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Message from the President 6/1/2010

Running from May 1 to October 31, 2010, the World Expo in Shanghai, China is expected to attract some 70 million visitors to experience the newest innovations of human society including design culture, technology, industrialization, trade and tourism. As with most international events, translations have been at the centre of preparations for this marquee event.

In the case of Expo 2010, the Chinese language authorities enlisted the help of a small army of 600 bilingual volunteers over two years to rewrite 10,000 examples of Chinglish – poor Chinese-English translations – in public signage and written material. The campaign is partly modeled on Beijing’s effort to clean up English signage for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which led to the replacement of 400,000 street signs and 1,300 restaurant menus to correct such erroneous translations as “Slip carefully” (Be careful not to slip) and “Please Steek Gently” (Please close gently), “Fried Enema” (fried sausage) and “Racist Park”, a cultural attraction that has since been rechristened Minorities Park.

The prevalence of Chinglish has been attributed to the use of a flawed but wildly popular translation software called the Jinshan Ciba dictionary – an example if there ever was one of how translation work is an art and not a science. Although improved translation software and a growing demand for grammatically accurate English have slowed the output of new Chinglishisms, there still exists thousands of examples of embarrassing, if not offensive, translations in Chinese society.

Translators and interpreters have historically played an important role in the evolution of languages and cultures, and more recently in the integration of the global community. The language challenges facing a transitioning China serve to illustrate the importance of enlisting a professional language service provider for any language project. At Able Translations Ltd., we combine professional human translation with state-of-the-art technology to give you, the client, the peace of mind that your message will be delivered to your target audience accurately and without embarrassment.

Wilson Sandro Teixeira, President