Summary:
1. Causing of the mistakes: In a Chinese-English dictionary, the first English explanation of “男”, “女”, “防火” is “male”, “female” and “fireproof” respectively, from where we can see that the public signs are mistranslated by the unqualified translators who do the translation simply by picking up the first or the most frequently used English explanations, or just select the words randomly, without considering the actual meaning and situation. Some of the selected words have nothing to do with the Chinese meaning and seem ridiculous.
2. Ways to avoid such mistakes: When doing the translation, translators should take into account the exact meaning of selected English words, and had better read the examples attached to the words to see how it can be used. Back translation is needed to test the accuracy of the English translation.

4.1.2. Word for word translation
   The words on the public signs are divided into single ones and translated respectively, then added up to form the final translation. Such mistranslation is prevalent among the directing boards in stores and supermarket, etc., which are totally meaningless to foreigners.
   The examples of such mistranslation are as followed:
  
Example 8

(Shot in a supermarket in Dashilan)

Analysis: “收” is “accept”, “银” is “the silver”, and “台” is “set”, so “收银台” is translated as “accept” + ”the silver” + ‘set”, just like doing a mathematic problem.
Suggestions: “收银台” should be viewed as one translation unit instead of three. The English equivalence can be easily get from any Chinese-English dictionary, which is “checkout counter”.

Example 9


(Shot in a shop located in Wangfujing Street)

Analysis: It has been divided into 5 individual characters, “王”, “致”, “和”, “腐" and”乳” and translated word for word: “king” for “王”, “with the result that” for “致”, “with” for “和”, “milk of curd” for “腐乳”. No one would know what is the “King with the result that with the milk of curd”.
Suggestions: “王致和” is the brand name of the product, which can be put in its pinyin form---- “wangzhihe”; “腐乳” is either “fermented bean curd” or “bean curd cheese”, so the sign should be revised as “Wangzhihe Fermented Bean Curd”.

Example 10


(Shot in the Forbidden City)

    Response: “That´s pretty funny. I don´t understand it at all. It sounds like a newspaper headline about tourists eating some strange kind of box, either a box that wants to charge them money or a box that is attacking them”. (Appendix -- Letter 2)
Analysis: “旅游消费投诉箱” is divided into “旅游”, “消费”, “投诉” and “箱”, which is translated respectively as “Tourist”, “consume”, “charging” and “box”.
   Suggestions: “I would probably call it a ‘Tourist Suggestion Box’” (Appendix – Letter 2)
  
   Example 11

Analysis: “老人、儿童 (old man and children)” is translated as “old man’s child”, which means “老人的孩子”; “扶梯 (escalator)” is translated as “hand ladder”; and “temporary” is for “时” (when).
Suggestions: “Old man” can be replaced by “seniors”, which shows respect; “child” should be in it’s plural form, so both “children” and “kids” are all right. “家人” can be omitted, because it doesn’t matter who will accompany them. What’s more, as “老人、儿童” are the subject, passive voice is a better choice. Thus, the translation of this sign can be revised as: “The seniors and kids should be accompanied on the escalator”.

Example 11

(Shot in Xinhua Avenue, Tong Zhou District)
Analysis: “请” is translated as “please”, “讲” as “speak to”, “究” as “investigate”, “卫生” as “hygien” (spelling mistake spotted). The sign is translated as “Please speak to investigate the hygien”, which is not English at all!
Suggestions: Like “请勿随地吐痰” etc., this sign serves as a reminder only to Chinese people. It contains no information, and is unnecessary to be translated into English.

Example 12




(Shot in Oriental Plaza)
Analysis: This “plaza” is in fact a store that sells cell phones. “无限文化广场” has been translated word-by-word as “endless culture plaza”. “Culture” is an abstract word, how can it be “endless”? And no one would know what the store is for only by reading the name board.
Suggestion: “FAB Cell Phone Seller”

Example 13


(Shot at Changling, Beijing)

Analysis: “Cue”, as a noun, means “a signal for someone to do something” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=18838&dict=CALD). For example, “They started washing up, so that was our cue to leave the party”, “The fall in interest rates may be a cue for an upturn in consumer spending”. The Chinese equivalence for that is “暗示”, “信号” , not “提示”.
“Cue” is usually used in performance, not in this situation.
Suggestion: Foreigners won’t have interests in where does this warning come from, so “民警提示” is not necessary to be translated.

Example 14



（Shot in Ziyuyuan Park）

Analysis：”Recreation” refers to “an activity that you do for pleasure or amusement” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2005) , and the Chinese equivalence for this word is “消遣”, “休闲”, etc. It is a noun form and should not be followed by anything else.
Suggestion: Either “Amusement ground” or “children’s playground” can be used.