Jaunted

Tags: Beijing Olympics 2008 / Chinglish / China Travel / Olympics / → All Tags

China Corrects Us: WC Is Crude

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics drawing overwhelmingly nearer, China is getting really serious about fixing the Chinglish problem. The Chinese authorities really want you to understand what you read when you travel around Beijing between sports events.

They've now gone so far as to make the major decision to turn every Water Closet into a toilet, having decided

In many Western countries they don't use the term W.C. at all ... Because in English, it's equivalent to what we would call in China an outhouse, and is a rather crude slang term.

News to us, but what concerns us much more than whether they call a bathroom a WC or a toilet is all the "English" that we just can't understand at all. Literal translations of restaurant dishes could have us eating meals like "ants climbing the tree" or "mixed elbow with garlic mud", both of which like they might induce a visit to the WC--sorry, we mean the toilet.

Related Stories:
· China Travel [Jaunted]
· Hello Toilet, Goodbye WC [Reuters]
· The Old Weak Ill Disability and Pregnant Lounge [Jaunted]

[Photo: libraryman]