Don’t walk into burning elevators

Chinglish on the way

This column aims to identify Chinglish in public areas. If you see any Chinglish signs, please send a picture of it to wangyu2008@ynet.com together with your name and address.

By Anthony Tao

Has anyone ever seen an elevator on fire? And the more important, even more rhetorical question: has anyone seen someone actually get on an elevator that’s on fire?

I think it’s safe to say that this sign is unnecessary. Of course no one would dare step into a three-square-meter box filling with flames.

The sign should probably say, “Do not use elevator in case of fire,” which means if there is a fire somewhere in the building, you should hurry to the nearest stairwell. This is, of course, to prevent you from being trapped inside an oven should the fire reach the elevator shaft – though you’d probably perish from smoke inhalation first.

Ah, but let’s not get morbid. And, really, let’s not nitpick too much here. The translation on the sign is actually decent, and this is a good example of an English phrase being perfectly understandable even if it’s not strictly “proper.”

Now the most relevant question of all: if you’re inside the elevator already and it catches fire, what do you do?

Don’t look at me for answers to that one.