Before talking about English to Mandarin Chinese Translation lets first take a look on each individual language. English is basically a West Germanic language that was initially spoken in England but now it is most extensively used language all over the world. It is official language of around 60 sovereign states and is extensively accepted as second language or official language in many countries. Even though English is accepted by many counties there are more native speakers of Chinese as compared to English.
In 1949 the People’s Republic of China introduced a simplified form of writing known as Simplified Chinese to promote literacy. Simplified Chinese or Mandarin is a variation of the Traditional form of the written language and is an official language of Mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Nations. However Traditional Chinese is written and Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In China most of the Chinese can speak Mandarin and can write in Simplified Chinese.
Chinese translation is not as simple as it seems since Chinese can be written either using Traditional characters or Simplified characters. The complexity of language is because of various reasons firstly Chinese language itself have various dialects in various regions. Use of correct character set based on the audience of document is vital for the success of Chinese translation. If your document is intended to be read in mainland China or Singapore then translations should be in Simplified Chinese or mandarin Chinese whereas if your audience is located in Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau then document should be translated in Traditional Chinese .Simplified writing system unlike from traditional writing system have less numbers of strokes per character and have reduced amount of characters for same sentence.
Basically Chinese writing system is based on spoken Mandarin and is also known as "zhōngwén" and "hànyŭ”. Whenever translation needs to be colloquial – for example, translating a training handbook for salesmen – the process of translation becomes more difficult since different regions will have different language habits and all those differences have to be taken into consideration.
Secondly complexity comes with the huge difference gap between the Chinese and English languages. Chinese doesn’t spell phonetically as there is no link between how a word is read and how it is written. Plural forms, Indirect requests, Understatement, double negatives, complex long sentences, use of “the” and terms like “given that” and “whichever is greater” are just few of very long list of things that are regularly mistranslated.
A translated document requires employing the language traditions and styles according to the target Chinese audience due to the intricate relations between language and culture .But it always remain a problem to properly convert English to mandarin Chinese translation as cultural elements play essential role. An in complete understanding of the culture can hurts someone felling or can leads to annoy someone. To have a proper translation ideally English to mandarin translator needs to be a native mandarin speaker with a good knowledge of English. A firm which is expert in English / Chinese language pair is also an excellent choice, since they usually have both native English speakers and native Mandarin speakers who work together on translation projects to give high quality product.
When Simplified Chinese or Mandarin introduced?
In 1949 the People’s Republic of China introduced a simplified form of writing known as Simplified Chinese to promote literacy. Simplified Chinese or Mandarin is a variation of the Traditional form of the written language and is an official language of Mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Nations. However Traditional Chinese is written and Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In China most of the Chinese can speak Mandarin and can write in Simplified Chinese.
The Role of Simplified Chinese in language translation:
Basically Chinese writing system is based on spoken Mandarin and is also known as "zhōngwén" and "hànyŭ”. Whenever translation needs to be colloquial – for example, translating a training handbook for salesmen – the process of translation becomes more difficult since different regions will have different language habits and all those differences have to be taken into consideration.
Secondly complexity comes with the huge difference gap between the Chinese and English languages. Chinese doesn’t spell phonetically as there is no link between how a word is read and how it is written. Plural forms, Indirect requests, Understatement, double negatives, complex long sentences, use of “the” and terms like “given that” and “whichever is greater” are just few of very long list of things that are regularly mistranslated.
Conclusion:
A translated document requires employing the language traditions and styles according to the target Chinese audience due to the intricate relations between language and culture .But it always remain a problem to properly convert English to mandarin Chinese translation as cultural elements play essential role. An in complete understanding of the culture can hurts someone felling or can leads to annoy someone. To have a proper translation ideally English to mandarin translator needs to be a native mandarin speaker with a good knowledge of English. A firm which is expert in English / Chinese language pair is also an excellent choice, since they usually have both native English speakers and native Mandarin speakers who work together on translation projects to give high quality product.
