The place to ask China-related questions!
Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzhen Chengdu Xi'an Hangzhou Qingdao Dalian Suzhou Nanjing More Cities>>

Categories

Close
Welcome to eChinacities Answers! Please or register if you wish to join conversations or ask questions relating to life in China. For help, click here.
X

Verify email

Your verification code has been sent to:

Didn`t receive your code? Resend code

By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .

Sign up with Google Sign up with Facebook
Sign up with Email Already have an account? .
Posts: 915

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Q: There's Chinglish and there's Engrish. What's the diff?

Okay, Chinglish or Engrish?

(We've all received the occasional viral Engrish jpg email in our inboxes and there's even a website or 10 devoted to the issue.)

Anyway, I vote for Chinglish which I find to be rather creative, interesting, funny, and independent of the finger-wagging, schoolmarmish Miss Linguistic Manifest Destiny (aka Miss Grammar or Grammar Nazi) who insists that any form of non-standard English is a bastardized aberration of the Queen's English, RP, BBC reporting style or the standardized, histrionic, news-reporting U.S. Midwestern variety.

Chinglish does not need the Grammar Nazi, in my opinion.

The term Engrish, on the other hand, seems to me to be a bit disparaging in that the term itself makes fun of the ofttimes difficulty Asians, in general, have when discriminating between the two phonemes: [l] and [r}.

Or does it go beyond simple pronunciation into the realm of morphology and semantics?  I believe it does.  For example, I find I have picked up certain "bastardized" English phrases and words that would make no sense back home, but make perfect sense here, thus affording better communication when talking to a Chinese English speaker. "How to do?" "Am I right?" "How to say?"

Ideas?

 

10 years 28 weeks ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
Answers (3)
Comments (3)
Posts: 4935

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Chinglish: Chinese English. All manner of unintelligible stuff.

Engrish: Japanese English. Japanese have a very difficult time with the letter "L."

 

Examples:

 

Japanese English:

Deck the haws with mounds of hawry

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra

 

Chinese English:

Derk da hazz with munds of hawlry

Fa ra la da dee sdflkwersdflklkteerkasdnsadf *ferocious temper tantrum and gutter-oil drinking ensues*

 

I think it's just the pronunciation. However, most people apply "Engrish" to everything Asian. Most people are ignorant, though.

10 years 28 weeks ago
Report Abuse
10 years 28 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
10 years 28 weeks ago
 
Posts: 618

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Yes, it goes beyond simple mispronunciation, to applying the patterns of the local language to English. It also goes the other way, like someone trying to translate "Where are you going?" word by word, when in fact all they need to translate is "Go to where?" (or in SE Asian languages such as Thai, the translation is literally "Go where?").

 

I don't know enough about Japanese or Chinese to tell the difference between Engrish and Chinglish, but I assume there is a difference, behind the r/l mispronunciation (present in all east Asian languages I think).

 

There's also Inglish (Indian English). They seem to have no problem distinguishing the 'r' and 'l' sounds but instead mispronouncing/conflating b/v and d/s/th: 'very good' is pronounced 'berry goose', usually enthusiastically, like "Ah, Berry Goose!". Also some of the patterns of Indian language (such as Hindi) contribute to Inglish. Like, "i pooped on the beach" in English would be "I went and I took -a- -a- -poop- on -da- beach" in Inglish, 

 

I took a linguistics course a while back and used to know the fancy word for these similar types of sounds. And NO I'm not trying to make fun of non-native English, I think it's funny and kind of cool sounding in some cases. Making fun of it would be rather dickish, like Chinese speakers making fun of native English speakers' tones when speaking Chinese.

Report Abuse
10 years 28 weeks ago
 
Posts: 9192

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Many Chinese have what I think is a Chinese accent when they speak English. Some I've heard speak with a British accent. I met women that were Chinese English teachers and a professional translator. They all spoke English words by adding ''ah'' to words. I see this as a learned pause between words. Italians sometimes do this also.

 I find Engrlish enjoyable and sometimes quite cute. My girl friend had a cute accent, not like what I typically hear and her English wasn't great, but she always made me giggle. She has to be the cutest woman I have  ever met. She says things like " I want sleeping''. I find many Chinese women to be too cute for words.

Red_Fox:

TD - Reminds of a story I have about my gf here in China.

We bought two Snickers bars one day at Carrefour and set them aside on the kitchen counter.

That night, I couldn't sleep coz I was hungry. So I got up, went to the kitchen, and the only fast thing around was the Snickers bars. I ate them both.

The next morning, she and I went into the kitchen for coffee (me) and porridge (her). She looked around, didn't see the Snickers bars and exclaimed in an excited tone: "There's a mouth in the house!"

I looked at her in disbelief, took a second to process her comment, and agreed: "Yes, honey. There is a mouth in the house!"

Of course, she meant "mouse", but she was spot on nevertheless...

 

 

10 years 28 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
10 years 28 weeks ago
 
Know the answer ?
Please or register to post answer.

Report Abuse

Security Code: * Enter the text diplayed in the box below
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <br> <p> <u>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Textual smileys will be replaced with graphical ones.

More information about formatting options

Forward Question

Answer of the DayMORE >>
A:  "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "S
A: "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "Shenzhen agent can connect you with an employer, who's authorized to hire waigouren ... and can sponsor Z visa." It's not like every 10th person you meet in Shenzhen's hood can sponsor work visa ...  The only way to change student visa to labourer one is just a regular way by: 1. Finding an employer, who'll apply for an Invitation letter; 2. Exit China and apply for Z visa in your home country's Chinese embassy; 3. Enter China in 30-days after Z visa was stamped into your travelling instrument ...As I am aware, you won't be able to switch to Working permit by remaining in China....,so make ready for a return to your home .... -- icnif77