A lot of my work involves translating Chinese documents from China to English and many official documents refer to standards, rules, procedures or governance published by the different state agencies. I have compiled a list of these agencies and their English equivalents. Information is dated 23rd August 2015 and is […]
If you are lost, like me, among the many levels the Chinese describe one’s educational level or “cultural level”, this list may be useful. Classification is based on this document, GB/T4658－1984《文化程度代码》, literally “Code for Different Cultural Levels”. Note: Some of these are my own proposed translations, they may not be correct […]
Education (Cultural) Levels in China
Did you know that the word “supersede” is the ONLY word in the entire English language that ends in -sede? There is truly no other word that supersedes “supersede” in its unique ending:)
supersede
天才与蠢才， 只差一个字。 How would you translate the above? 1. The genius and the fool, a word of difference. The first phrase is probably closer to 天才与傻瓜. 2. Brain vs brawn, a letter makes the difference. 3. The brainy and brainless, only the end differ. The third one is my favourite […]
A word of difference
This is yet another challenging Chinese phrase, often used in the Internet to describe a person’s style or persona. This is how Baidu Zhidao interpret this phrase(http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/222462624.html), that it is actually of two parts. The first half is “邪魅(xié mèi)”, which can be used to 1. describe someone who is […]
邪魅狷狂
“带你装逼带你飞(Dài nǐ zhuāng bī dài nǐ fēi)” is another interesting phrase I came across recently. It originates from the Internet. Its alternate version is “带你装B带你飞”. If you googled this phrase, you can see some interesting images. Of all the references I have checked, this one from baidu.com offers a clearer […]
带你装逼带你飞
I was wondering why did the hospital suddenly unceremoniously send me an SMS to postpone my follow-up in the eye clinic from October to November, they never gave me a reason why. Nor did they even bother to call to check if the patient, i.e. me, is alright. Such is […]
Customer Service in Hospital
Working on translation of any living languages that continuously evolve like English and Chinese often offers interesting, sometimes challenging, phrases. One of these is “当红炸子鸡(Dānghóng zhà zǐjī)“. If you googled this phrase, you will receive many results on a popular dish otherwise known as “fried chicken”. Only a few results […]
当红炸子鸡 Fried Chicken?
I did this Chinese to English translation sample as a test and was told that the reviewers did not like what I did. I found another translated version where the translator adopted an entirely different approach from mine (Alternative translation). Here is my proposed translation with some amendments from what I […]
Marketing a Car
Experienced translators often work as proofreaders. The idea behind proofreading is to check that the translated document did present the source ideas well and accurately, within the confines of structural norms of different languages, and that the document is grammatically sound while the text and sentences read naturally. As it […]