This in the TT today…
Erm, why dont they just politely ask the native speakers that reside here to help with this? Oh yea, that would require the govrnment actually admitting an inadequacy and a need for big noses wouldn’t it!
It amazes me how there are so many spelling/grammar errors here and particularly in bigger organisations. Just ask a foreigner, goddamit!
:loco: :loco:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/04/08/2003301586
Nice article.
Shouldn’t sub-section titles start with a capital letter?
Does this put me in contention for a TT cap?
half assed a national way of life!
Oooh! Aaah!
Should take most people on the move about 10 minutes of casual observation to qualify for those prizes. The Traffic Engineering Office is gonna run out of hats quick smart.
Why wouldn’t the government just want to save the damn money and embarrassment by having a literate native English language speaking foreigner on staff when the signs and things were originally made??
I say leave the signs alone, but keeping writing them saying you saw yet another mucked up Engrish sign.
then they couldn’t use up (waste) all of this year’s budget, so next year’s budget would be smaller.
it’s like the road repairs …
[quote=“jdsmith”]Why wouldn’t the government just want to save the damn money and embarrassment by having a literate native English language speaking foreigner on staff when the signs and things were originally made??
[/quote]
Never going to happen. I never thought I would say this – I understand why Singapore has now done some of things they have done. 
Taiwan wants to improve the English capabilities of its various ministries? Threaten these “snivelling sacks of shit” with their jobs if they don’t improve. 
Foreign talent – hire foreigners in all ministries and actually give them good benefits. 
That is what the Government of Singapore does. Despite my dislike of the more authoritarian side of Singapore (Internal Security Act), they have their shit together when it comes to globalization issues and in treating and compensating foreigners fairly. :bravo: Like Lee Kwan Yew once said, “Pay peanuts, get monkeys.”
Singapore’s system is also far superior when it comes to efficiency and corruption issues. You think Singapore’s system would put up with married Supreme Court justices fucking tramps with “Gloria Estafan” haircuts and fake MBAs? Do you think they would approve of Presidential Office aides receiving 500,00US in kickbacks? When people abuse foreign labor in Singapore, they actually go to jail (most of the time at least).
Education – despite the jokes about Singlish, most grads are fully fluent in English, and government officials are definitely not going to make many mistakes on public signs. The school system uses English as the language of instruction, but more and more courses in schools at every level are being offered in Mandarin because of the China market.
For Taiwan’s English to improve, the whole system has to be revamped. I don’t think most government officials, at least from my experience, want to change things. They are perfectly content to wallow in their Chinglish, treat foreigners like they did during the “Boxer Rebellion,” and blame others for their shite. Let them sleep in it.
Didn’t the MRT in Taipei have some sort of “activity” around 2003 inviting people to help them correct the English on the MRT? 
Well…anyone who’s been on the MRT lately…how’d it go??
Apart from the announcement about putting out fires, the English announcements ain’t all that bad now. Better than that Dam-shoo-ee nonsense of yesteryear. But the fire extinguisher one just sounds like it’s read by someone seeing English words for the very first time.
‘Thank you for your car-peration’.
I don’t think there is much written English in stations or on the train, probably working on the (sound) principle that the less English they use, the less chance there is of them buggering it up.
Totally agree with the Singapore comment, at least they have made themselves a little more credible on an International level. Incidentally"Identifying Errors in English of Traffic Engineering Office Publications"…fuck me dead! Erm, could have stated a little different.
Welcome to Taiwan, the palce which give you the joyous experience and hearts warmest ferling, I say!
Yes, let them lie in it.
Signed,
Big nosed barbarian of the foreign kingdom.
Who decides if a spelling error is in fact an error? Who makes sure the wrong spelling gets corrected? Who will double check or proof read? Is any native English speaker necessarily qualified for the job? Don’t we all see often the misspellings here in this forum by native speakers or even English teachers?
Who reads this shit nut-rag?
Bad spelling and grammar shouldn’t be excused in any language in a professional setting. A forum is 'ass king fo bad spelli’n" This is first year pendantic overly sensitive newbies. Let our words run free!!!
Notice my hyphen between nut and rag.
Hilarious! Priceless!
[quote=“jdsmith”]Why wouldn’t the government just want to save the damn money and embarrassment by having a literate native English language speaking foreigner on staff when the signs and things were originally made??
I say leave the signs alone, but keeping writing them saying you saw yet another mucked up Engrish sign.[/quote]
1.The government couldn’t really find a “literate native English language speaking foreigner” as well as speaking/reading fluent Chinese so to help with the embarrassment.
[quote=“Alphonse”]
1.The government couldn’t really find a “literate native English language speaking foreigner” as well as speaking/reading fluent Chinese so to help with the embarrassment.
Wrong spelling. It’s “English”, not Engrish. [/quote]
That’s crap. Did they try or did someone’s kid’s English tutor come in one day and do a quickie proofreading?
And since when does one need to read and speak Chinese fluently to write “Taipei City Welcomes You!” instead of “We wish you have a nice trip!”
All bitching/ranting aside. I say if people wanted to really put to the test if this country is really up to the test of changing it’s poor English, then let’s take part in their ‘contest’ . Let’s crash their servers with corrections, fax them to death, and mail them a mountain of stuff.
They will ‘get’ the message sooner or later.
Well, we could start with the contest rules located at.
bote.taipei.gov.tw/activity/ … lan_en.asp
Item 10, the Big Prize section, presents a number of opportunities to win. It states:
“Awards:
A. The participant who correctly identify three errors passing procedure X will receive a knapsack.
B. The participant who disagrees with the content of official Department of Transportation translations and proposes recommendations for rectification will receive a hat of Traffic Engineering Office in cast that bilingual advisors’ committee determines that both the original translation and the rectification recommendation are correct.
C. The participant who dose not meet award requirements (including those eliminated for identifying a duplicate error) will receive a gift on a first-come-first-served basis.”
I hope to win “a hat of Traffic Engineering Office”; wearing it around town will no doubt get me on the cover of GQ.
Yours in murdering the Queens English,
Brian
[quote=“jdsmith”]Why wouldn’t the government just want to save the damn money and embarrassment by having a literate native English language speaking foreigner on staff when the signs and things were originally made??
I say leave the signs alone, but keeping writing them saying you saw yet another mucked up Engrish sign.[/quote]
That would cost money - why do that when you can get it free by making it a public service contest?
I would like to monitor the monitors of the monitors. 
As many of you know, correct signage, esp. in terms of romanization, is something of a pet crusade of mine. I’ve recently been e-mailing and calling various departments about a small but important detail: missing apostrophes in the names of some MRT stations.
Certainly there are bigger problems with English and romanization than this; but I’m looking on this as a sort of test case to check the city gummit’s sincerity in fixing demonstrable, systemic errors. After all, the correct versions aren’t so different that this would lead to confusion. Also, they’ve got to change all the maps, etc., to include all the new stations soon to open, so why not fix some errors while they’re at it? (I started writing people about this months ago, when there really would have been time to fix things on the new signage and maps.)
When I speak with the MRT people, however, they say that have to go by what the Taipei City Government tells them. (I believe them.) But when I speak with the city’s bureau of transportation, I’m told to contact the MRT. And the department of education was involved in this, too. Everyone I’ve spoken with has been helpful and sympathetic; but that doesn’t mean anything is going to change. Basically, no one seems to have the authority to do anything about this because bad romanization is a matter of policy, and just try getting something changed once the those in the system have a rule (or believe they have a rule) to follow.
After talking with people in lots of different departments, here’s what I’ve gathered. Taipei gathered a group of “experts and authorities” on the topic and they decided not to follow the rules of Pinyin (quite likely because they didn’t know them). I’ve tried to find out the identity of these people but couldn’t get a clear answer. (Nobody asked me to come to any meetings on this.)
Someone recently reminded me that all this was much like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark:
[quote]EATON: We have top men working on it right now.
INDY: Who?
EATON: Top … men.
INDY: We may be able to help.
EATON: We appreciate that. And we won’t hesitate to call on you.
MUSGROVE: (dismissing them) Thank you all. Thank you again.[/quote]
As with so much in Taiwan, it looks like a “back door” is needed to get anything done beyond a superficial level. (Anybody here have good connections inside Taipei City Hall?) I’m still on the case, though sometimes I think I really need to get another hobby. 