Yep, you read that correctly...free hot pants!!! I am sure you cannot contain your excitement, but, unfortunately, the short shorts are not, in fact, free. In case you cannot read the caption above, it says, "In the shopping malls to buy clothes, hot pants can be free / to." No, I did not make a typo, that is exactly what the sign says (including the slash). I saw this as I was riding up the escalator into one of the city's larger supermarkets. Before I inquired as to where I could get my free hot pants, I stopped and read the Chinese, which actually says, "When you buy clothing in this shopping center, pants can be ironed/altered free of charge."
Chinglish, as this type of language is called, is still very common in China. In fact, a few years ago, leading up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I saw a report on Chinese television about how the government was dispatching people to go around correcting Chinglish signs in the capital. Needless to say, I have since been in Beijing and it seems they still missed a few. Yes, English is difficult, being an English teacher, I am well aware of this fact. However, often times, the correctness of the English is not a concern; all that matters is simply getting some English on the sign. Often times, it is simply laziness. One of the most humorous signs I have seen was a yellow "Caution, Wet Floor" sign, placed at the top of a flight of stairs, which actually read in English, "Slip and Fall Down Carefully." To top it off, it had a stick figure slipping and falling down. Hopefully, he fell carefully.
So, unfortunately, for the time being, there will not be masses of Chinese walking around in hot pants, however, things change quickly and, who knows what the future will bring here.
No comments:
Post a Comment