Chinese Translation Services

One of the biggest obstacles in English to Chinese translation is the lack of exposure to the English world of many Chinese translators. Our Chinese translators can work at the level of English that our customers require so you can be sure you'll get the best quality Chinese translation from us.

Our Project Account Managers are among the most experienced in the translation industry and will work with you to ensure you get the highest quality Simplified Chinese translation, most suitable for your readers.

English to Chinese Translation

There are many differences between the Chinese and English languages. Firstly, Chinese doesn't spell phonetically - there are no links between how a word is read and how it is written. Understatement, indirect requests, double negatives ("I can't dissuade him"), long sentences, the use of "the", the plural form, expressions like "…whichever the greater" and "given that…" are just some of the very long list of things that are regularly mistranslated.

Another problem surrounds new words that have no Chinese equivalent. This is coupled by lack of a national authority to adjudicate translation of new terms, lack of contemporary theories on translation into Chinese and vast differences in ideology and culture. "Responsibility", "Accountability" and "Liability" are often translated with the same phrase for example. There are still two versions for "internet" both in equal use. Few translators ever tell you that most brand names in English are simply not translatable. Creative use of English such as in advertising is regularly mishandled, evidence of this can be seen almost everywhere in China.

Chinese Translation - Things to Consider

Due to the intricate relations between language and culture, how to properly convert source text to target language is always a problem in English to Chinese translation. Generally speaking, there are six issues that should be taken into consideration when translating a document which can help ensure you get the best quality translation:

1.     Literal translation vs. free translation

2.     Functional equivalence vs. formal correspondence

3.     Form vs. content

4.     Source-oriented vs. target oriented

5.     Author-centered vs. reader-centered

6.     The purpose of the author vs. the purpose of the translator

When preparing documents for translating, the customers should always make sure the purpose of the translation and the target audience, help translators understand culture in terms of basic value and drives, so that the translator can be adequately prepared to handle figures of speech.