Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
06:26 Feb 6, 2008
Chinese to English translations [PRO] Furniture / Household Appliances
Chinese term or phrase:大通铺
不准让工人睡大通铺。 Any established translation for 大通铺？Thanks。
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 19 hrs (2008-02-07 02:04:14 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
睡“大通铺”？旁边睡者的气味一定够呛！读读这段文字：
In the mid-eighteenth century. Jean-Francois Blondel advocated a freestanding bed in accordance with the latest medical opinion on the hazards of poorly ventilated niches or alcoves. But the long historical process of the privatization of sleep had already set the ground of possibility for this architectural solution. The discomfort----moral and physical----with the promiscuity of the ***collective bed***, manifested most tangibly in the olfactory intolerance of the odor of the other, prefigured the emergence of the*** individual bed***, its detachment from architecture and its articulation as a discrete element in the space of the bedroom..
唤起您对穷困的概念？从“大通铺”开始吧！看看这段文字：
In Portugal, 65.000 participants joined the 43.7 million who ***Stood Up against Poverty***. Big events in the cities of Lisbon, Braga and Cascais were responsible for 13.000 participants.
In Lisbon, a youth organization set up*** a collective bed*** on the city’s major university campus, mobilizing 400 students under the motto “Come to Bed With Us”. It was history’s shortest nap, since after a few minutes they stood up against poverty and for the MDGs.
军营里的“大通铺”，读读这段文字：
Even the most paranoid Americans hiding*** under their collective bed ***from the onslaught of terrorist hordes are probably not really afraid that disaffected Canadians are going to storm the northern frontier to take over America. http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:sAxXP0Sgs4MJ:bacalar.bl...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 21 hrs (2008-02-07 04:23:34 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
To wenjer Leuschel: Please read the below example of “通铺”, it is a example straight to the point. Thanks!
Once forced into the countryside,the people were put to work on collective farms or on special construction projects. Families were separated,with husbands,wives and children all working in different parts of the country, often not seeing each other for seasons at a time.Some children never saw their parents again. Married people needed permission to meet and sleep together. On the collectives, men and women slept in separate, large, communal bunk houses. Noted one Khmer citizen, “Imagine sleeping in a 45-foot *** collective bed***. We were expendable, treated worse than prisoners. We were used as machinery.” http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/pn/fd/documents/model-curriculum-hr...
Thank you all for such a heated discussion. I think both "collective bed" and "communal bed" are fine, but in the context I prefer to choose "collective bed" because this term is more neutral. Anyway, thank you all!
To wenjer Leuschel:
Communal Bed (共用床/公共床 a bed for communal use, can be used by anyone, not reserved for a particular individual to use. Its size might be big enough for a few people to sleep on or only enough for one person to sleep on. It stress its purpose of “communal use” not “private use”, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is for “collective use / for a group of people to sleep on”.
an example： a communal bed in a family, the presents sleep with their child/children on their (either the child’s bed or the presents’ bed, the article here is the former) bed, In this case, you never call this bed a “大通铺”(collective bed)，you only can call it “共用床”。 http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:IjaPq3QBf_gJ:www.sleepn...
Turning an individual bed into a communal bed(共用床) in the sense of sharing it, not its size becoming bigger, please read the following, we never can call this bed a “collective bed (大通铺)”：
For months, I commuted weekends to stay with my Master, and we slept in his bed in his bedroom in his house. During the weekdays, I slept in my own bed, in my bedroom, back in my apartment. My Master and I decided, for various reasons, to use my bed as our new*** communal bed***. So, now that I have moved into my Master's house and bedroom, it is wonderful for us to sleep together every night in OUR bed, instead of in his bed, or separately, each in our own lonely beds. http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:5XrLDkqp-joJ:www.slaver...
To Jasom Ma: The term we are talking about here, is "大通铺”。 not difference between "床“and"炕". “大通铺”it implies that it is for collective use, for a group of people to sleep on. what is a sleeping board?
please read the following
Sleeping board床板或床的睡架部分（如婴儿床中): for human, it is a board for sleeping on, can be for individual or collective use. Or it is part of the bed, for example, a sleeping board as part of a baby-bed ( cot). It does not imply anything meaning of “大通铺”.
In the countryside, Kang is actually the extension of the floor. Besides sleeping, it's a place for eating, chatting and, sometimes playing (this is especially true for toddlers), while bed can be used only for sleeping.
To Orientalhorizon: Firstly, when I read that you called me "brother", I felt we became closer. A word which I often use it for greeting in my daily life.Thanks! brother Orientalhorizon. Happy new year to you, too. And then let me come back to the topic, in regard to the difference between “床”and “炕”， If we only use the word“bed” as a translation for “炕”, I don’t think it conveys the full meaning of “炕”. I agree with you on this point. Even though we use the translation found in the dictionary which is “ heatable brick bed”, it still does not reveal the full meaning until the non-Chinese speaker actually see a “炕” with his own eyes. Now, in terms of “collective bed”, its concept is something in common with Chinese speaker and English speaker. As you can read those examples of usage in English I provided the links on my answer, we can figure out the meaning of “collective bed”, which is either 集体床铺 or 大通铺。 If someone can come up with better one, I will be more than happy to accept it. Thanks again!
To orientalhorizon: In English, as well in Chinese, “bed”(床) is referring to that piece of thing or furniture for sleeping ,regardless of its material or the way it is made.
Explanation: 这只是一个想法。睡觉的铺子一般称为 sleeping board，但若让许多人同时睡同一个铺子，那就得是大铺子，或称“大通铺”，所以应该可以称为 big sleeping board for many people。
http://hrichina.org/fs/view/downloadables/pdf/downloadable-r...
I lived upstairs and it was never quiet on the ground floor. The beatings occurred very frequently. There was always crying and shouting down there. An iron gate separated the two floors and it was usually kept locked. In the rooms on the ground floor, which I was able to see into when they brought me in for interrogation, there were big sleeping boards where many people slept.
Wenjer Leuschel Taiwan Local time: 18:16 Native speaker of: Chinese
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 18 hrs (2008-02-07 01:20:08 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
An excerpt from the link: "He had slept on the ground at the reform-through-labor farm in a big communal bed: the ground was spread with straw and people slept one next to the other, ..."
peiling Local time: 12:16 Works in field Native speaker of: English, Malay
3 hrs confidence:
collective bed
Explanation: 通铺=collective bed （集体床铺）
“大通铺”的“大”字，要么是强调作用，要么是确实做修饰作用，说明那张床很大。 如果是前者，则用collective bed则可；如果是后者，就加上large/big
“大通铺”= large collective bed
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 19 hrs (2008-02-07 02:04:14 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
睡“大通铺”？旁边睡者的气味一定够呛！读读这段文字：
In the mid-eighteenth century. Jean-Francois Blondel advocated a freestanding bed in accordance with the latest medical opinion on the hazards of poorly ventilated niches or alcoves. But the long historical process of the privatization of sleep had already set the ground of possibility for this architectural solution. The discomfort----moral and physical----with the promiscuity of the ***collective bed***, manifested most tangibly in the olfactory intolerance of the odor of the other, prefigured the emergence of the*** individual bed***, its detachment from architecture and its articulation as a discrete element in the space of the bedroom..
唤起您对穷困的概念？从“大通铺”开始吧！看看这段文字：
In Portugal, 65.000 participants joined the 43.7 million who ***Stood Up against Poverty***. Big events in the cities of Lisbon, Braga and Cascais were responsible for 13.000 participants.
In Lisbon, a youth organization set up*** a collective bed*** on the city’s major university campus, mobilizing 400 students under the motto “Come to Bed With Us”. It was history’s shortest nap, since after a few minutes they stood up against poverty and for the MDGs.
军营里的“大通铺”，读读这段文字：
Even the most paranoid Americans hiding*** under their collective bed ***from the onslaught of terrorist hordes are probably not really afraid that disaffected Canadians are going to storm the northern frontier to take over America. http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:sAxXP0Sgs4MJ:bacalar.bl...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 21 hrs (2008-02-07 04:23:34 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
To wenjer Leuschel: Please read the below example of “通铺”, it is a example straight to the point. Thanks!
Once forced into the countryside,the people were put to work on collective farms or on special construction projects. Families were separated,with husbands,wives and children all working in different parts of the country, often not seeing each other for seasons at a time.Some children never saw their parents again. Married people needed permission to meet and sleep together. On the collectives, men and women slept in separate, large, communal bunk houses. Noted one Khmer citizen, “Imagine sleeping in a 45-foot *** collective bed***. We were expendable, treated worse than prisoners. We were used as machinery.” http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/pn/fd/documents/model-curriculum-hr...
Explanation: This term is also very commonly used in Buddhist monasteries. The word 通 refers to the fact that the sleeping platform is not divided. So 通铺 is an undivided platform that sleeps a few people. I have slept on one in Taipei which spans a room of about 15-feet in width. It can accommodate about six people. That 通铺 is not considered "大". So I think the word "大" should be translated. Lastly, 通铺 may even be used when there is no bed/platform inside a communal sleeping quarter.
Also: "sleeping quarter with a large, undivided sleeping platform"
rushidao Local time: 18:16 Native speaker of: Chinese
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1
