Traveling the World

For whatever reason, be it a lack of understanding or just pure laziness, we find that very few signs are written correctly in our language. It is unfair to make fun of them for not doing it correctly, however with all the foreigners living in China, didn’t anyone think to just ask one of us?

Children

Some signs I’ve personally come across are “Be Careful and Slip Quietly,” “Tikts Here,” “Feed Pandas,” “No Service for No Clothes,” just to name a few.

As the Olympics approached in 2008, Beijing backed a massive campaign to fix the signs for tourists on the street, hotels, and restaurants, however when I was there in 2009, I still saw many problems. It was the same for me in Shanghai last April, yet as a result of the Expo coming this year, Shanghai followed a similar campaign.

Some people say it’s bad to correct the signs because it shows insight into how the Chinese think, while others say don’t change it because it provides laughter on the trail. My personal belief is that if China wants to be taken seriously as a country with English speakers ready to do business with you wherever you are, then they need to take even more drastic steps to correct these problems, including the way their education system is set up.

Railing

I think the country has done a piss poor job so far in educating their students how to speak English, and as a result have needed to hire millions of foreigners to come and teach the language correctly. If this was done the right way, those signs would never exist. Then why is it that even after foreigners have been teaching English here for almost 30 years, that these problems still occur?

All we can be glad for is that the government is trying it’s best to remedy some problems from the past by changing the signs so those who visit or move here will feel like it’s a serious place instead of a joke. Let’s hope in the future they continue to put forth as much if not more effort!

All of them kept saying how funny and cute I was, and a really cute girl definitely had her eye on me. She asked for my number even though she doesn’t speak a lick of English. I gave my number to them all and got their numbers and QQ, the Chinese IM program similar to AIM.

Another girl walked up and started talking to me while I was still with these other girls. She asked if I wanted to be her friend, and I say “sure.” She’s not as attractive as the cute girl, but she’s very nice. An hour later and 4 numbers received, I left to meet the water guy! No more buying bottles from the store!

As I left my apartment later in the day to get some food, a girl walked out of the apartment next to mine. It turns out I live on a floor that has 4 businesses and 2 residences. She worked for a photography company. She said hello, so I obliged and said “Ni Hao,” or “you good.” She went down the elevator with me, and I handed her paper and a pen to write down what she’s saying so I can learn.

After a few minutes she asked where I was headed to and I said I was going to eat. She joined me for rice and steamed vegetable buns at a street vendor nearby. After dinner, she asked if I was free the next day. I said yes, at 4pm. She said “okay I’ll be at your place at 4pm to teach you Chinese.”

The moral of the story is, as a foreigner all you have to do is smile and you make a friend.