tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3263613130427456647.post7860857615548880730..comments2024-03-09T12:28:08.537+08:00Comments on Isidor's Fugue: China's Struggles With English: A Starbucks "Grond Open" in BengbuBrian Glucrofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02144046195231802682noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3263613130427456647.post-71677325073384884352017-08-07T01:03:19.291+08:002017-08-07T01:03:19.291+08:00For some reason I didn't see your comment unti...For some reason I didn't see your comment until just now. I want to respond, particularly to your last point. I'd like to do it in a post, though, so that will come soon.Brian Glucrofthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02144046195231802682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3263613130427456647.post-73013903665167598492017-08-04T15:08:11.312+08:002017-08-04T15:08:11.312+08:00I've only been to one other country where ther...I've only been to one other country where there was such a consistent indifference about the use of coherent, proper English on business signage and text. I was taken aback when I first visited Singapore and saw none of the nonsense verbuage that I had grown accustomed to on the mainland. I asked a local who assured me that it wasn't because Singaporean English is of such a high caliber but that businesses, naturally?, regard bad signage as contributing to a negative expression on their business. <br />English signage in China is often decorative. Business owners don't expect Han Chinese to read it and more often than not Chinese don't read because that would potentially apply the knowledge that they have spent years trying to acquire.<br />But on the mainland, I think there is a more insidious factor at play. Nobody wants to contribute negative comments about anything. I'm very confident that more than one employee at this new franchise can read English and recognize the error. But to speak up has no upsides and only downsides. It means that the manager must reorder the signs (more work); the printer must admit that he has no quality control (loss of face); there is a delay in getting a corrected sign on display (horrors, a potential loss of income!) Whereas a Singaporean businessowner might express gratitude to a stranger pointing out an English error in a business text, a mainland employee who catches a similar mistake has learned by example to just keep silent and pretend that everything is perfect.Potomackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047837559244141708noreply@blogger.com