CHINESE TRANSLATION SERVICES

It should come as no surprise to hear that the Chinese language is often among the most difficult to translate. Auerbach International is pleased to offer translation services for English to Chinese and Chinese to English with the expertise of our experienced teams. As with every language, it is important to understand the differences between Chinese and English to ensure the proper meaning of the message is conveyed without losing any intent. We pride ourselves on the teams we have assembled at Auerbach International; the teams are selected according to their knowledge of your industry terminology, with necessary knowledge, skills and experiences to offer quality Chinese language translation services.

Quite different from alphabetic languages, the basic element or unit of Chinese is the character, each of which has its own writing, meaning and pronunciation, and must be memorized individually.

Overall, there are over 60,000 Chinese characters (over 80,000 if including variants), with a large majority rarely used in daily conversations. Approximately 1,000 Chinese characters are enough to make 80% of written Chinese intelligible.

Each character represents a word or concept and serves multiple purposes depending upon the context and the literal meaning. Characters form thousands of words, phrases, including idioms and allusions. Without this knowledge, even if one masters thousands of characters, he or she may not be able to understand your text. This is a characteristic and difficulty of Chinese.

To further complicate the language, two writing systems are commonly used. The first is the Traditional system used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and among many Overseas Chinese in the US and abroad. The second is the Simplified system used in China and Singapore. We must know which country or countries you want to target to know which set of characters to use. It is imperative to work with highly regarded Chinese language translation services like Auerbach International to ensure accurate context and translation.

CHINESE DIALETCS

Unlike alphabetic languages whose letters form distinct sounds, characters can be pronounced in hundreds of ways called dialects.

Most linguists have recognized seven distinct and major Chinese dialects; however, at the local village level, the number explodes. People who speak different dialects often cannot understand each other. However, the written language is similar nationwide.

Mandarin is the official dialect of both China and Taiwan but is pronounced slightly differently in each country. The other most common dialect in the US is Cantonese, spoken in the coastal region of southern China near Hong Kong. Different dialects may influence word choices and meaning.

CHINESE LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES

If we consider linguistic styles, Chinese and English are quite different. In Chinese, there are no articles (“the” and “a/an”) or plural forms, and tense (present, past, future, etc.) is more vague and imprecise. Grammar rules also differ. Tense in Chinese is usually implied by adding a new word (“Yesterday I come”) or character to the sentence. A single Chinese character may take on a different meaning if combined with other characters. In general, whereas English can use complex sentences running to many lines, Chinese uses simpler sentence structures than English does.

Word order of Chinese sentences is different from English. The language can also be written in different directions: right to left, left to right, or up to down. Since characters represent whole concepts or thoughts, one character uses far less space than an English word with multiple letters and syllables such as “determine” or “understand” or “incorporate.” Therefore, Chinese in most cases requires less space than English does to write the same sentence.

Determining the cultural sensitivity of a language can optimize translation quality to a great extent. If a Chinese translation is replicated word-for-word rather than paying attention to the cultural context, the message risks sounding offensive or simply unfaithful to its original intent. These may be the cause of mistakes for non-native Chinese speakers when they are translating a text. All these factors are considered and are a part of our Chinese language translation resources at Auerbach International.

Machine Translation Mis-translations

ORIGINAL ENGLISH

The Global Sales Incentive Program is completely discretionary and “Company” retains its right to administer the Plans in its sole discretion, including the right to alter, amend, modify, or discontinue at any time without obligation to make an award, unless otherwise specifically required by local law, for any reason, including but not limited to the following:

Machine translation into German:

Das Global Sales Incentive Program ist vollständig diskretionär und das Unternehmen behält sich das Recht vor, die Pläne nach eigenem Ermessen zu verwalten, einschließlich des Rechts, jederzeit ohne Verpflichtung zur Vergabe einer Prämie zu ändern, zu ergänzen, zu modifizieren oder einzustellen, sofern nicht ausdrücklich etwas anderes von lokal gefordert wird Gesetz, aus irgendeinem Grund, einschließlich, aber nicht beschränkt auf die folgenden:

Back translation of MT German into English:

The Global Sales Incentive Program is entirely discretionary and the Company reserves the right to administer the plans at its sole discretion, including the right to change, add, modify or discontinue at any time without obligation to award any award, except as expressly provided otherwise required by local law, for any reason, including but not limited to the following:

Far better Human editing into German:

Das Globale Anreizvergütungsprogramm ist vollständig dem eigenen Ermessen des Unternehmens anheimgestellt und “Company” behält sich das Recht vor, die Pläne nach eigenem Ermessen zu verwalten, einschließlich des Rechts, jederzeit ohne Verpflichtung zur Vergabe einer Prämie zu ändern, zu ergänzen, zu modifizieren oder einzustellen, sofern nicht ausdrücklich durch lokale Gesetzgebung vorgeschrieben, aus beliebigen Gründen, einschließlich, aber nicht beschränkt auf des Folgenden:

Machine translation into French:

Le programme mondial d’incitation à la vente est entièrement discrétionnaire et “Company” conserve son droit d’administrer les plans à sa seule discrétion, y compris le droit de modifier, d’amender, de modifier ou d’interrompre à tout moment sans obligation d’attribuer une récompense, sauf exigence contraire spécifique par les autorités locales. loi, pour quelque raison que ce soit, y compris, mais sans s’y limiter, ce qui suit:

Back translation of MT French into English:

The Global Sales Incentive Program is entirely discretionary and “Company” retains its right to administer the Plans in its sole discretion, including the right to modify, amend, modify or discontinue at any time without obligation to award a reward, unless specifically required otherwise by local authorities. law, for any reason, including but not limited to the following:

Far better Human editing into French:

Le plan mondial des primes exceptionnelles est entièrement discrétionnaire et Société conserve son droit d’administrer les plans à sa seule discrétion, y compris le droit d’altérer, d’amender, de modifier ou d’interrompre à tout moment sans obligation afin de faire une attribution, à moins que cela ne soit spécifiquement requis par la loi locale, pour toute raison, y compris, mais sans se limiter aux raisons suivantes: