Call for Asian shop signs to be in English also

By JO-MARIE BROWN

The proliferation of Asian signwriting on Rotorua's shops and businesses has local tourism lobby groups calling for English translations to be made compulsory.

The Maori in Tourism Rotorua Association and the city's Tourism Advisory Board have asked the Rotorua District Council to introduce a bylaw requiring all signs written in a foreign language to be written in English as well.

The chairpersons of the respective groups, Karen Grant and Neville Nicholson, said that New Zealanders had a right to understand what services the shops or businesses offered.

Mr Nicholson said he did not want Korean or Japanese signs to be wiped out.

"If you go into Queenstown there's Japanese signage on every shop window."

Having signs written solely in an Asian language could put off tourists from other areas such as North America or Europe, he said.

Although it was important to recognise the rights of other cultures, it was equally important that Rotorua's New Zealand identity be maintained.

"We're asking the council to put some bylaw into place that would [set] a minimum standard.

"If there's a Japanese sign on a window, then underneath there would have to be an English version so we would know what the shop is," Mr Nicholson said.

Mrs Grant said ultimately her association wanted to see bilingual signs featuring Maori and English on shop-front windows. But she said it came down to what was reasonable.

The council's planning and bylaws committee will address the issue at its next meeting.

But the manager of one store which the lobby groups were concerned about said yesterday that there was no need for his signs to be in English.

Leo Cui's central city store has a small sign in English on the roof saying "money exchange" but other signwriting gives no clue as to its function as a Chinese student information centre.

"Just Chinese people come here," Mr Cui said."I have been here for four months and no Kiwis come here, so I don't need an English sign."