Suggestion: there should be seperate forums for individual Chinese dialects Thread poster: Mavericker (X)
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Hello. There are at least a dozen different Chinese dialects-there should be seperate forums for individual Chinese dialects to request translations for, instead off all Chinese language translations being restricted to one Chinese language forum.
There should also be a Taiwanese/Hokkien forum.
| | | | Tony Tang
Local time: 01:21
English to Chinese
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| not a good suggestion | Jun 6, 2007 |
I don't think this is a good idea. There are only two forms of Chinese language: the traditional Chinese and the simplified Chinese.
For your reference, the simplified Chinese is an evolution from the traditional Chinese. They just differ in their forms and pronunciations, but basically have the same grammar and meanings. Some characters' implied meanings may vary in different areas, which is also true to English and other languages.
Dialects only differ orally. So I ... See more I don't think this is a good idea. There are only two forms of Chinese language: the traditional Chinese and the simplified Chinese.
For your reference, the simplified Chinese is an evolution from the traditional Chinese. They just differ in their forms and pronunciations, but basically have the same grammar and meanings. Some characters' implied meanings may vary in different areas, which is also true to English and other languages.
Dialects only differ orally. So I am against this suggestion. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Forums are not for translation requests | Jun 6, 2007 |
Hi Mavericker,
Mavericker wrote:
there should be seperate forums for individual Chinese dialects to request translations for, instead off all Chinese language translations being restricted to one Chinese language forum.
I don't know anything about Chinese, so I can't tell if the users of the Chinese forum feel the need to have several dialect-specific forums. But I think that you're mixing the purposes of the different parts of this site: language-specific forums are not here to post translation requests but they offer users and members a place to discuss in their own language, the rest of the forum being in English.
Translation jobs/questions belong to the Job and the Kudoz sections, where you can choose among a very large number of languages and dialects. I don't know exactly how one can ask for a particular language to be added to the list, but I guess that submitting a support ticket would give you the answer.
Regards
Marie-Céline
| | | | Mavericker (X)
English
TOPIC STARTER | Reply to Marie-Céline GEORG | Jun 6, 2007 |
Marie-Céline GEORG wrote: Hi Mavericker, Mavericker wrote:
there should be seperate forums for individual Chinese dialects to request translations for, instead off all Chinese language translations being restricted to one Chinese language forum.
I don't know anything about Chinese, so I can't tell if the users of the Chinese forum feel the need to have several dialect-specific forums. But I think that you're mixing the purposes of the different parts of this site: language-specific forums are not here to post translation requests but they offer users and members a place to discuss in their own language, the rest of the forum being in English. Translation jobs/questions belong to the Job and the Kudoz sections, where you can choose among a very large number of languages and dialects. I don't know exactly how one can ask for a particular language to be added to the list, but I guess that submitting a support ticket would give you the answer. Regards Marie-Céline
Thank you-I meant in the Job and Kudoz sections.
Chinese isn't all one language, there are at least 7 traditional dialects:
Cantonese
Gan
Hakka
Mandarin
Min
Wu
Xiang
There's also:
Jin
Hui
Ping
And:
Danzhouhua
Shaozhou Tuhua
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Özden Arıkan 
Germany
Local time: 19:21
Member
English to Turkish
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| AFAIK, Chinese translators haven't expressed such a need yet | Jun 6, 2007 |
Hi Mavericker,
I know from personal experience that the site always hears requests of addition and/or correction made by the translators of a specific language. In this case, I think translators working with Chinese, and especially those who are native to this language or its variants are in the best position to evaluate and request this. But as far as I remember they have not expressed such a need up to this day. That must be one reason why the dialects you mention do not appear in... See more Hi Mavericker,
I know from personal experience that the site always hears requests of addition and/or correction made by the translators of a specific language. In this case, I think translators working with Chinese, and especially those who are native to this language or its variants are in the best position to evaluate and request this. But as far as I remember they have not expressed such a need up to this day. That must be one reason why the dialects you mention do not appear in the language lists.
On another note, the situation you describe is not specific to Chinese, but all languages have many local variants and dialects. Apparently, from the viewpoint of translators and the site, it doesn't seem practical to add each and every one of them to the list.
However, if you consider posting jobs for Chinese, outsourcers are always encouraged to specify their dialect needs in their job ads.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Özden ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mavericker (X)
English
TOPIC STARTER | Reply to Özden Arıkan | Jun 6, 2007 |
Özden Arıkan wrote:
Hi Mavericker,
I know from personal experience that the site always hears requests of addition and/or correction made by the translators of a specific language. In this case, I think translators working with Chinese, and especially those who are native to this language or its variants are in the best position to evaluate and request this. But as far as I remember they have not expressed such a need up to this day. That must be one reason why the dialects you mention do not appear in the language lists.
On another note, the situation you describe is not specific to Chinese, but all languages have many local variants and dialects. Apparently, from the viewpoint of translators and the site, it doesn't seem practical to add each and every one of them to the list.
However, if you consider posting jobs for Chinese, outsourcers are always encouraged to specify their dialect needs in their job ads.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Özden
Hello,
I know there is only one Chinese language moderator here, whom I've met and dealt with a few times. When I post a translation request, should I post in the heading for the term I post the dialect I want translations in, or indicate that when I give details? Or should I ask him this question?
| | | | Tony Tang
Local time: 01:21
English to Chinese
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| same writing form with different pronunciation | Jun 7, 2007 |
Hi Mavericker,
I finally know what's meaning. Actually, those dialects do not have their own characters, I mean, writing forms. They just have different pronunciations for a single character, or maybe sometimes have different grammatic expressions for a same meaning. For document translation, there are only simplified or traditional translation. But frankly, for interpretation, there may be more than dozens of linguistics.
But I still don't agree. Take English for exam... See more Hi Mavericker,
I finally know what's meaning. Actually, those dialects do not have their own characters, I mean, writing forms. They just have different pronunciations for a single character, or maybe sometimes have different grammatic expressions for a same meaning. For document translation, there are only simplified or traditional translation. But frankly, for interpretation, there may be more than dozens of linguistics.
But I still don't agree. Take English for example, there are American English and British English and even more. In this case, we cannot say let us have their respective forums. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mavericker (X)
English
TOPIC STARTER | Reply to Tony | Jun 7, 2007 |
Tony Tang wrote:
Hi Mavericker,
I finally know what's meaning. Actually, those dialects do not have their own characters, I mean, writing forms. They just have different pronunciations for a single character, or maybe sometimes have different grammatic expressions for a same meaning. For document translation, there are only simplified or traditional translation. But frankly, for interpretation, there may be more than dozens of linguistics.
But I still don't agree. Take English for example, there are American English and British English and even more. In this case, we cannot say let us have their respective forums.
Hello Tony:
Hello. What should I do if I want Taiwanese or Hokkien translations?
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Steffen Walter
Germany
Local time: 19:21
Member (2002)
English to German
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| State desired translation/dialect in context field of KudoZ question | Jun 7, 2007 |
Mavericker wrote:
Hello Tony:
Hello. What should I do if I want Taiwanese or Hokkien translations?
I am not Tony, but in response to your question, you have been using the site long enough to know the ropes of KudoZ, and to answer your question yourself: Simply state the dialect you wish to get in the context field of your KudoZ question.
Why are you asking the same questions all over again?
Puzzled,
Steffen
| | | | Tony Tang
Local time: 01:21
English to Chinese
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| Cantonese in Taiwan, HK, Macau, Fujian, Guangzhou | Jun 7, 2007 |
Hi Mavericker,
To be frank, I don't know what the Taiwanese call their speaking language in a translation contract. But I know they speak the same dialect as people in Hongkong, Macau, Fujian, and Guangdong. We generally call the dialect Cantonese.
If you want translate, you may quote Traditional Chinese. If you want to interprete, you may say Cantonese.
By the way, a majority of them NOW also speak Manderin, the official language of PRC.
Ho... See more Hi Mavericker,
To be frank, I don't know what the Taiwanese call their speaking language in a translation contract. But I know they speak the same dialect as people in Hongkong, Macau, Fujian, and Guangdong. We generally call the dialect Cantonese.
If you want translate, you may quote Traditional Chinese. If you want to interprete, you may say Cantonese.
By the way, a majority of them NOW also speak Manderin, the official language of PRC.
Hope you are clear now.
If you are interested, you may write to me for further discussion. My email: [email protected]
[Edited at 2007-06-07 08:56] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yi-Hua Shih
Taiwan
Local time: 01:21
English to Chinese
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| No, Tang, You are worng | Jun 7, 2007 |
Tony Tang wrote:
Hi Mavericker,
To be frank, I don't know what the Taiwanese call their speaking language in a translation contract. But I know they speak the same dialect as people in Hongkong, Macau, Fujian, and Guangdong. We generally call the dialect Cantonese.
If you want translate, you may quote Traditional Chinese. If you want to interprete, you may say Cantonese.
By the way, a majority of them NOW also speak Manderin, the official language of PRC.
In Taiwan, We NEVER use Cantonese whatsoever.
We are always using Mandarin, which is mainly based on BeiJinghwa, ever since 1945, when Taiwan regained by ROC from being a colony of Japan.
Therefore your statement "a majority of them NOW also speak Manderin" is totally wrong either, 'cos we are using Madarin ALWAYS.
The character set we are using when writing is Traditional Chinese.
In spoken language, Mandarin is the official language.
The dialect in Taiwan is called Taiwanese (Taiwanhwa).
BTW, There is absolutely NO NEED for each Chinese dialect to have a seperate forum. We use either Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese when writing, no matter which dialect the person is used to.
－－Eva Stone, 07/6/7 Thu 5:41pm @Taipei
[修改时间: 2007-06-07 18:40]
| | | | Tony Tang
Local time: 01:21
English to Chinese
+ ...
| Thanks, stone. | Jun 8, 2007 |
stone118 wrote:
In Taiwan, We NEVER use Cantonese whatsoever.
We are always using Mandarin, which is mainly based on BeiJinghwa, ever since 1945, when Taiwan regained by ROC from being a colony of Japan.
Therefore your statement "a majority of them NOW also speak Manderin" is totally wrong either, 'cos we are using Madarin ALWAYS.
The character set we are using when writing is Traditional Chinese.
In spoken language, Mandarin is the official language.
The dialect in Taiwan is called Taiwanese (Taiwanhwa).
BTW, There is absolutely NO NEED for each Chinese dialect to have a seperate forum. We use either Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese when writing, no matter which dialect the person is used to.
－－Eva Stone, 07/6/7 Thu 5:41pm @Taipei
[修改时间: 2007-06-07 18:40]
OK, Stone118. Thanks. Wish someday I have chance to visit Taiwan to know it by myself.
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| Specific language forums can be requested by translators | Jun 8, 2007 |
Specific language forums can be requested by translators that work in those languages. As previously explained, there was no such request from that group so far, so I don't think it will be created any soon.
Maverick, if you have some material you want to get translated into some of these dialects, you can easily post it as a job. On the job posting form, you can select the main language (such as Chinese) and specify the dialect in the description field of the job form. After postin... See more Specific language forums can be requested by translators that work in those languages. As previously explained, there was no such request from that group so far, so I don't think it will be created any soon.
Maverick, if you have some material you want to get translated into some of these dialects, you can easily post it as a job. On the job posting form, you can select the main language (such as Chinese) and specify the dialect in the description field of the job form. After posting, the translators in that language pair can bid for he job. You can then choose from the bidding translators, and assign the job to one of them, in exchange for the appropriate payment. This is the best way to ensure you get the best results for your research needs, and to prevent any abuse (or any appearance of abuse) of the KudoZ system.
If you don't want to publicly post your jobs, then you can use the directory to find translators that work in the specific language pairs, and you can contact them about work directly. But please do not expect anybody to do extensive work for you for free, or even to reply to such requests.
I hope you understand my point, and with this, I am locking this thread. ▲ Collapse
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