English with Chinese characters
By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-29 11:34

Taxi driver Dong Shicheng may talk in riddles, but it all makes sense to his non-Chinese passengers.

Dong Shicheng shows his passenger Carol Garrisson the notes written by other passengers.

Dong, who can chitchat in nine foreign languages, from Arab to Italian, taught himself English phonetically using the same-sounding Chinese characters.

His method may seem mad, but there is method to his madness.

Now he enjoys one of the cushiest jobs among the local taxi driving circuit: ferrying foreigners to the Great Wall and back, providing a native-language commentary along the way, and earning a generous salary to boot.

"Now I only take foreign guests to go outside of Beijing," he said.

He can charge 550 yuan ($72.16) for a round trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and still be back home in time for dinner, a luxury few of the city's 200,000 taxi drivers can claim.

Of course, charm plays a part in his success, even garnering the 49-year-old the nickname 'Albert' from one NEWSWEEK correspondent.

Now Dong's 'Chinglish', or Chinese English, is good enough to make for easy conversation and a few jokes along the way.

"You speak Chinese good," he told passenger Carol Garrison, an officer from the American Red Cross, one weekday afternoon. "You see? Workers' Stadium. For Olympics."

Dong began shuttling foreign journalists and diplomats around the city from 2000 and soon discovered that communication was crucial to the success of his business.

He began by taking note of useful phrases they taught him, each one illustrated with Chinese characters to remind him of the correct pronunciation.

"I have more than a dozen of these notebooks," he said. "Whenever I'm free, I write Chinese characters according to the phonetic symbols and I study them.

"When English speakers get in, I invite them to correct my pronunciation."

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