Tag Archives: T.I.C.

T.I.C. -This is China – ‘Chinglish’ store name

2010-12-21_11

‘Chinglish’ – A product of individual words being translated literally from the rather metaphorical language of Chinese into English… directly, and without consideration of the meaning of the sentence.

This photo is of a hair salon: “The Dream Satisfactory Sends The Cosmetology”

I’m on the Qing Guay, (light rail public transit), as I type this on my phone, and the announcement for the arrival at the next station in English says, “The (Station Name) is here.”

I’ve often seen terms like this on places like the FAIL blog, or with the term ‘English Fail’ attached, but I disagree! What I see here is a willingness to TRY, and that is key to learning.

I’m so hesitant to try with my limited Chinese that my learning curve is more like an unscalable cliff! Here in Dalian, I’ve seen many fearless English learners that want only to improve and don’t think of their limited ability and mistakes along the way as failures, but simply as opportunities to improve. There is a valuable lesson to be learned here!

Still, some of the Chingish I’ve seen has been irresistibly funny, and I’ll share a few on my Daily Ink.

T.I.C. – This is China – Haircut Anyone?

2010-12-22_15

Yesterday I turned my video off a few seconds early. At the next corner, this was the scene. A bicycle, a chair, a sheet to cover the patron, a pair of scissors, a comb, and a battery-operated shaver. That’s pretty low ‘overhead’ for this ‘street barber’. I’ve tried a lot of different street food, but must admit that I pay a bit more for an indoor haircut!

(I asked before taking the photo.)

T.I.C. -“This is China” #1 – A small back-street in Dalian

via datruss on qik VIDEO (Mouse over the image to press play.)

This is less than a 5 minute walk from our school, and it’s a China you don’t see when you visit Beijing or Shanghai and do what the tourists do. A block up was a barber cutting hair on the street corner. I’ll share that photo tomorrow.

For the next few days I’ll share a number of different sights and sounds and ‘Chinglish’ phrases that help to make this a wonderful experience here. There are many hard-to-describe events and circumstances that happen here and our staff will say T.I.C. – “This is China”. I’ll use this same term to celebrate and share in the adventure our family is having here.

Just to put a little perspective on T.I.C. – one of my teachers shared her elevator ride to her apartment with a neighbor and her goat today… T.I.C.