Chinglish  中式英语
 
 
Finn:  Hi Feifei, long time no see!
 
Feifei:  Long time no… hang on, we see each other every day in the office Finn!
 
Finn:  We do, don’t we. But, don’t you think that the grammar of the phrase “long
time no see” is quite interesting? Maybe a bit unusual?
 
Feifei:  那倒是。按正常语法你应该说  “we haven’t seen each other for a long time”. 或
者和这句话类似的表达，不过为什么  long time no see 更特别一些呢？  
 
Finn:  Well, let’s leave that for everyone to think about for the moment and we’ll
tell them later in the programme.
 
Feifei:  在今天的你问我答节目中，我们会解答来自中国的朋友维龙提出的问题。
 
Insert
 
The question is: what do British people think about Chinglish phrases such as “good good
study, day day up”? Thank you.
 
Finn:  Good good study, day day up? What? 
 
Feifei:  Finn, you sound a bit confused?
 
Finn:  Mmm, a little bit.
 
Feifei:  就像维龙说的那样，这是一个中式英语表达 Chinglish phrase. 
 
Finn:  Ah, a Chinglish phrase. Now it does sound familiar.
 
Feifei:  Chinglish 是受中文影响的英语，往往指那些直接从中文翻译成英文的句子或者表达。
那么  Finn 你来猜猜 good good study, day day up 的中文是什么？
 
Finn:  那应该是: 好好学习，天天向上？
 
Feifei:  Very good. 不过  Finn 毕竟学过中文，所以这个问题难不到他。维龙想知道的是一般
英国人能不能理解这种中式英语 Chinglish 的表达。 
 Finn:  We asked a selection of people what they thought “good good study, day
day up” meant.
 
Insert
 
Man 1: I have no idea. No sorry, it doesn’t tell me anything.
 
Man 2: Absolutely no idea, none at all, what does it mean?
 
Man 3: I have no idea what that means.
Finn: No, have you got a guess? 
Man 3: No, I have no idea. No.
Finn: Nothing at all?
Man 3: No.
 
Finn: Have you got any ideas good good study, day day up?
Man 4: It’s a load of rubbish. 
 
Finn:    So, it looks like a lot of people had no idea. No idea.
 
Feifei:   完全不知道. No idea. 还有一个英国人认为这简直就是瞎掰。
 
Finn:    A load of rubbish. But some people did try to guess what it meant.
 
Insert
 
Always sort of prepare yourself for the day. Whatever you’re going to do make sure that
you’re prepared I suppose.
 
Good study day up, have a good day? 
 
Don’t know. Have a good study, it’ll be a busy day?
 
Today might be hard, but I hope you study well.
 
Good good study, day day up? It means that if you study well, then you’re a day ahead,
you’re up on your studies, you’re on top of it, you know what I mean? That’s what I think
anyway.
 
Finn:  So, a few better ideas. One suggested it could mean to always prepare for
the day whatever you were going to do.
 
Feifei:  总是提前为一天做好准备，这个想法不错但有点偏题了。 And one person there
thought it meant “have a good day”.
 
Finn:  Yes, another nice idea, but not right. And the last guy there, he actually
had a better concept. He thought it meant that if you study well then you
were on top of your studies.
 
Feifei:  走在学习进度之前 on top of your studies. But Finn, no one got it exactly
right.

Finn:  Yes. Until I found this man.
 
Insert
 
It means if you study every day then you will get better.
 
Feifei:  If you study every day, you’ll get better.
 
Finn:  But, very interestingly, this man was actually Chinese and now working in
London.
 
Feifei:  虽然这只是一个很小的调查，但是看来真正能够理解中式英语表达 Chinglish 的人，
本身都会说中文。
 
Finn:  Yes, it does suggest that this directly-translated Chinglish phrase is very
hard to understand for English speakers. Although, you know what, a few
Chinglish phrases have actually entered everyday English.
 
Feifei:  That’s right. 十九世纪在上海和殖民地港口所流行的洋泾浜英语是当时中国商人和外
商沟通的主要语言。有些更符合中国语法的英文后来也流传回英国本土，成了现代英语
的一部分。
 
Finn:  Such as “no can do”.
 
Feifei:  Which means, literally 不能做。
 
Finn:  And “no-go”.
 
Feifei:  Which comes from 不行。 
 
Finn:  And of course, the first one we heard: “long time no see”.
 
Feifei:  It is of course 好久不见。 All of these are now common in English.
 
Finn:  And in fact some foreigners actually think that Chinglish can enrich the
English language.
 
Feifei:  让英语变得更丰富? That’s interesting.
 
Finn:  It is, isn’t it? Yes, although some phrases can be misleading 让人产生误会，
they can also offer a window into the Chinese language and way of
thinking, which is often very poetic.
 
Feifei:  Hmmm. 这么说我们不应该觉得中式英语会让人难堪或者需要杜绝，其实这是一扇窗
a window 让人开阔视野了解中国思想和语言的机会，而且从语言角度分析，中文比英
文更具有诗意 more poetic. Any examples, Finn?
 
Finn:  Ok, what about “people mountain, people sea”.
 
Feifei:  人山人海。 
 Finn:  As always, I think the most important thing here is communication. If you
make a few mistakes when you speak English, it doesn’t matter too much.
 
Feifei:  那倒是，就算你偶尔犯个错儿，那也没关系，说不定还能帮助外国人理解中文呢。
 
Finn:  Unless you are telling someone to “slip carefully”.
 
Feifei:  Slip carefully? 注意下滑?
 
Finn:  I’ve seen a lot of signs in toilets in China telling me: 小心滑落 slip carefully.
 
Feifei:  I see. 这个翻译的确容易让人产生误会。 What should it be?
 
Finn:  In English we normally say: “Slippery when wet”.
Ok, well thanks everyone for listening today and we hope Weilong is happy
with our answer to his question.
 
Feifei:  If you have any questions, please email them to us at:
questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. 
 
Finn:  Bye for now. Whoops!
 
Sound of Finn falling over.
 
Feifei:  What happened?
 
Finn:  I slipped. Not carefully.