Attention your language and fluid expulsion please

Below is an article about China preparing for the Olympics. Most of it deals with getting businesses and taxi drivers to use learn and use proper English so they can communicate with all the foreign tourists expected for next year's Games.

While I do think that China does need to be more English friendly, certainly in major cities, I do question the methods they are using. The article gives some funny examples of signs seen around the city; these aren't made up. It is very common to see signs like this in China. Furthermore, it seems like they usually use British English when making the signs, so they use "lift" (or "life") instead of elevator.

But I guess the funniest thing to me is the ban on spitting. For those of you who haven't been to China, that is probably a bigger task, that teaching the cabbies English. Many Chinese men and women can be heard hocking and spitting daily. I have heard stories of Chinese carelessly spitting at a street corner... only to land the loogie on the shoe top of the person standing next to them. So unless Beijing swaps their citizens with the Chinese population of Singapore (where spitting has been illegal for some time), I think there is going to be a problem.

BEIJING (AP) -- Along with spitting, run-down housing and bad manners, add unintelligible English to the list of things organizers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics want to ban.
Municipal officials promised on Wednesday to crack down on awkward, Chinese-inflected English, known as "Chinglish," and asked the public to help police bad grammar and faulty syntax.
With 500,000 foreigners expected for the Olympics, taxi drivers who can't speak English -- or signs that mangle the language -- could be an embarrassment and distract from the $40 billion being poured into rebuilding the city for the games.
Throughout the city, examples abound.
A store selling tobacco products advertises: "An Excellent Winding Smoke."
On the floor at Beijing's Capital Airport, a sign reads: "Careful Landslip Attention Security."
On a billboard, this mysterious message: "Shangri-La is in you mind, but your Buffalo is not."
In an elevator, parents are warned: "Please lead your child to tare the life."
Liu Yang, who heads the "Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program" for the city government, said 6,500 "standardized" English-language signs were put up last year on Beijing roads. But he acknowledged private businesses were not following the rules, which were handed to reporters -- a stack of glossy documents weighing 2 pounds.
"We will pass the message on to authorities in the advertising sector," Liu said. "If English translation is needed it must be subject to the standards set forth in the regulations."
Liu said a language hotline may be set up for the games to encourage the public to report nonsense English. China's diplomatic missions abroad are assisting, Liu said, "and our people working in foreign companies are helping with correct usage."
"In the future when we set up new signs in public places in English, we hope all these standards will be followed to avoid more additional mistakes."
Liu said Beijing taxi drivers must pass an English test to keep their licenses. But he acknowledged most speak only Chinese, and many are skipping language classes.
"The taxi training courses are not working effectively, and there is a problem of taxi drivers missing classes," he said. "Taxi drivers need to get their licenses renewed every year, and an English test is now part of that that exam. But the exam is not so difficult."
"Some taxi drivers do speak some English, and that's a big change from the past," Liu added. "But the overall level still needs to improve. Some taxi drivers speak no English; they understand no English."
Despite the problems, Liu said one-third of Beijing's 15 million residents speak some English, a claim that was challenged by a local reporter from China's state-run CCTV.
"I think 5 million is a big number," the reporter told Liu.
Liu stood by the figure, but conceded the vast majority of the English speakers fell into a category he labeled "low level."
"They can have very simply conversations, like: `Who am I? Where am I going?"'