立正! 大家一起學華文!

Was browsing through mrbrown just now and came across this site he linked. Its called Military English Learning, meant for PLA soldiers to learn english. Hmm, probably also a good site for SAF soldiers to brush up their chinese.

Still, i find some of the phrases quite hilariously translated.

Like:

"你现在希望干什么？" as "What do you hope now?" and whats "Give up, no harm!"? (means 缴枪不杀)

Then there's contradicting intructions.

On "Ordering enemy to surrender", an excerpt:

72. Hands up！
举起手来！
73. Put your hands up！Higher！
举起手来！举高点儿！

Then they teach:

76. Put down your arms！
放下武器！

*POW puts down his hands, and gets shot for disobeying orders*

Others i find it quite strange to actually use in real life, let alone real war. Eg:

"Those who are accomplice under duress shall go unpunished." (oh it means "胁从不问"..whatever that means)

Nonetheless, there's always something new to learn. Like now I know that Mortars are called "迫击炮" and howitzers are called "榴弹炮". Before this, both are just "炮"s to me.

And needless to say, I am thankful that I am not an officer in the PLA. Because - "739. Commanders must be ready to go into battle. 740. That's because war-fighting is your professional career. 744. You vow to offer up your lives for our country. 748. In routine training you learn to make difficult decisions in complex combat situations. 750. Officer training must focus on warfighting and leadership and command in combat. 753. Superiors assess your command results, not your command processes and procedures. 754. The focus must be on results and on meeting the superior commander's intent."

Gawd. Rule no 740 said it all. No further explainations needed.