Chinese University Attracts Overseas Students

Programs like Rosetta Stone, online translation sites like Babel Fish and local universities can only do so much. The best way to learn a language is still to go straight to the source, which is what a lot of overseas students have done with Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) to learn Chinese for a variety of reasons.

Adam Daniel Bruer-Zehevi for example is attending the university to open a translation company next year. “I have a business plan in Beijing, and Chinese language study is my final preparation before I open my translation company next year,” he said.

Miyuki Edo, a Japanese woman, is another language student that is studying at BFSU to hone her Chinese, “More Chinese are visiting Tokyo every year, and Japanese who can speak fluent Chinese are popular in the tourism employment market.”

Edo continued that her friends joined the university to be in the city during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Bruer-Zehevi observed that he also wanted to see the “real China and its people.”

“We also enroll a lot of students from less-developed countries who have scholarships funded by the Chinese government,” said university president Chen Yulu. “In China, only BFSU has the teaching and research resources of some less commonly taught languages, so students from these countries prefer our university.”

Yulu noted that about 1,500 oversea students are studying at BFSU this year, an increase of 500 more students compared to the record set in 2008. South Korea has the most oversea students in the university followed by Japan, Malaysia and Italy.

Future plans for the university includes attracting more students from Western countries for degree studies and foreign officials for short-term programs.

“We also welcome overseas students who have learned some Chinese in our overseas Confucius Institutes and want to further their study in Beijing,” Yulu concluded.

*Source: China Daily

Hong Kong Book Fair Seeks to Develop Global Profile

The Hong Kong Book Fair, which is known for its sher enormity, has made an effort to modernize and expand its reach.

Maybe because most of the books are in Chinese-language material to local buyers, or because it is more like a raucous and populist event, the Book Fair has not quite found its place on the global stage yet.

"Our goal is to put it on the map internationally," said Joe Kainz, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, which organizes the fair. In this year's seven-day fair, more international authors, more English-language material, and a new area dedicated to e-books and digital media have been brought in. To help visitors who might be intimidated by that second language they learned in school, the Fair's organizers held sessions like "Chip Tsao's Reading Guide to Renowned English-language Authors."

Mr. Tsao, a British-educated local commentator, addressed a standing-room-only seminar on the first day. After a short introduction, he began reading in a slow, clear British accent while pointing to a screen with the first page of Mr. Horowitz's "Point Blank," part of his "Alex Rider" series of crime thrillers aimed at younger readers. Mr. Tsao translated difficult words into Cantonese and peppered his talk with jokes. "You don't have to run to the dictionary everytime there's a word you don't recognize," he reassured. "You don't need to know what a Beretta sub-compact, semi-automatic pistol is. You just need to know this man has a gun."

"I'm bowled over that there are a million people interested enough in books to show up." said the guests speakers who seemed overwhelmed by the crowds, "I was struck by how by how many young people are here. It made my old heart quite happy."


Source: The New York Times

Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/arts/30iht-fair.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

Fighting Against Misused: Shanghai Is Cleaning Up Chinglish Signage

For 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing replaced thousands of English signages, which included 400,000 street signs and 1,300 restaurant menus, such as Dongda Anus Hospital was rechristened Dongda Proctology Hospital; Racist Park was rechristened Minorities Park. Now it's turn for Shanghai. To greet millions of visitors, Shanghai is taking great effort to eliminate mangled English of Chinglish. "The purpose of signage is to be useful, not to be amusing," said Zhao Huimin, the former Chinese ambassador to the United Sates.

However, while the Chinese people are striving to eliminate Chinglish, Oliver Lutz Radtke, a former German radio reporter, put forward an opinion that Chinglish deserves preservation. "If you standardize all these signs, you not only take away the little giggle you get while strolling in the part but you lose a window into the Chinese mind." Jeffrey Yao, an English translator and teacher offered an example: for the warning "Keep Off the Grass", Chinese version tries to express it into a gentle way, that is "The little Grass Is Sleeping. Please Don't Disturb It." "Some Chinglish expressions are nice, but we are not translating literature here," said Mr. Yao, " I want to see people nodding that they understand the message on these signs. I don't want to see them laughing."

Source: NDTV.

Read more at http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/shanghai-works-on-fixing-the-mangled-english-of-chinglish-22975.php