Sign Language
Beijing's Road to the Olympics
Comes With English Lessons
BEIJING -- David Tool wants to point the way for China -- quite literally. Pained, five years ago, to see foreign tourists laughing at the simultaneous translation of a Beijing Opera performance, the professor at Beijing's language-focused International Studies University wrote to China's minister of culture, volunteering to create better guidance in English for historical attractions. Little did Prof. Tool know that he would be taken up on his offer; in late 2002, he was asked to become an "expert adviser" to the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program, and began his translating work almost immediately. With authorities pushing to upgrade tourist facilities in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this South Carolinian is bearing the brunt of anglicizing the placards that will direct and inform the English-speaking world's arriving sports fans.
Of all the ways Beijing is being transformed to host the Olympics -- from planting tens of thousands of trees to building high-tech arenas with translucent walls filled with water -- none may be more lasting, or more difficult to implement, than an improvement in the language by which the city presents and explains itself. As part of a general campaign to improve bilingual literacy, in which taxi drivers are being drilled in basic phrases and citizens will cram for neighborhood English tests, the municipality, in tandem with the Beijing Tourism Administration, is getting serious about making its many attractions not just more accessible, but more comprehensible. With the scrutiny of local and foreign lexicographers extending even to the complexities of Chinese restaurant menus, a lot less of everything from ordering mu shu pork to navigating the Forbidden City -- or is that "Palace Museum"? -- should be lost in translation.
David Tool has the job of translating Beijing signs.
"Poor English signage was embarrassing to a nation that cared so much about its image," Prof. Tool says that he thought, adding that it showed a lack of respect for foreigners. Prof. Tool, a 59-year-old Mandarin speaker, first came to China in 1990, and has been a teacher at the university since 2001. His unusual resume includes being a U.S. Army colonel during the Vietnam War and director of a Buddhist Studies Center in Sri Lanka. A visitor's understanding of Chinese culture and history can be marred by simple mistakes, he says. "Visitors totally miss the 5,000-year continuity here over something so easy to correct."
Well, maybe not quite so easy as all that. Because Prof. Tool's labor of love (he isn't getting paid) now encompasses descriptive messages in 40 main museums, with 40 second-tier sites to come, as well as highway and subway signs stretching to 600 pages in seven bound volumes of entries for specific signs. All told, he estimates he's already translated at least 50,000 signs. Most were originally translated ad hoc by different municipal authorities; now the city wants to introduce some consistency.
"The Olympic Games give us the opportunity to establish a better profile for our city by creating an international linguistic environment," declares Liu Yang, a deputy director of Beijing's Foreign Affairs Bureau who is also director general of the organizing committee of the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program. The plan to raise general English standards was first discussed in 2000, with Beijing's Olympic bid already in mind.
While Olympic venues themselves will also have signs in French, the games' other official language besides English, Mr. Liu says the city has no plans to translate local signs into languages other than English. The only previous similar initiatives were in the 1980s, and in the run-up to the 1990 Asian Games, which the city also hosted. But these still left plenty of directional signs like the botanical garden example cited by an official Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages publication, which reads, "Lead to the desert grows the plant hall."
Other Asian nations have been similarly inspired to revamp their English-language signage by major sporting events. When Seoul hosted the summer Olympics in 1988, the South Korean government embarked on a program of translation and recruited foreign language speakers to assist overseas visitors. Continuing efforts since then to improve foreign-language information meant that by the time the soccer World Cup visited the country in 2002, a specific program to improve signs was deemed unnecessary, according to government officials.
Xiong Yumei, vice chairwoman of the Beijing Tourism Administration, lists improvements in signage as Beijing's third most pressing Olympic priority, close behind improving the environment and upgrading access to the city's historic sites.
"No sector will benefit more from the Olympics than tourism," Ms. Xiong declares, citing the government's estimate that the number of visitors to Beijing, 3.6 million in 2004, will increase by nearly 30% to 4.6 million in 2008. In anticipation, planned initiatives include "four-star" toilets; ramps and elevators for disabled people and seniors; new ticket booths that accept credit cards (Visa is a major sponsor of the games); 20 new information centers; additional tourist police; a clampdown on unlicensed hawkers who harass tourists; the creation of special areas for licensed souvenir vendors, set at a respectful distance from monuments; and even new pathways and a spruce-up for the "Peking Man" archeological site at Zhoukoudian, southwest of the city.
Blue-ribbon international teams are busily revamping major relics such as the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, debating, perhaps for the first time, how to maintain the authenticity of such ancient relics while rejuvenating their appearance. Within the so-called Old City area, bounded by where Beijing's formidable city walls once stood, new shops and illegal constructions will be torn down to try and present a single image of antiquity along newly pedestrianized zones.
The English-language signage also will come in handy at the many new attractions that are being rushed to open in time for the games. Aside from the private homes of many Chinese luminaries, including that of early 20th-century opera star Mei Lanfang, which is being opened for the first time, more areas of Beijing's so-called "imperial mansions," the vast homes of high nobles, will be open for view. In addition, the Tourism Administration is preoccupied with improving service at the city's 658 star-rated hotels -- a figure that the city government pledged in its Olympic bid will reach 800 by 2008 -- as well as 4,000 smaller hostelries. Here, too, getting staff to speak better English fits into the broader city-wide attempt. And Ms. Xiong seems especially proud to point out that 4,000 street and historic-attraction signs, adding up to some 237,000 words, already have been changed and proofread to make sure they are correct.
"The Olympics give us a big push, of course," Ms. Xiong says, "but this was an area we had to improve."
According to Mr. Liu of the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages committee, however, "The biggest difficulty for our committee in achieving simplicity isn't the English. It's the Chinese." After all, Chinese ideograms can suggest multiple meanings, depending on the context. For instance, "Danger Black Area" was meant to warn drivers of ice on asphalt. Then there's the problem of how to change a sign for the Yang Qiao Bridge when "qiao" also means "bridge," but is part of a name used for hundreds of years. And what to do with already recognized Chinese terms such as "hutong" (lane community), "tofu" (bean curd) or the Sanlitun bar street? An advisory committee of 30 people focused on the signage issue began to hash out these questions, and started having meetings that Mr. Liu terms "very tiring," with the aim of passing on their preliminary recommendations in a report to Beijing's mayor by the end of 2006.
However, according to Prof. Tool, the work got bogged down in the differing lingo of Chinese committee members who had lived or studied in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere. "No one could agree on a standard English," he says. Ultimately, it was decided to go with American English, the version of the language most commonly used in business in China.
In that regard, "W.C." has been changed to the more universally recognizable "Toilet." Many of Beijing's proclamations of "Way Out" will be amended to "Exit." Highway signs are to be modeled on language already instituted in Shanghai. "The Ministry of Transportation adopted Shanghai as standard, I think because (it) had many more foreigners for a long time than Beijing," Prof. Tool says. As more decisions fell upon Profs. Tool and Chen, the American proposed that so long as the meanings were clear, they accept the notion of an "English with Chinese characteristics." So China's road signs will continue to warn motorists to "Keep Space" instead of "Maintain Distance," and special lanes for trucks (lorries to Britons) will still be called "Carriageways," a nod to British English. Unfortunately, "Bridge" will continue to stand for an overpass or flyover, since the committee couldn't choose between the two competing terms. But "Underpass" will replace the ambiguous "Groove." And no longer will drivers be warned to stop "Driving Tiredly."
Sometimes, Prof. Tool's work goes beyond linguistics. At museums, he has changed references that only Chinese would understand, such as "the first year of the Qianlong Reign," to dates more easily comprehensible to Westerners -- in this case, A.D. 1735. He also removed some of the hyperbolic boasting about "the glorious tradition and outstanding wisdom of the Chinese masses" when he felt such phrases detracted from genuine appreciation of objects and venues. And he reduced some of the anti-Japanese and antiforeign rhetoric that was, in his words, "too in your face" at places that had been destroyed or looted during wartime invasions.
The separate undertaking to standardize English on Chinese menus would appear even more daunting -- yet necessary, given such common dishes on local bills of fare such as "stewed bean crud," "badly cooked starch cubes," or "fish in first position." Overseen by the Beijing Institute of Tourism, this first attempt of its kind in China already has gathered 10,000 restaurant menus for study and sorting by food type. Initially, the institute's translation committee, made up of 20 volunteers, including local English professors, food and beverage managers and caterers, as well as "foreign experts" -- mainly English instructors from the U.S. -- will aim to come up with authorized translations for 1,000 dishes most commonly found in 200 of the city's restaurants with ratings of three stars and above. Point man associate professor Feng Dong Ming of the Institute of Tourism calls the endeavor a "very important project" because "food names are a very sophisticated part of our culture and we must deliver proper meanings to the foreigners in bundles that cannot be too long or too short."
But how to do that when the common dumpling called won ton actually has the literal meaning of "swallowing clouds"? Or what about the many variations of the names of staple dishes such as yu xiang ro si -- would that be "fish-flavored shredded pork," "slivered pork in garlic sauce," or just "Sichuan sliced pork"? While it seems awfully ambitious, Prof. Feng vows that the committee will publish, and post online, its preliminary catalog by November. Adherence to this new set of translations isn't mandatory, but the committee is hoping that if the names are adopted in the more upmarket establishments, they will spread to Beijing's smaller, unrated and even unlicensed restaurants -- estimates of the total number range from 10,000 to 40,000 -- and beyond to all of China. And, lest all the cross-cultural understanding get left at the kitchen door, the institute also plans a program to train waiters to explain and take orders in standardized English as well -- just as tens of thousands of local residents will be subjected to the BETS, or Beijing English Testing System, being developed in conjunction with Cambridge University.
To Prof. Tool, all this effort is less about getting the world's most populous nation to conform with the world than getting the world to appreciate that nation's culture. "China and Beijing have made huge strides in modernization and beautification and great credit must be given to them," he says. If, as he fears, some of the usual odd errors and typos creep into the final signage, Prof. Tool says he "can't fret over this when the English will be so much better than before." And, he confesses, "In a strange way, I'd like this to be my legacy, my gift to the country."
Already Prof. Tool's prodigious translating has made him something of a celebrity. He has been written up in Chinese state newspapers, received a coveted Great Wall Friendship Award, and was just chosen by a Beijing television station to be filmed in action and represent the bilingual push as a "Beijing Olympic Missioner."
Too bad he may have to tell them that his new title isn't quite proper English.
迎奥运从英语标识做起
2006年09月08日21:19
北京第二外国语学院的杜大卫(David Tool)教授有个愿望，就是能为帮助中国提高英文标识翻译水平做出点自己的贡献，这个想法产生于5年前他在观看一次京剧表演时的感受。当时，蹩脚的字幕翻译让外国游客笑得前仰后合，深受触动的杜大卫于是提笔给中国文化部写了一封信，表示可以自愿为名胜古迹撰写水平更高的英文导读。让他没想到的是，这个愿望后来真的实现了。2002年年末，他被北京市民讲外语活动组委会聘为“专家顾问”。从那时起，他就立刻开始了他的翻译工作。随著北京市政府为迎接2008年北京奥运会的到来著手改造旅游景点设施，杜大卫就肩负起了为旅游指示牌书写正确英文的重任。
从种植上万棵树木到建造高科技喷泉舞台等，从各个方面都可以看出北京正在全力以赴地迎接奥运会的到来，但恐怕没有什么能比提高指示牌翻译准确度这件事更有影响和挑战性的了。北京市眼下正掀起了一股提高外语水平的热潮，的士司机学习简单的外语会话，市民踊跃参加社区英文比赛。市政府和北京市旅游局(Beijing Tourism Administration)也没闲著，他们正在认真研究，如何在改善旅游设施的同时也让众多旅游景点的指示牌更容易为外国游客所理解。国内外语言专家认为，从餐馆菜单上木须肉(mu shu pork)的翻译再到故宫(Forbidden City)的翻译都可能引起外国游客的误解。
杜大卫称，在中国这个十分在意自己形像的国家，英文标识翻译不规范是件丢面子的事，而且，这对外国游客也不够尊重。现年59岁的杜大卫第一次来到中国是在1990年，并且从2001年以来一直在北京第二外国语学院任教。杜大卫有著非同寻常的人生经历，他早年曾是美国陆军上校并参加过越南战争，他还在斯里兰卡担任过佛学研究院的院长。他说，这些一目了然的翻译错误将影响到外国游客对中国文化及历史的了解。他说，一个很简单的错误就可以使外国游客对传承5000年的中华文明产生误解。
然而，要真正做好这件事情并不容易。尽管没有为此领取薪水，但杜大卫心甘情愿。如今，他不仅要完成40座大型博物馆和40个二线场馆的介绍，还有长达600页7捆卷宗的高速公路和地铁标识等著他完成。据他估计，至少已经翻译了50,000个标识。大多数标识原先都是由北京市政府不同部门各自翻译的，现在北京市希望能够保持一定程度的统一。
北京市人民政府外事办公室副主任刘洋说，通过营造一个国际语言环境，奥运会为我们提供了一个更好地展示北京城市面貌的机会。刘洋还是北京市民讲外语活动(Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program)组委会办公室主任。这个旨在提高北京市民英语水平的活动最初酝酿于2001年，当时北京决定申办2008年奥运会的举动已经深入人心。
尽管英语和法语都是奥运会指定的官方语言，但刘洋表示北京不准备把当地的标识翻译成英语以外的其他语言。北京在上世纪90年代即1990年亚运会之前也举办过类似的活动。但北京市民讲外语活动官方刊物指出，有很多指示标识的英文翻译仍有待改进，如植物园的指示牌被翻译成了“Lead to the desert grows the plant hall”。
其他亚洲国家也有借助举办体育盛会大力整顿英文标识翻译的经历。例如，1998年韩国在举办夏季奥运会期间，韩国政府发起了提高翻译水平的活动，并聘请外语好的国人为到访的外国游客提供帮助。此后，韩国提高外语信息准确度的努力就一直没有间断过，因此到了2002年韩国举办世界杯的时候，韩国就不再为改善标志牌犯愁了。
北京市旅游局副局长熊玉梅把改进北京标志牌英文翻译的工作列为北京筹办奥运会第三紧要的任务，仅次于改善环境和完善历史名胜设施这两项重任。
熊玉梅表示，旅游业是最能从举办奥运会中受益的行业。她说，到2008年时，估计来北京的游客人数将从2004年的360万人次增至460万人次，增幅接近30%。为了迎接游客的猛增，北京市已经准备采取一系列措施，如修建“四星级”厕所、为残疾人和老年人修建匝道和电梯、为售票处提供刷卡设施（Visa是2008年奥运会的主要赞助商）、新建20个信息中心、取缔无照商贩、在与历史名胜保持一定距离的地方允许合法商贩出售纪念品、将北京西南角的周口店古猿人遗址修葺一新等。
全球一流的国际团队正在忙著帮助北京修缮故宫、颐和园等历史名胜。在修缮过程中，他们也在讨论是否要保持古迹的历史原貌。在所谓的旧城区，也就是故宫城墙周边地带，新建的商店和非法建筑都将被夷为平地，并在周边铺设步行区，从而突出故宫的风采。
英文标识还将出现在许多为迎接奥运而匆匆开放的新景点。有许多中国名人的私宅将首次对外开放，其中包括20世纪早期的京剧名角梅兰芳，除此以外，北京还有许多高官显贵的大宅院，也就是所谓的“皇家园林”将开始接待游人。另外，旅游局还将致力于改善北京658家星级饭店──北京市政府在申奥过程中曾保证这个数字到2008年将增至800家──以及4,000家规模较小的旅馆的服务。在这个领域，提高员工的英语水平已成为全市范围的努力目标。熊玉梅尤其自豪地指出，全市的4,000条街道和历史景点标识已经得到了校对并作出了更改。
熊玉梅表示：奥运会当然对我们是个大大的推动，但这方面的工作我们过去就强调必须大大加强。
不过，北京市民讲外语活动组委会的刘洋表示，“我们组委会在简化语言表达方面的最大困难不是来自于英文，而是中文。”中文在不同语境中可以表示许多不同的意思。举例来说，如何翻译“洋桥”桥，因为“洋桥”的“桥”也是桥梁的意思，不过这个名字已经延用了数百年。对于已经广为人知的“hutong”（胡同）、“tofu”（豆腐）或者是“Sanlitun bar street”（三里屯酒吧街）又将如何翻译呢？专为标识问题组成的30人顾问委员会开始研究这些问题，并已召开了会议，用刘洋的话说，这些会议让人非常疲劳。他们希望在2006年年底前向北京市市长提交的报告中提出初步意见。
不过，杜大卫表示，这项工作由于组委会成员的不同语言背景而陷入困境，这些专家曾在美国、英国、澳大利亚或者其他地方生活或学习。他说，“他们无法对什么是标准英语达成共识。”最终，委员会决定依据在中国商务活动中应用最广泛的美式英语来制定。
因此，“W.C.”（卫生间）和“Way Out”（出口）将被更为常见的“Toilet”和“Exit”所取代。高速路标识将参照上海的标准执行。杜大卫说，“交通部采用上海的标识作为执行标准，我想是因为上海的外国人数量长久以来一直都超过北京。”虽然更多的决策权掌握在杜大卫和他同事的手上，但这位美国人建议说，只要意思清楚明白，他们可以接受“具有中国特色的英语”。因此在中国的道路标识上将继续出现“Keep Space”（保持车距），而不是“Maintain Distance”；卡车专用车道将继续采用英式英语被称做“Carriageways”。不过，“Bridge”仍将继续指代立交桥，因为委员会难以在美国用法overpass和英国用法flyover之间作出取舍。不过“Underpass”（地下通道）将取代意义模糊的“Groove”。此外，司机也不会再看到提醒他们不要疲劳驾驶的写著“No Driving Tiredly”的标识了。
有时候，杜大卫的工作远远超越了语言学的范畴。他修改了博物馆里那些只有中国人才能理解的介绍文字，比如将“the first year of the Qianlong Reign”（乾隆元年）改为西方人更容易理解的“A.D. 1735”（公元1735年）。他还删除了一些“the glorious tradition and outstanding wisdom of the Chinese masses”（辉煌的历史和中国人高超的智慧）等浮夸的句子，他觉得这些句子不利于人们欣赏文物古迹。他还删掉了一些反日和排外的语句，用他的话来说，在那些在侵略战争期间遭到破坏的场景中，这些东西显得太直接。
而为中国菜肴制定标准的英文名称的任务似乎更艰巨，不过这的确十分必要。在菜单上你经常会发现一些家常菜被翻译成“stewed bean crud”、“badly cooked starch cubes”或者“fish in first position”这类稀奇古怪的名字。北京旅游学院牵头有关机构搜集了1万份餐馆菜单用于研究和分类。该学院翻译委员会的初步目标是提供在200家三星级以上餐厅最常见的1,000种菜肴的官方英文菜名。这个翻译委员会由20名志愿者组成，其中有英语教授、餐饮行业经理以及多数来自美国的“外国专家”。旅游学院副教授冯冬明表示，这个项目非常重要，因为菜名是我们文化中非常复杂的一个部分，我们必须以长短适中的英文向外国来宾传达出基本意思。
但是，对中文字面意思是“吞下云彩”的“云吞”（有些地方称“馄饨”）该如何处理呢？常见的“鱼香肉丝”是该翻译成“fish-flavored shredded pork”（有鱼香味的肉片）、还是“slivered pork in garlic sauce”（用蒜味佐料做的猪肉条）还是乾脆就叫“Sichuan sliced pork”（川味肉片）呢？
尽管这个任务似乎相当艰巨，但冯教授表示，委员会将在11月份之前在网上公布初步整理的结果。餐饮店不会被强制要求按这套新的英文菜名制作菜单，但是，如果这些英文名被比较高级的酒店餐馆采用，它们可能会流向全市小型、非星级甚至还没有营业执照的餐馆──这样的餐馆估计全北京有10,000-40,000家，随后还会扩散至全国。
为避免这样的跨文化沟通仅仅停留在菜名的层面上，该学院还准备实施一个项目，培训酒店服务生用标准英语向用餐的客人介绍菜品及点菜。实际上，目前有数万北京人将参加北京市英语水平测试，这是北京市与英国剑桥大学共同创办的考试项目。
对杜大卫来说，所有这一切努力与其说是为了让中国这个全世界人口最多的国家与国际接轨，还不如说是为了让世界更好地了解和欣赏中国文化。他说，中国和北京在现代化和改善环境方面已经有了很大进步，这很值得赞扬。如果最后在一些标语牌上还能见到一些常见的奇怪用法和拼写错误，只要它们比以前有很大改善，他就不会感到失望。他还承认，他希望他的工作能成为他的“遗产”流传下去，成为他给这个国家的礼物。
杜大卫宏大的翻译工程已使他多少成了一位名人。中国官方媒体曾撰文赞扬他，他还被授予“长城友谊奖”，北京一家电视台还拍摄了有关他的电视片，并选他作“北京奥运大使”(Beijing Olympic Missioner)。
有意思的是，他或许不得不告诉他们，他这个新头衔的英文翻译其实并不恰当。
John Krich
