New multilingual signs used in Shekou

Shekou Management and Service Center for Expats (Shekou MSCE) in Shekou Subdistrict, which houses the largest expat population in Shenzhen, recently piloted a program to put new bilingual and multilingual signs in residential complexes and community service centers that are more relevant to expats residents.

Foreign residents discuss multilingual signs in a recent event organized by Shekou Management and Service Center for Expats. 

                                                                                                                                                                                Courtesy of Shekou MSCE

This pilot program optimizing bilingual and multilingual signs is an important part of the “Bridge the Language Gap” international language environment optimization project.

Under the pilot program, the center chose Dongjiaotou, Haichang and Shenzhen Bay community service centers and Shekou Impression and All City housing compounds.

In All City, where many expats from South Korea and Japan live, they adopted quadrilingual signs.

The signs were proofread and revised after rounds of discussions with foreign residents living in the communities.

Furthermore, Shekou MSCE compiled the list of signs, based on their designated locations and functions, into a handbook, which will serve as a future reference for optimizing additional signs across Shekou Subdistrict. The center hoped the multilingual signs can provide convenience to the daily lives of both local and expat residents.

A quadrilingual sign in Shekou.

“Accurate, well-thought-out and multilingual signs can serve meaningful purposes for residents’ daily lives and public conduct. Dogs without leashes might cause discomfort to some residents if no appropriate sign was present to outline the pet protocols. In such cases, effective and multilingual signs can help prevent conflicts between residents from arising,” Xiao Peishan, an employee from Shekou MSCE, said at an interview yesterday.