Translating Chinese

A couple of years ago* I posted some comments about the need to have highly qualified people translating Chinese medical texts into English. Translation is difficult even for the most experienced.

Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Prize winner for literature recently addressed a reception at the Chinese Embassy in Stockholm on December 7 during his tour to the Swedish capital to receive his prize. He said "I think translation is much harder than writing: It only took me 42 days to write Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, while it took Swedish sinologist Anna Gustafsson Chen six years to translate the work." (Source: Beijing Review, December 20, 2012).


* see: http://theriverlands.blogspot.com/2010/02/translating-acupuncture-texts.html

Translating Acupuncture Texts

The topic of Acupuncturist's translating Chinese medical texts came up in a discussion recently. Occasionally I'll run across articles where an American acupuncturist's states that he or she translated the original Chinese text for the article. For example, Bob Flaws, OMD, of Blue Poppy Press, is a prolific "translator" who, according to his biography, taught himself to read "medical Chinese". He has in the past offered courses on reading Medical Chinese. He has also published a book "Teach Yourself to Read Modern Medical Chinese: A Step-by-Step Workbook and Guide". The pitch for this books states: "Bob shares all the 'quick and dirty' methods he’s used to teach himself. You can begin translating modern medical Chinese within hours"
While I have never read the book, advertising the translation methods as "quick and dirty" or promising you can begin translating Chinese into English "within hours" makes it sound like a side-show carnival product.(1)
Don't be misled, Chinese is not an easy language to learn or translate. The US Government classifies Mandarin Chinese as a Category IV language - one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn.
My concern is that Acupuncturists that read some of these "translated" articles or books take for granted that the translator is actually qualified to do that kind of work.
Those who want to translate and publish Chinese medical texts into English need to have a formal education in Chinese Language and translation from an institute of higher learning.
I propose passing Level 11 of the HSK exam as a minimum standard for translators of Chinese medical texts.
The HSK(2) is a standard test of Proficiency in Chinese language. The amount of words a person should know at the basic test level ranges from 400-3,000 Chinese words. In the advanced level HSK (Level 11) they should have knowledge of 5,000-8,000 words. According to the HSK website a person passing HSK Level 11 is proficient in Chinese at the advanced (high) level and can be regarded as qualified as an intermediate-level translator.

I also believe that a translator in the field of acupuncture should have the translations reviewed for accuracy by a translation committee prior to publication.

The whole purpose of setting high standards is to elevate the profession of acupuncture and make sure that accurate information is disseminated to practitioners.

Notes:
(1) A reviewer on amazon.com said this about Bob Flaws book:
"...I would like to say though, I found the book not that helpful in two ways. 1) The terminology although has pinyin romanization, it lacks the intonation marks. While this book is for reading, tones added will make the book able to help those wanting to learn to speak or listen to Chinese. 2) The book is full of errors. The wrong characters are written and often the meaning is either too simple or in error...so many errors!

(2) For more information on Chinese Proficiency Tests see HSK

Beginner's Chinese

Because I live in an area that does not offer any formal training in Chinese language I have, over the years, bought many books to study on my own. Two books that I've picked up recently that I like a lot and would like to recommend to you are the Beginner's Chinese and Intermediate Chinese books by Yong Ho (published by Hippocrene Books, Inc.)
The first book, Beginner's Chinese, comes with two audio CD's. Each chapter starts with sentence patterns, such as saying hello (Ni3 hao3 [I've put numbers in for tone marks]), then a conversation,, vocabulary and supplementary words, language points, which are an explanation of the grammar, exercises, and finally a brief introduction to certain aspects of Chinese culture.
I think what I like most about the textbook is the Language Points and Exercise sections.
The Language Points give clear explanations of the grammar and examples of use - which I find extremely helpful. The exercises are very good too because they give answers to the questions - something that also is very helpful if you are studying on your own.

The book isn't perfect though. The type is too small for my liking but in the intermediate level book they have corrected this problem. Also, the CD's would be more helpful if they slowed down the pace. The spoken sentences or dialogues are too fast for a beginner. For its minor faults though I still highly recommend this book.

The second book, Intermediate Chinese, as mentioned, has corrected the problem of the small type. Its strengths though, lie in the clear explanations of grammar and usage. Other books explain grammar but for some reason Yong Ho does a better job. Over the years I have had several Chinese people tutor me but unfortunately they were not trained language teachers and did not explain the grammar to me so this book is very helpful. And as in the first book the exercises do have answers which is very helpful also. A CD also comes with this book but I still feel the conversations are too fast on it - at least for me at my level of learning.

Look for these books at your bookstore. Once again, they are:
Beginner's Chinese by Yong Ho (published by Hippocrene Books, Inc.)
and
Intermediate Chinese by Yong Ho (published by Hippocrene Books, Inc.)