I wonder if the future will deliver us glasses with built in hanzi readers like pop up translators.The really amazing ones will see the original object and see it as a hanzi,but it could lead to sensory overload.

• From up to down, which line is the first line you read?
• Can you please read the line?

然后，验光师“optometrist”经常有那个小E牌，会说这样的句子：

• Cover your left eye.
• Which way is the E pointing? 我: It's pointing up.
• Which eye can see this more clearly?
• Is this clearer, fuzzier or about the same?

你们能帮我翻译吗?谢谢

PS: I wanted to say above, "I didn't get around to mentioning it." I said 没有时间. Does this mean this? Okay, I'm way too much trouble.

* eyes 眼睛 yan3jing (I am usually told the final tone is neutral, but sometimes I'm told it is first tone.)

* glasses 眼镜 yan3jing4

I have accidentally said before I can find my 'eyes' and had Chinese laugh at me. The funny thing is that my mother always calls her glasses her 'eyeballs', so in a way I think it should work if we are trying to be amusing. The problem is, Chinese people just think your pronunciation is poor.

so when you go into the eye doctor's office, do you ask for a prescription? Do you actually say the Chinese word for prescription?

Many Chinese people harbour what we would think of as strange' ideas about the eyes and eyesight.  Eg. don't study under a bright light; Chinese people have worse eyes than Westerners because they study more - maybe there is a connection there?  :-)    

A few years ago I got a couple of new pairs of spectacles made in China at a big national chain.  I did have some language problems (initially the frames and the lenses were mixed up - my fault no doubt), and I think if I went again today I would still have problems, particularly talking with the optometrist in the testing process. There is a lot of relevant vocab to learn and then they will still use expressions you have not come across before.  But it was interesting to see similarities and differences in the process.   

The glasses were about one-fifth of the price in Australia for similar functionality.  If you buy 'foreign brand' name frames they will of course be priced similar to the price in the West.

From up to down, which line is the first line you read? （从上向下，哪一行看得最清楚？）

Can you please read the line?（你可以读出来吗？）

然后，验光师“optometrist”经常有那个小E牌，会说这样的句子：

Cover your left eye.（盖住左眼）

Which way is the E pointing? （这个E是哪个方向的？）我: It's pointing up.（向上）

Which eye can see this more clearly?（哪个眼睛看这个更清楚？）

Is this clearer, fuzzier or about the same?（这样更清楚吗？更不清楚？还是一样的？）

PS: "I didn't get around to mentioning it." “没有时间提出来”.

judging by what your wrote you can deal with levels above newbie (wouldn't base it on whether or not you feel like looking up the tones when writing^^). Just study a few lessons in Ele and intermediate and I'm sure you will be just fine. In fact, I would predict that afterwards if you tried some newbie lessons again you feel the pace was a bit slow (not that one can't learn anything there, but you can deal with a higher pace). I that's what happened with me when I moved up to higher lessons.

Just keep at it.

David

Will Chinese opticians have an idea about this system? 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091230055318AA0AgGH

I assume in Taiwan (or China) my old prescription would have read - 125 instead. After all, physics is physics.

一个最典型的例子就是美国女副总统候选人“沙拉佩林”(Sarah Palin)。佩林女士戴的一个日本制造的眼镜架把本来不太聪明的女人变成一个看起来很聪明的女人，效果挺不错的！

The Diopter measurement is accepted around the world for this type of measurement, what ever country you may find yourself wearing spectacle glasses. Of course the language may differ, but the physics remains the same.

The Optometrist could ask you;

你的眼睛是多少度？nǐdeyánjīngshìduóshǎodù?

How many "degrees" is your eyes?

The Optometrist would understand their question to be saying - What is the number of diopters in your glasses? more direct way of saying of the last sentence could be 你的眼镜的度数是多少？ nǐdeyánjìngdedùshùshìduóshǎo? (What is the diopter value of your glasses?)

啊，因为美女是飘动的。

反正我也觉得近视的女人（是因为她们就像是凝视你的瞳人儿的， 你很容易误解做梦！） 比耳朵沉的女人（经常跟你大声说‘啊？’‘说什么？’，这是一点的情调都没有哈）有魅力得多！

朝堕美人局夕死可矣！

Thanks for the "clarification." ;-) Sorry, lame joke.

In America visual acuity is notated with the use of the measurement of feet as 1 foot = 0.3048 meters. Standard distance measurement of visual acuity is at 20 feet approximately 6m in length from the viewer's eye.

The meaning of the first "20" in the notation 20/20 is the distance away from the viewers eye. i.e. 20 feet The second "20" in the 20/20 notation is the size of the image of the letter or the "perceived object" This number reflects the size subtending a special central part of the retina called the macula.

In countries were the metric system is used. E.g. England, New Zealand, Australia. the notation 6/6 is used. This has the same meaning as 20/20. The first "6" means 6m away from eye. The second "6" is again the size of the letter seen.

In China, an optometrist or eye doctor may say that their patient saw 1.0 The same decimal place system of visual acuity notation is used in Japan and South Korea. Some simple mathematics results in the decimal place system of visual acuity notation. 6 divided by 6 and 20 divided by 20 are both 1.0 so, 1.0 means both 6/6 and 20/20. Sometimes a person can see better than 20/20 due to their retinal function. 20/10 means that the person can see better than 20/20 as the second number "10" is smaller in numerical value and therefore denotes a small image "sitting" infront of the macula to be perceived. 20/10 notation in chinese is 2.0 as 20 divided by 10 equals 2.

Again, all of these three visual acuity notation systems all describe visual acuity, the ability of the eye to resolve different image sizes. Smaller the image size resolved the better the vision is understood to be. Visual Acuity is a measure of the eyes ablility of it's own strength.

All the best

Many Thanks.

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