"Would you prefer scrambled egg with tomato or eggplant with
garlic sauce?"
Foreign visitors who are used to certain kinds of Chinese food
in their home country will be able to order their favorite dishes
in English when they come to Beijing for the Olympic Games in
2008.
By the end of January 2007, "all the dishes and drinks served at
the city's restaurants will have standardized English names,"
according to the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program, a
government-sponsored organization to promote English among Beijing
residents.
The organization said it has finished translating over 1,000
dishes and drinks so far and the English names will be put on their
official website (www.bjenglish.com.cn), including 66 varieties of
beef and 83 varieties of pork.
The organization said it hoped the move would help reduce
confusion and misunderstandings caused by the very approximate
English names that used to appear on city menus.
"We welcome public participation and suggestions," the
organization says on its web page.
For a successful Olympic Games and for a good international
image, Beijing is also making other efforts to standardize its
English in public.
The non-governmental Beijing Speaks to the World Committee is
hard at work identifying mistranslations in the capital and has
compiled a set of standards on translation for public signs.
English speakers in Beijing have in the past been invited to
visit "Racist Park" -- more accurately translated as the Park of
Ethnic Minorities -- and warned to take care on wet roads as "the
slippery are very crafty".
The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau is also requiring the
city's 4,000 unrated hotels to translate their names, service
hours, room rates, menus and notices for guests into accurate
English in order to offer accommodation to visitors for the
Games.
(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2006)