Occasionally my friends and I will talk about the funny translations we have run into. A hotel that served carp misspelled it as “crap”. A hotel that offered to wash one article of clothing had a card that read “We will wash one piece of your clothing for free”. I am sure if westerners tried to translate these things into Chinese it would be equally funny but translations like this are extremely unprofessional. When I see a business representing itself like this I wonder about the competence of the management.

我和朋友们偶尔谈起不好的翻译带给人的尴尬。一个宾馆餐厅在英文牌子上将carp（鲤鱼）写成crap（大便）。一个提供免费洗一件衣服的宾馆在卡片上的英文是这样写的：“我们给顾客免费洗一件衣服的一部分。”如果西方人把这些话翻译成中文，我看应该是同样幽默的，不过这样的翻译太不专业了。将一个商务表达翻译成这样，令我忍不住考虑宾馆经理的水平如何。

When locals see a flood of Chinese and Uyghur the English seems stylish and modern. It is ornamentation no matter its accuracy.When foreigners who cannot read Chinese and Uyghur come here it is like erasing every sign on the street. We only see the pinyin and English which are often hard to understand. We rely on these streets signs and menu translations which is a large part of our interaction with the culture.

看惯了满眼皆是中文和维文的本地人，觉得英文时髦而现代，这就是一种点缀，准确与否无关紧要。但是对不懂中文和维文的外国人，似乎每条路的牌子都被擦掉了。我们只看见拼音和英文，而这通常是难懂的。因为我们必须依赖路牌和菜单的翻译，所以这是我们与中国文化接触的主要方式。

It is sometimes more difficult to understand why English is used at all. Many books have an English title for example. A friend of mine once remarked that it seems like authors are putting English above their own languages. This is the impression all of this ornamentation gives us but we do not understand much of it. I cannot understand why foreign languages are used in this way when locals know that it leaves a bad impression. The net effect is that it seems that foreign language and culture are not very important. 

更难理解的是一些人似乎并不明白到底为什么使用英文。比方说，很多书中有英文标题，但经常有语法或拼写错误。我的一个朋友曾说，中国的作家好像不重视自己的语言。这是所有的点缀给外国人的印象，而我们还看不明白。我弄不清楚为什么外语这样被使用，因为中国人肯定知道这留给我们不好的印象。最终结果是我们感觉到中国人也不重视我们的语言和文化。

Beijing is doing everything it can to change this situation ahead of the Olympics next year. Restaurants will soon have standardized translations for their menus. Street signs will be changed from pinyin to English. Toilets will no longer be called W.C. which is not used in western countries any more. These rather minor changes have all been distributed in mainstream western news. It is newsworthy because it reflects a cultural attitude. China sees English as important but to westerners it seems like China is finally starting to respect our language.

为了在明年的奥运会之前改变这种情况，北京市政府付出了很大的努力。餐厅很快有了标准的菜单翻译，拼音的路牌会改成英文。厕所再不被称呼为W．C，因为西方国家都不这样用。这些不起眼的变化都被西方主流媒体报道出去了。它具有新闻价值是因为它折射出了一种文化态度。中国重视英语，但在西方人看来，是中国终于开始尊重我们的语言。

I have talked with Central Asians who say the Russian language signs in Urumqi are so difficult to understand they look like a different language. I can say the same about English signs. In Kashgar for example there are many large government propaganda signs and every one of the English translations is hard to understand or simply phrased in an awkward way. When the voice of a government or business is represented in this way it is no wonder that it loses face in the eyes of outsiders.

一些中亚人向我说，乌鲁木齐的许多俄文牌子他们看不懂，好像是另外一门语言。关于英文的牌子我也可以说同样的话。比方说，在喀什的街上有很多政府的宣传牌子，每一个都有难理解或可笑的英文翻译。一个政府或商店的声音被表达成这样，难怪会在外国人面前丢面子。