To further improve its services to foreign residents, Shijingshan District took the lead among districts in Beijing to assess the accuracy of public sign translation, urging key industries to take positive moves to ensure that public signs in foreign languages meet established standards.

Shijingshan District Holds Meeting to Analyze Accuracy of Public Sign Translation

Since September 2022, Shijingshan has been conducting assessments of 31 selected public service facilities in seven key sectors, including financial services, culture and tourism, and government services. The facilities were selected in accordance with the Catalogue of Beijing's Public Venues that Should Have Foreign Language Signs and Information Types. A third-party professional institution was hired to collect and record information of 3,356 foreign-language signs. Based on the Guidelines for the Use of English in Public Service Areas and Beijing Local Standards - Guidelines for the Use of English for Public Signs, as well as the opinions of foreign language experts, the accuracy of public sign translation in key sectors was assessed and ranked, and mistranslated signs were categorized and revision suggestions were given.

With a problem-oriented approach, the assessment listed and categorized the signs with translation errors and set a deadline for correction. To enhance work efficiency through coordinated efforts, the district has established a mechanism for joint inspection and rectification of foreign-language signs, which consists of the district's Office of Foreign Affairs, competent authorities, and the Bureau of Law Enforcement for Urban Management. In line with the principle of sustained rectification, the mistranslated or functionally misleading signs are subject to immediate rectification, while those with format or capitalization errors will be remedied by the responsible institutions at the next sign replacement.

To translate the assessment results into actions, the Foreign Affairs Office, the Bureau of Law Enforcement for Urban Management and seven competent authorities of key industries, including the Health Commission, the Bureau of Government Services, and the Bureau of Commerce of Shijingshan held a meeting to analyze the accuracy of the translation of public signs, find out the reasons behind the errors, and give advice on the correction. After the meeting, the competent authorities carried out quick rectification according to the assessment results and the requirements of the meeting.