Today we’re going to examine a Chinglish phrase that can be seen all across China, from the skyscrapers of Shanghai to the deserts of Xinjiang.
今天我们会来看看一个带有中式英语的短语，你会在中国各个角落看到它，不管是在上海的高楼里，还是在新疆大沙漠中。

I always find it a bit ironic that China, with its 5000 years of uninterrupted civilization, places these signs everywhere. And I often wonder if they actually work. But that’s a topic for another time! Today let’s look at some Chinglish.
我总是觉得在这点上有点讽刺：中国有5000多年不间断的文明，到如今却要把这些文明标志放在各个角落。然后我总是在想，这些标志到底有用吗？不过这会是另外一个话题！今天我们先来看看这些中式英语的问题。

The Chinglish I’m referring to is “文明”, typically translated as civilized or civilization. Although the word 文明 is usually translated properly, typically the full sentence comes out as garbled Chinglish. So let’s look at an example and try to correct it.
这里我想要提到的中式英语是“文明”，典型地被翻译做：civilized 或者 civilization。虽然通常来说“文明”这个词翻译出来是对的，但是最后整句话却是错乱的中式英语。我们就来看看这个例子，然后来纠正它吧！

First of all, if you’re female, there’s a good chance you’ve never seen this sign before, because only men have this problem.
首先呢，如果你是女性的话，其实你很有可能永远都不会看到这个牌子，因为只有男人才会面对这个问题…（哈哈哈）

This sentence is almost correct, but it falls apart with the use of “further step”. We don’t say “little further step“ in English. And the English translation doesn’t match the Chinese grammatical structure, which is unfortunate because the Chinese is so cute.
其实这个句子其实差一点儿就对了，但就是差在它在这里用了“futher step”。在英语中，我们并不会说“little further step”。英语的翻译并不会完全地和中文语法相符，其实还蛮可惜的，因为这句话在中文里的表达，是挺可爱的。

A better translation for this sign would be:
这个标志更好的翻译应该是：

上前一小步
One small step for you
文明一大步
One great leap for civility

Or if we wanted to be more literal, we could say “Please stand close to the urinal. Thank you.”
或者如果我们想要再更口语化一点，会直接说“Please stand close to the urinal. Thank you.”（请更靠近便池一些再使用，谢谢！）”

Here’s another great example:
这里有另外一个好的范例：

遵守社会公德，做文明学生 has been translated as “Obey the social ethics, do the civilization student”.
“遵守社会公德，做文明学生”被翻译成“Obey the social ethics, do the civilization student”。

This translation has several problems. First of all, social ethics does not need an article, so we can delete “the”. Second, 做 has been translated as “do”. “Do” a student means to have sex with a student, so that’s probably not right. We should say “Be” instead.
这个翻译中有很多的问题。首先，“social ethics”（社会公德）并不需要一个冠词，所以我们会删掉“the”。第二个，“做”被粗暴地翻译成“do”。“Do a student“ 意思其实是“和学生上床”的意思，所以…这个应该也是错的（→_→），这里我们应该用“Be”来代替。

And let’s change “the” to “a” because we are talking about one person, you, not a category of people. Finally, Civilization is a noun, but here we should use the adjective form civilized. So the final translation reads:
然后我们还要把后面的“the”改成“a”，因为我们是在指代一个人，也就是“你”，并不是在指一个类别的人。最后，Civilization（文明）是一个名词，但是这里我们要用形容词civilized。所以最后的正确翻译应该是：

遵守社会公德
Obey social ethics
做一个文明学生
Be a civilized student.

Have you ever encountered signs with the word 文明? Did you see any mistakes in the English translation? Tell us in the comments below!
你有碰到过这些文明标语吗？你有看到其中的什么错误的英语翻译吗？在评论里留言告诉我们吧！

Well, that’s it for today. Thanks for tuning into 老外来找茬. I’m your host, Wang Ba Dan. See you next time! Peace out.
好的，这就是今天的内容。感谢收听“老外来找茬”，我是你们的主持人，王霸胆。下次见咯，拜~

实用单词表

skyscraper /ˈskaɪˌskreɪpər/
n. 摩天大楼，高楼大厦
desert /ˈdɛzɜrt/
n. 沙漠
uninterrupted /ˌʌnɪntəˈrʌptɪd/
adj. 连续的，不间断的
urinal /'jʊrənl/
n. 小便池
ethics /ˈɛθɪks/
n. 道德规范