English & McDonald’s wifi
Killing time on the way to the train station the other day, a friend and I stopped into McDonald’s for coffee that was cheaper than that of the Starbuck’s next door. Thinking they may have wifi, I pulled out my iPod to find not one but three wireless networks all linked to McDonald’s. Excellent, I thought, this should be quick.
Here’s a shot of the main page.
Notice the English? It keeps going. Clicking on that little “try now” banner, you’re directed to a form. But first they tell you that according to “Article 23 of ‘Regulations on Administration of Business Premisses for Internet Access Services of the People’s Republic of China’,” McDonald’s is required to get the following data from you. Specifically your name, your ID number, your mobile phone number and your email address. At each step, everything is labeled in English and in Mandarin.
And then you get to the very bottom, where you’ll see “This Service is Only Applicable to PRC ID Card Holders”
Wait, what? I understand them wanting all of the information. I understand McDonald’s having English and Mandarin in China. I do not understand why they would have English for something that is only available to PRC ID card holders. I don’t know of a single person who reads English but not Mandarin and qualifies to use McDonald’s internet.
So what’s going on with the language choice here? Is the English in place for Uyghurs from the far reaches of the Empire who may have learned English but managed to get by without Mandarin? Is China making a push to get more expats to become PRC citizens without requiring them to learn words like 电邮地址 and 姓名?
I can’t come up with a single solid reason for it. Can anyone else?
I think the reason for this is very simple:
English is fashionable. Ever noticed all the magazines that have English names (and no obvious connection to any sister-magazine abroad), but a part from the name everything is in Mandarin.
The same with shops and restaurants in the middle of bloody no-where which have English names, although the likelihood of any expats not knowing Mandarin stopping by is probably around 0.
I think it’s all meant for their audience, meaning Chinese people, not people who really needs the English. It gives any brand an international flavor, as a Beijing friend once put it when I asked the exact same question. It signals something modern and desirable, both good signals to send if you wanna sell something, right?
I am still puzzled by it, but I think it can at least explain a lot of these English-for-what-use cases.
Andre:
I can agree that it’s certainly the answer for most cases, but I don’t really buy it for this. The english is too good, too complete and too error free. That was actually the thing that really grabbed my attention beyond a first “huh?” moment. I’m not sure it fits in with every other jacket worn on the subway having “fashion” or “sport” on it.
It doesn’t always fit, true.
For the McDonald’s case here, is it maybe possible that they wanted to have an open net, with login, then made the interface in English and Mandarin, later to find out that the relevant authorities wanted a different approach, while the didn’t bother to change the interface.
For huge international companies like McD’s I would assume that they have some kind of policy on translations, meaning they probably adapt the local language to the English original and not the other way around. Or?
[ Just fixed the errors and deleted the follow-up comment you left. -KP ]
A good point. I was thinking about that just before posting, and tried to cover my butt by bringing it up, but then deleted that sentence before publishing.
The reason I decided that’s probably not it the case is because even the parts where they translated Article 23 and all that. It seems unlikely that they’d have started out with a bilingual interface and then realised the issue, but then went ahead and translated the relevant parts.
My question is: how come MacDonalds have decided to respect “Article 23” and Starbucks (and pretty much every other place with Wifi) haven’t? If MacDonalds represents the way things are going, that’s not good in my book.
I second @escdotdot. China has many laws that don’t get enforced. This law is near the top of my own personal list of those that I would rather remain unenforced.
Can we get Hujintao’s ID number somehow and just use that?
also… funny how they require a China Mobile number of those reading in English, but Chinese are free to just use any domestic cell number?
I complained to the McD’s in Shenzhen the other day that I can’t use their wi-fi, because I don’t have a Chinese ID. Not being Chinese and all. I blame it on my parents.
Anyway, they didn’t believe that McD’s would limit use like that. In HK, they ask only for your mobile number.
All they really need in English is “No wi-fi if you don’t have a Chinese ID number.”
But re: the use of English on the menu, it gets back to something I wrote about earlier: the fact that English is held in high esteem in China, and its usage somehow makes the demand for information more “official” and weighty. We can expect more of this in the future, not less, as China continues to seek to put on a more international face for the world.
I will never forget a management training bid that took me to Jinan, Shandong two years ago. The de rigueur buffet had perhaps 50 items of food, and 50 signs in English telling us what they were.
My favorites: Son of Cheng (橙子), Milk, and Coffee.
All they really need in English is “No wi-fi if you don’t have a Chinese ID number.”
Exactly what I was thinking.
…Son of Cheng…
Priceless.