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Traditional Chinese > target language translation for those that learnt Simplified Chinese
Thread poster: Sam Lee-Potter
Sam Lee-Potter
Sam Lee-Potter  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:51
Member (2020)
Chinese to English
+ ...
Jun 17, 2020

Hi folks,

The following has to do with written translation / editing & proofreading etc., as opposed to anything spoken. Specifically interested to hear whether anyone that learnt Simplified Chinese (Standard Mandarin) is able to tackle projects from Traditional Chinese into their target language.

I imagine that Hong Kong texts would prove difficult given that Cantonese has significant differences in vocabulary and grammar, though I recently received a sample text that ... See more
Hi folks,

The following has to do with written translation / editing & proofreading etc., as opposed to anything spoken. Specifically interested to hear whether anyone that learnt Simplified Chinese (Standard Mandarin) is able to tackle projects from Traditional Chinese into their target language.

I imagine that Hong Kong texts would prove difficult given that Cantonese has significant differences in vocabulary and grammar, though I recently received a sample text that looked approachable (the text in question was a series of press releases and therefore formal in nature, whereas I know from working in Hong Kong that colloquial text is a lot more difficult to understand).

Given that Mandarin is much more widespread in Taiwan, I imagine that Taiwan texts would prove easier than Hong Kong texts, though I'm sure that similar problems would arise in colloquial texts (especially if these were written in Hokkien or another dialect).

What are people's experiences? Does it depend on whether the text comes from Hong Kong or Taiwan? Does it depend on the formality of the text? Do you use character conversion tools? Look forward to hearing from you.

(PS, was also looking to hear from anyone with knowledge of Singaporean Mandarin. My understanding is that Simplified Chinese is now used in Singapore, but I am again assuming that colloquial texts would present problems for those that learnt Standard Mandarin). ▲ Collapse
 
Eugenio Garcia-Salmones
Eugenio Garcia-Salmones  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:51
Member (2015)
Russian to Spanish
+ ...
Texts converted from the traditional Jun 18, 2020

I have never tried, but I have tried many times to read texts converteds from the chinese traditional (Taiwan), without major problem. In fact I usually search for information in chinese traditional (by google), because baidu does not make it easy for those who are not in China to find quality information that is not paid

Cordially
 
Dylan Wang
Dylan Wang
China
hi native Chinese here Aug 12, 2020

Hi, i'm a native Chinese, but I live in mainland. We don't use traditional Chinese any more. Sometimes i find it hard to recognize. Although I lived in Guangzhou for three years, I can only say some swearing words in Cantonese. As far as I know, there is only one version of traditional Chinese. If you argue on the difference of traditional Chinese between Hong Kong and Taiwan, I would say it's all about their expression. It's like "fall" in American and "autumn" in UK.
 


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Traditional Chinese > target language translation for those that learnt Simplified Chinese







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