What Are The Challenges In Chinese Translation?

1. What Are The Challenges In Chinese Translation? Chinese is widely considered one of the toughest languages to translate. The language poses significant challenges even for expert native speakers and require extensive experience to translate accurately. Even a professional Chinese translation service faces several challenges while translating Chinese documents in English. The language causes misunderstanding and inaccuracies if translator is not an expert. Let us get to know the difficulties that come in Chinese translation. Current scenario Let us get to know how language is taught and learned in China. In China, there exists a 9-year compulsory education system where English lessons are compulsory. However, the teaching of English language largely focus on English reading keeping speaking and writing skill aside. At present, most young mass in China know English, but they can hardly help with professional Chinese translation. Besides, translation industry in China is not mature enough. Either they use computer-assisted translation tools or hire university students in low rates. It drives away professional translators.

2. Chinese use characters As the written form of Chinese language is age-old, it uses characters known as hanzi. Each of these characters represents a word or concept and serves multiple purposes depending upon the context, connotations and literal meaning of written characters. Besides, there are two written systems commonly used in China – first traditional system and second simplified system. Accurate translation depends on knowledge of both the context. Linguistic differences If we consider linguistic styles, Chinese and English are poles apart. In Chinese, there is no letter case, plural forms, tense, etc. Grammar rules are drastically different. We can infer this from following facts. Tense in Chinese is usually implied by adding new words to the sentence A single Chinese character may refer different meaning if combined with other characters One English word may expand into several Chinese character if translated Orders of Chinese sentences are very different from English Long English sentences are complex to translate as well as understand in Chinese All these factors put multiple challenges before a professional translator Several dialects Most linguists have recognized seven distinct Chinese dialects; however, at local level, the number is even greater. These dialects are generally quite dissimilar from each other and need specialized knowledge to do a precise translation. Standard Chinese is considered a variant of Mandarin and is the most common dialect used in China. Different dialects influence word choices and meaning to a great extent. Now you must have got why translation in Chinese is difficult.