On the lighter side: October 2006 Archives

By REUTERS | The New York Times
October 16, 2006

A Chinese university aiming to produce ''socially elite'' graduates is to make golf compulsory for students, state media reported on Tuesday.

Golf was once reviled in Communist China as a symbol of western decadence, but has become hugely popular among the newly affluent since the first golf course opened on the mainland in the early 1980s.

Students majoring in management, law, economics and software engineering at Xiamen University in China's southeastern Fujian province would be required to take a course in golf ``to achieve their elite ambitions,'' the China Daily newspaper said.

``Golf is not only good exercise, but will teach students communication skills and benefit their future careers,'' the paper quoted the university's president Zhu Chongshi as saying.

``The highest embodiment of the education system is producing socially elite people with the best education.''

Zhu said a bachelor's degree used to be respected but that higher education had grown into ``an industry designed to fulfil market demand'' and that there was a ``need for elite education.''

The university, which according to Zhu would open ``a most beautiful'' driving range in two months, had drawn some fire, the paper said.

``To try to make golf compulsory is rather vulgar,'' Alex Jin, president of the Center for International Education Group, was quoted as saying.

``China can ill afford golf,'' Jin said, adding that some regions in China needed investment in better primary health care.

By BBC News
October 15, 2006

China has launched a fresh drive to clamp down on bad English in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Previous attempts to wipe out Chinglish - the mistranslated phrases often seen on Chinese street signs and product labels - have met with little success.

Emergency exits at Beijing airport read "No entry on peacetime" and the Ethnic Minorities Park is named "Racist Park".

Beijing city authorities will issue new translation guides by the end of the year, Xinhua news agency said.

Running joke

The booklets would be handed out to hotels and shopping malls, on public transport and at tourist attractions.

Chinglish has become a running joke among many foreigners in China, and several websites have been set up listing humorous examples of mistranslation.

A road sign on Beijing's Avenue of Eternal Peace warns of a dangerous pavement with the words: "To Take Notice of Safe; The Slippery are Very Crafty".

Menus frequently list items such as "Corrugated iron beef", "Government abuse chicken" and "Chop the strange fish".

The mistranslations arise because many Chinese words express concepts obliquely and can be interpreted in multiple ways, making translation a minefield for non-English speakers.

The municipal government in Beijing first tried to stamp out the problem just a month after being awarded the 2008 Olympics back in 2001.

A year later the Beijing Tourism Bureau set up a hotline for visitors and residents to tip off examples of bad English, and said results would be reviewed by a panel of English professors and expatriates