobody in the room, lock the door behind one, prevent Campus BLCU no yes 2 Chinese and no the thief, the duty of everyone English 9 No Graffiti on the Wall. 798 Art District yes yes Chinese and no Thank You for Your Cooperation. English 10 No climb 798 Art District no yes 1 Chinese and no English 11 Please take care of your personal valuables Campus BLCU yes yes Chinese and no English 12 Be Careful of Cars Wudaokou area no yes 1 Chinese and yes English

13 Boardskating and rollerskating are prohibited in plaza, Campus BLCU no yes 1 Chinese and yes platform and roads of teaching area on campus as to English keep orderllness and to avoid accidents 14 No Climbing Or Graffiti Old summer yes yes Chinese and yes Palace English (Yuanming yuan) 15 No swimming, No skating, No fishing Old summer yes yes Chinese and yes palace English (Yuanming yuan) 16 Do not pick flowers Old summer yes yes Chinese and yes palace English (Yuanming yuan) 17 No Fireworks Old summer yes yes Chinese and yes palace English (Yuanming yuan) 18 Please Go through the Feet-Soaking Tank before Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes Entering the Pools! BLCU English 19 No Chasing, Quarreling or Fighting Near the Pools Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes BLCU English 20 Danger: Quarreling or Fighting Strictly Prohibited inside Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes Pools BLCU English 21 Slippery Floor! Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes BLCU English 22 Lollow the Advices of the “Staff” and the “Life Guards” Swimming pool no yes 1 Chinese and yes BLCU English 23 No Spitting and No Littering! Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes BLCU English

24 No Spitting and No littering! Swimming pool yes yes 1 (spelling Chinese and yes BLCU mistake in English Chinese) 25 Mind the Slippery Floor Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes BLCU English 26 Please do not cross the barrier into the deep water area Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and no BLCU English 27 No diving underwater diving or splashing in the pool Swimming pool no yes 1 Chinese and no BLCU English 28 Safety is heavier than Mount Taishan Swimming pool yes no 2 Chinese and no BLCU English 29 Follow the Advices of the “Staff” and the “Life Guards” Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes BLCU English 30 Keep away from the lane line Swimming pool no yes 1 Chinese and no BLCU English 31 No Diving in the Shallow Water Areas Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and Yes BLCU English 32 Information For Deep-water Swimming Swimming pool no not all 1 and 3 Chinese and yes Certification Test BLCU English 1. You must use the regular swimming posture, such as the breast stroke, butterfly and Freestyle. 2. You must swim 200 meters continuously, you cannot rest or grilled side. 3. You must tread water 30 seconds with both hands out of water. 4. You should take a one-inch-photo. 5. Those who meet the above criteria are eligible for the test. 33 Please take care oldster and child Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and no (on handrail of English escalator)

34 No smoking Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes (entrance) English 35 No loitering Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes (entrance) English 36 No littering Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes (entrance) English 37 No vendors Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes (entrance) English 38 Dangerous articles prohibited Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes English 39 Dangerous articles forbidden Subway station yes yes Not whole sign Chinese and yes is translated English 40 Fire damage to facilities prohibited block Subway station no no 3 Chinese and no English 41 Fire hydrant use Subway station yes yes Chinese and no English 42 Open the door Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes English 43 Bye hands-on report Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes English 44 Connection hose Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and yes English 45 Connect water gun Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes English 46 Open the valve Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes English 47 Fire water Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and yes English 48 Fire extinguisher use Subway station yes yes Chinese and no English 49 Remove the fire extinguisher Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes

English 50 Unplug the Insurance sales Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes English 51 Hold the pressure of the hand Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes Hand holding the nozzle English 52 Root spray on the flames Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes (Who stands in the upper hand) English 53 Mind the gaps Inside metro yes yes 2 Chinese and yes train English 54 Pull inward Inside metro yes yes Chinese and no train Englsih 55 Help protect the cultural relics Summer palace yes yes Chinese and no Help protect the railings English 56 Mind the hilly road Summer palace yes yes Chinese, no English, Korean and Japanese 57 Visitors, this way Summer palace yes yes 1 Chinese and yes English 58 It is not allowed to screen and to take commercial Great Wall no partly 3 Chinese and no photographys (Jinshanling) English 59 Mind you don’t slip Great Wall yes yes Chinese, yes (Jinshanling) English and Japanese 60 Preserve the Great Wall Take care of the environments Great Wall no yes 1 Chinese and yes (Jinshanling) English 61 Be carful Great Wall no yes 1 Chinese and yes (Jinshanling) English 62 Please do not stay here in a thunderstorm Great Wall yes yes Chinese, yes (Jinshanling) English and Japanese

63 No smoking, flaming and camping Great Wall yes yes Chinese and no (Jinshanling) English 64 In case of fire: Please do not use elevator. Use the Classroom yes yes Chinese and yes emergency stairs instead building BLCU English 65 Please do not eat chewing-gum Tunnel between no yes 1 Chinese and no No smoking Tian an mens English square and Forbidden City 66 Caution! Slippery Bell Tower yes yes Chinese and yes English 67 No admittance Bell Tower yes yes Chinese and no English 68 No Crossing BellTower yes yes Chinese and yes English 69 Please do not strike the bell with coins Bell Tower yes yes Chinese and no English 70 For the high tower, steep and smooth stairs, pay Drum Tower yes yes Chinese and no attention to safety please! English 71 Caution! Steep staircases! Drum Tower yes yes Chinese and no Please ask a staff member for help. English 72 Do not strike Drum Tower yes yes Chinese and yes No smoking English 73 Be careful of landslide Mac Donalds yes no 3 Chinese and yes English 74 Please slow down the stairs Mac Donalds no yes 1 Chinese and no English 75 No Smoking Classroom yes yes Chinese and no building BLCU English 76 Quite please Classroom yes yes Chinese and no building BLCU English 77 No Passing Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and yes

English 78 To line 10 driction Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and yes English 79 Please watch out the stairs Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and yes English 80 Break cover and turn knob in emergency Inside metro yes yes Chinese and no train English 81 Don’t roast LPG steel bottle; Don’t rave about LPG Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes remnant liquid freely English 82 Don’t fidget when coal gass botte in fire, we can cover Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes the fire with wet bedding and clothes, then close gas English valve immediately, put out the fire by separating coal gas from oxygen. 83 Keep distance of longer than 1 meter between LPG steel Subway station no partly 3 Chinese and yes bottle and cooking range. When using open valve firstly, English then ignition switch; And close valve firstly, then ignition switch after using. 84 When examining LPG lek or not, we can daub pipeline Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes and kitchen range with suds dipped by fluff brush, brush English pen or toothbrush, and where airbubble appears is where LPG leaks. Subs can be made with common lather, also washing powder or cleanser in water. 85 Don’t place refridgeratory in domestic kitchen, to Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes prevent a fire aroused by refridgeration compressor English starting when gas leaks. 86 Keep clear of the door Inside metro yes yes Chinese and yes train English 87 Mind you hand Inside metro yes yes Chinese and yes train English 88 Forbid to beam on Inside metro no yes 1 Chinese and yes train English

89 No Entry Subway station yes yes Chinese and yes entrance English 90 Mind the gaps Inside metro yes Confusion 2 Chinese and yes train because of English symbol 91 Musquito repellent incense should be placed on Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes noncombustability, and keep combustability away from English burnable musquito-repellent incense. 92 Oil lamp and candle should not be placed on Subway station no no 3 Chinese and yes combustibility or close with combustibility. They should English be in charge of people when used, if not they should be crushed out. 93 Perilous hills, no climbing please Forbidden City yes yes Chinese and yes English 94 A single act of carelessness leads to the eternal loss of Forbidden City yes Party 2 Chinese and no beauty (metaphoric English use) 95 No entry for visitors Forbidden City yes yes Chinese and yes English 96 No visitors allowed Forbidden City yes yes Chinese and yes English 97 Thank you for your visit, have a nice day Forbidden City yes yes Translation Chinese and yes and original English don’t match 98 Look out! The slope is steep and the road is slippery Jingshan Park yes yes Chinese and yes English 99 Please don’t climb over the fence Jingshan Park yes yes Chinese and no English 100 Netrance Midi festival no yes 1 Chinese and yes English 101 Entrance security Midi festival yes yes Chinese and no

English 102 No thoroughfare Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and yes English 103 Look out, knock head Cantonese no yes 1 Chinese and yes restaurant English Wudaokou 104 No Entering Swimming pool no yes 1 Chinese and yes Sport university English 105 Don’t spit Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes Sport university English 106 Please take a shower before entering the pools Swimming pool yes yes Chinese and yes Sport university English 107 Mind your head Gymnasium yes yes Chinese and no sport university English 108 Stop Gymnasium yes yes Explanation is Chinese and yes sport university not translated English 109 Care of our home, care of green life Street nearby yes yes Chinese and yes subway English Shuangjin 110 To Dongzhimen Driction Subway station no yes 1 Chinese and no English 111 Disabled ticket window Great Wall no yes 1 Chinese and yes Mutianyu English 112 Risk, please pay attention to safety Great Wall yes yes Chinese and no Mutianyu English 113 No Climb Over Great Wall yes yes Chinese, no Mutianyu English, Japanese, Korean Russian 114 The cash should be counted face to face Great Wall yes no 3 Chinese and no

Mutianyu English 115 Please ride Great Wall yes yes Chinese and yes Mutianyu English 116 Work area, off-limits to tourists Great Wall no yes 1 Chinese, no Mutianyu English, Japanese, Korean, Russian 117 Caution stumbling Restaurant yes yes Chinese and yes campus BLCU English 118 Watch yourhead School cantine yes yes 1 Chinese and yes campus BLCU English 119 Playing Music and loud conver sation not affowled Restaurant no yes 1 English, no campus BLCU Korean, Japanese and Chinese 120 Please return the dishware to the cleaning counter after School cantine yes yes Chinese and no eating. Thank you for your cooperation. campus BLCU English on separated signs 121 Don’t wait. In case of emergency in campus: call School cantine yes yes Chinese and yes 82303104 campus BLCU English 122 Care slip Shop in no yes 1 Chinese and yes Wudaokou English 123 Please keep away for safety Airport terminal yes yes Chinese and yes 3 Beijing English 124 The elderly and the children should be accompanied Airport terminal yes yes 1 Chinese and yes while using the elevator. 3 Beijing English

125 Indirect potable water Hotel room yes no 2 Chinese and yes campus English University of geography 126 Caution slip Hotel room no yes 1 Chinese and yes campus English University of geography 127 Warm prompt Hotel room no no 3 Chinese and yes campus English University of geography 128 Don’t drink and drive Street near Bell yes yes Translation Chinese and yes and Drum and original English Tower don’t entirely match

Appendix 2 Interview questions

Interview questions to Chinese speakers

1) Can you remember having seen this? 2) Do you read this kind of information when you enter the (swimming pool, subway, summer palace)? 3) Do you understand the meaning what has been written? 4) Why do you think it has been written in English too? 5) Could you comment on the English that has been used? Is it correct or not? 6) What went wrong? To which degree? Just words or also meaning? 7) Why did it go wrong? Can you explain this? 8) What do you think of the English being wrong? Does it matter? 9) For whom does it matter? Or does it only matter because of the prescribed rules in the general specifications of English translations of public signs? 10) Do you think that there are many signs translated into English in Beijing? 11) What do you think in general of so many signs being written in English?

Interview questions to English speakers

1) Can you remember having seen this? 2) Do you read this kind of information when you enter the (swimming pool, subway, summer palace)? 3) Why do you think it has been written in English? 4) Could you comment on the English that has been used? 5) Is it English? Can you say it like this in English? 6) How do you interpret the message? 7) How should the translation be according to you? 8) What do you think of the English being wrong? Does it matter to you? 9) On a scale from 1 to 10 can you say how much it matters to you that it is wrong? 10) Do the symbols help you to understand what to do? 11) Do you think that there are many signs translated into English in Beijing? 12) Do you consider it helpful that so many signs have been translated into English?