The Miracle Language
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2006
1
126
131
Trip End
Ongoing
Shenzhen,
China
Thursday, February 7, 2008
And so it is that I'm slowly coming to grips with the beauty of Chinglish. This is the bastard language born of the day-to-day efforts of Chinese to use English. Chinglish is the way it is because English is generally poorly taught in China, not only in the Chinese education system, but by careless native speakers in language schools. However, Chinglish also has its own embedded culture which echoes the pride, and some might say arrogance, of the Han Chinese cultural identity. Amongst the majority of people I meet, there is an unmistakable attitude of, "This is the way we use language, so that's the way it will be. We actually don't much care how you use it, although we will listen if it means we can pass a test."
In China, English is studied, but Chinglish is used. It's that simple. That's the way it is folks, and you can whistle for any other pipe dreams you may have. I'm cynical/realistic enough to put it that English is used to pass exams, but Chinglish is what is going to be used, like it or not. Language is evolving in front of me every day.
It doesn't sound very beautiful at this point, does it? Well now that I've started, let me continue lacerating it. After all what I have to say about Chinglish is a mere scratch compared to the butchery it inflicts on the English language. Almost everything about it is wrong...but it works. So who says it's wrong? Well, anybody who wants to see accurately punctuated, structured, and coherently delivered English. I'm not going to get into the, who says they are right to say this, or why does it matter arguments, but I will have to settle for my own definition of "Proper English" which is:
"English that doesn't grate on my ear, but which most importantly can be adapted to communicate degrees and shades of the same message to different audiences." The fact that I don't think I can write my own definition of English in Chinglish tells me that I've got a problem with Chinglish. It is a crude, head-splitting hammer of a communication tool.
The thing is that it works. It not only works but there are huge numbers of people who use it successfully day to day. Like it or not, it is becoming a lingua franca. If you can't understand it, you can't communicate. There are times when I find myself using it myself, "How to go?" It's a direct translation from the Chinese.
Perhaps the thing that grabs me most about Chinglish is its rigid derivation from Chinese which uses fundamentally simple logic constructs. That means that the meanings become incredibly simple. For all that Chinese communication is incredibly complex and nebulous to the locals let alone outsiders, the linguistic logic used is simple. What isn't said is often at least as important as what is. Nonetheless, this Chinese language structure washes all before it in the use of Chinglish. We are simply dealing with a new language that by virtue of the volume of use and resistance of its users to change to more accurate forms will become a global communication tool.
One thing that must be said is that written Chinglish is invariably totally incomprehensible. Take somebody who can communicate effectively enough in oral conversation and leave them with a dictionary or an internet translator for half an hour and you get complete gobbledegook. I mean, I have seen pieces of writing, where I couldn't even guess what people were trying to say even when I wrote them an email beforehand or gave them an essay title. For all that Chinglish has its merits, it is absolutely useless if people try to say anything clever, or even worse, grandiose. It looks about as good, and makes about as much sense, as a bald French Poodle!
Watching an English language movie with my Chinese wife is highly instructive because we have two stories taking place. Not only are we enjoying the picture and hopefully the witty repartee of a Hollywood dialogue, but we also have a secret sub-plot written by the Chinese translator based on what they think is probably happening. For example, we were recently watching the story of Elizabeth I, "the Virgin Queen," where the Chinese story had her with an adult daughter. Occasionally, one assumes they got a bunch of high school English students to cobble something together such as when Johnny Depp announced he was about to polish his compass, and this was rendered in Chinese as, "penis his compass." You either have to be stupid, lazy or expecting a computer translator to do the work for you to allow those kind of mistakes to pass.
This, however, is not a touch on Chinglish subtitles. If you want a real miracle, then watch the English subtitles for an English language movie which have been translated from English to Chinese and then back to Chinese. They bear nigh on zero relation to what is taking place, nor what is being said. Think about it for a minute... English language film and English language subtitles don't match because they've been translated into Chinglish.
Language is ultimately nothing but a tool, albeit one which exists in many different forms and many different levels of complexity. Once you're used to it, Chinglish works, in particular for oral communication. After all, most of us never get past pidgin forms of non-native languages, but as long as we can get our loaf of bread, noodles or beer on holiday, pidgin is just fine. After all, if a match will do, why use an oxyacetylene torch to light a fire?
So just where is right and wrong when it comes to English language? In criticising others you immediately set yourself up as fall guy for accusations of cultural imperialism and the like. Bunkum! Chinglish works, but it is a shallow medium of communication. Using my own definition to test whether or not it is "Proper English", it fails spectacularly by virtue of grating hideously and lacking flexibility or degree. Nonetheless, it is upon us, and whether the rest of the World has realised or not yet, the primacy of Chinese thought patterns is something which is coming to a global economy near you. By virtue of history, culture, self-belief, narrow-mindedness, volume of population and umpteen other variables, China can and will shape the World, not least it seems the English language.
