A set of fixed English translations for Chinese menus is being published by the Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau.

The final draft, which has been partially revised after soliciting opinions from netizens and language experts, has been sent to the printers and would soon be recommended to restaurants across the country for their bilingual menus.

An official from the bureau said, ‘The proper English translations will not only provide convenience for foreigners coming to Beijing for the Olympics, but it will also improve the English of Chinese people.’

The new English translations for Chinese dishes was the work of a committee of 20 language experts and catering service managers.

The municipal government also plans to launch a training program to equip waiters and waitresses with knowledge of what the dish contains in case customers demand explanations. Beijing Tourism Bureau published a list of translations for 2,753 dishes and drinks online in August and asked for feedback.

Probably most upmarket restaurants will follow the guidelines. Which means slack Western journalists looking for an easy story will no longer be helped by mistakes on the menu.
Source: Window of China

International Olympic Committee (IOC) Press Commission Chairperson Richard Kevan Gosper (Shown here. Note the Kevan bit is important because there are many other people named Richard Gosper.) said during a current World Press Briefing in Beijing that the Games organizers are doing great work with media operations at an international level, but the challenge ahead is how to implement the revised media regulations at street level.

He said, ‘The challenge is that everybody involved in ensuring media has good working conditions, should understand new regulations, and people can move freely to report, quickly to report and receive information.’

Some 330 delegates from 130 international media organizations including Inhaul News Agency, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, New York Times, Washington Post, The Times and CNN attended the meeting.

To fulfill the commitment to provide a good working environment for international media during the Games, China issued earlier this year a set of regulations and a service guide for journalists.

Richard Gosper said, ‘The regulations have been reviewed very realistically by the Chinese government and the changes of regulations were extremely welcome. Those have been translated into very workable guidelines. The changes of the regulations have been very important for our journalists but there is still more work to be done.’

Some 21,600 accredited media professionals, including 5,600 journalists and photographers from print media are to attend Beijing Olympic Games.

Source: China Daily

Urban service volunteers are people who will provide voluntary services at stations around the competition venues and the key areas of the city to ensure the smooth progress of the Games and regular operations of the city.

A total of 110,657 people have applied to be volunteers for urban services during the 2008 Olympic Games since the recruitment began a month ago. The aimed for figure is an eventual 400,000.

61% of the applicants are women.
The youngest is 13 years old and the oldest 79 years.
Those aged 13 - 36 years constitute 90.8% and the middle school students aged 13 - 17 form a significant part of the applicants.
The urban service applicants generally have an excellent cultural and professional background. 76% described English as their first foreign language.
Volunteers for information services represent 52.4%, emergency services 34% and translation services 13.6%.
More than half say they can serve a session of at least seven days.
The registration process started on June 18, 2007 and will end in June 2008.

During the Games, some 500 service stations will be set up in Beijing’s districts and counties and the volunteers will provide information, emergency and translation services.

The illustration shows Chen Zhili, Chinese state councilor and first vice president of the Organizing Committee for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with a volunteer during the launch ceremony of the volunteer program.
Source: Olympic Website

WC stands for water closet. But not at the Olympic Games. There same device will be called a toilet.

The Beijing Morning Post said, ‘In many Western countries they don’t use the term W.C. at all. Because in English, it’s equivalent to what we would call in China an outhouse, and is a rather crude slang term.’

Where it got this idea from no one knows. That it is demonstrably false does not change the situation. WC is out.

Considering the wonderful pictograms that have been created for the rest of the games coming up with something for the toilet of each sex would not be over difficult. After all, there is almost a universal standard for these.

Road signs are also getting a make-over. Use of the romanized form of Chinese, known as ‘pinyin’, will be replaced by the actual English word, except for proper names. Out will go Dong Changan Jie and in will come East Changan Avenue.

All restaurants and hotels rated three star and above will have to use the standard names for Chinese dishes once they come out.

One would not like to be on the committee working out what to call popular dishes like ‘ants climbing the tree’ — spicy fried vermicelli with finely chopped pork — into English.

Mark you, China is not the only nation to suffer from this sort of translation. When Charles became Prince of Wales he was crowned in Caernarvon Castle. A committee decided that the Welsh word for toilet — twt — was too vulgar. And tŷ bach, literally ‘little house’, although widely used was considered unacceptable.

They decided, instead, on ‘ystafell ymolchi’. By the time you pronounced it, it was too late.
Source: Reuters