从冬奥会标识看，英语需尽善尽美

文/马克·力文（Mark Levine） 译/史聪一

2022年，在2008年举办夏季奥运会14年后，北京又将举办冬季奥运会。尽管许多赛事将移师联合举办地河北省张家口市，但其余赛事仍将在北京北部的延庆举行。

自2017年以来，我积极联合一群英语母语者，并同北京外事办公室并肩工作，实现政府赋予我们的使命：提高（事实上是“完善”）英语指示标牌的质量与正确性。接下来，我将列出一些目前已知的“中式英语”。

使用“Slide carefully”（意为“小心地滑”）或“Beware of landslide”（意为“当心山体滑坡”），来提醒人们洗手间内地板湿滑。

餐厅门口经常张贴着“No bring your own food and beverage shop”，旨在表达“本店谢绝自带食品与饮料”。

多年来，对于上述类型的“中式英语”，以及其他的“奇异”翻译，我均尽可能地用手机拍照留存。这些英语翻译，有些仅是拼写错误，有些很搞笑，有些甚至生涩难懂。久而久之，我已不再对此表示惊讶。每当有人打开其手机相册，并向我展示类似标识照片时，我通常会拿出自己的手机，并打开一个名为“有趣英语”的手机相册，向对方展示我所收集的相似标识照片。

在外事办，我的工作很大程度上都是为了“使英语翻译尽善尽美”，其中涉及修改一些地铁站的英文翻译，或是其他场所的英文翻译。此类英语翻译素材，均经由专人通过邮件的方式发送于我。我需要在标识制作前完成修正。实际上我的工作有时也包括与外事办的工作人员一道，前往北京的某一地点，检查那些已经安置好的标识牌。尽管每次都是前往完全不同的地点，但于我而言，第二次旅程最为有趣。

2019年8月27日，我加入了一个小组，其中，有五六名成员来自外事办，还有近20名成员来自北京市人大（即负责监督政府工作的普通民众）。我们以“使英语尽善尽美”为目标，共同前往延庆。首先，我们来到延庆奥林匹克运动场，参观了展览馆，并看到了部分尚处于建筑阶段的雪橇赛道。随后，我们去往一处旅馆，与约14到15名延庆区人民政府官员会合。人大的成员均来自一个小组委员会，主要负责与外籍人士和中国少数民族群体打交道的政府部门。而我们此次到访的目的，便是对这里的英文翻译质量进行评估。在这个团队中，共有40名中国官员，以及我这个唯一的外籍人士。毋庸置疑，我对此深感惊讶……40名官员共同关注英语（翻译）的质量，此举表明他们对双语标识尤为重视，正在不遗余力地加以改善。

In 2022, 14 years after the 2008 hosting of the Summer Olympics,Beijing will be hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. While many events will be held in the co-host city of Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, others will be held in Beijing’s Yanqing District to the north of the city.

Among my many activities, since 2017 I have been active among a group of native English-speakers working with the Beijing Foreign Affairs Office to realize the government mandate of improving－actually “perfecting”－the quality and correctness of English-language signage. A few examples of the problems include.

“Slide carefully” or “Beware of landslide” to urging caution on potentially slippery bathroom floors.

“No bring your own food and beverage shop” on the door of a restaurant meaning outside food and drink not allowed.

For years I have collected photos of these and other “strange”translations－sometimes simply misspellings, sometimes humorous and sometimes hard, if not impossible, to understand－of English-language signs on my mobile phone. I am no longer surprised when on the frequent occasions that I might open my phone’s photo file called “Interesting English”,the person I am showing it to responds by showing me the photos of similar signs on their phones.

Much of my work with the Foreign Affairs Office aimed at“making the English perfect” involves correcting a list of subway stations or other venues that is emailed to me. In this case, I make the corrections before the signs are made.Sometimes, however, my work actually involves joining the FAO staff on a trip to some location in Beijing to check the signs that have already been created and installed. While each of these visits has been to places I have not had a chance to visit previously, my second such trip is the most interesting.

马克·力文（左一）在延庆进行实地考察

On August 27, 2019 I joined a group of about 5 or 6 people fromthe Beijing FAO and about 20 from the Beijing People’s Congress(ordinary citizens who supervise the work of the government).We are going to Yanqing District with the objective of “making the English perfect.” First, we go to the Yanqing Olympic venue,see the exhibition hall, visit the partially constructed luge track and we then proceed to a hotel where we are joined by about 14-15 officials from the Yanqing district government. The People’s Congress people are all members of a sub-committee that oversees the government departments that work with foreigners and Chinese ethnic groups. Purpose of the visit is to deal with evaluating the quality of the English. There are 40 Chinese officials and me, the only none Chinese.Needless to say, I am stunned … 40 officials just to focus on the quality of the English.It shows they pay a special emphasis on bilingual signs and are making great efforts for improvement.

延庆区区长的欢迎致辞将本次会议拉开帷幕，一系列报告也随之展开。这些报告内容充实，并附带十分详尽的PPT演示与纸质资料。第一位嘉宾的演讲内容是奥运场馆中的标识，以及其他的宣传成果与计划。第二位嘉宾的演讲则与延庆市区相关。

第三位嘉宾是一位官方人士，其演讲主要关注八达岭长城附近的工程，不但涉及已经完工的部分，还涉及尚处于规划阶段的部分。不仅如此，包括运动员、官方人员、记者以及粉丝在内的诸多奥运参与者们，都希望奥运场馆建设能够借助靠近八达岭长城的“东风”，发挥自身优势。

在三位嘉宾发言完毕后，延庆区的其他参会代表及与会的人大代表们也纷纷发表了意见与建议。

虽然未被告知需要发言，但潜意识告诉我：这便是我们此行的目的。既然我确有事情要陈述，假如没有人邀请我，我也务必要提出自己的看法。因此，我决定做一些笔记，并在随后像其他嘉宾一样进行发言。

最终，还是有人问到我是否要提供一些意见与建议。

在表达对所见所闻的深刻印象时，我也同样注意到这里显然还有许多工作尚未完成。于是，我继续讲道：“我在中国待了很多年，因此我相信这些工作一定能在规定的时间内完成并取得成功。”接着，我也提出了一些不足之处。

The meeting begins with greetings and welcoming speeches from the leaders of the Yanqing district a series of reports follows. The reports are quite detailed with very elaborate power point presentations and printed materials.The first speaker talks about the accomplishments and plans for signage and other publicity at the Olympic venue. The second speaks about the same things related to the urban area of Yanqing.

The third official focuses attention on the work, both completed and planned for the nearby Badaling section of the Great Wall.This is in anticipation of many Olympic attendees, including athletes, officials, journalists and fans, wanting to take advantage of the Wall’s proximity to the Olympic venue.

“中国是一个能够办大事、解决重大问题的大国。相应地，在语言方面，汉语写成的句子往往很长，涵盖了太多的单词与想法。这在中文里或许没有问题，但在英文中，我们则力求让一切简单化。在英语文学作品中，我们喜欢使用诸多形容词与副词，但对于告知某人如何前往酒店或停车场，这些修饰词是没有必要的。因此，在很多情况下，我们需要的不是字面直译，而是这些标识的英文版本。”

“为了能够让事情尽可能简单，最大限度地使用国际标识与符号是十分重要的。”

“因为就英语本身而言，即使在不同的英语国家间，用法也不是完全一致的，所以我建议成立一个小型委员会，其成员应以英语为母语，包括来自美国、英国，或许还有一些来自澳大利亚的人，让他们聚在一起协同检查，并就最终措辞达成共识。此外，这些工作应在制作实体标识前完成。”

最后，北京市人大的一位领导人进行了发言。关于长城，他表示：“这是北京最为重要的旅游景点，所以有必要做好标识。”接着，他进一步解释道：对于英语标识，当地政府拥有自己的一套标准。“奥运会的筹备工作进展十分顺利，但仍需加快进度，同时人大也必将会为此类规定的完成保驾护航。每强调一项工作，我们就一定能够做到。”

最后，他鼓励组委会认真考虑我的建议。

至此，我对他们的行动充满期待，并希望再次回到延庆时，能够见证我们的工作成果。

延庆世园会

Following these three presentations, other representatives of Yanqing and the People’s Congress offer comments.

Although not being told to plan to speak, I realize that this is why I am here and that since I do have things to offer, I must ask to speak if I am not asked. Therefore,I decide to make a few notes as some of the other presentations are taking place.

At the end, I was asked if I had something to offer.

Conveying how impressed I am with what I have seen, I note that it is clear that their remains much to but done. I continue“I have been in China long enough to be quite confident that success will be achieved within the necessary time.” I then offer the following.

“China is a big country that does big things and takes on big problems. Correspondingly, in terms of language, Chinese sentences are often quite long with too many words and too many ideas. This might be OK in Chinese but in English, we try to keep things simple. In literature we prefer many adjectives and adverbs but those are unnecessary to tell someone how to get to the hotel or the parking area. Therefore, in many cases,what is needed is not an actual translation but an English version of the signs.”

“In line with the idea of keeping things as simple as possible, it is important to make maximum use of international signs and symbols.”

“Because English is different even between different Englishspeaking countries, I recommend a small committee of native speakers, including a few from US and the UK and potentially from Australia, come together to check and come to a consensus on the wording. This should be done before the actual signs are produced.”

A leader from Beijing People’s Congress is the final speaker.In relation to the Great Wall he says it “is the most important tourist site in Beijing so it is necessary to do the signs well.” He further explains that there are local government standards for English signs. “The preparations for the Olympics are going well but it needs to speed up and the People’s Congress must help in the work to meet those regulations. When we emphasize the work, we can do it.”

He concludes by encouraging the Organizing Committee to take my advice and suggestions into careful consideration.

I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with and,later, returning to Yanqing to see the product of our work.