User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: Interview with an Athlete

hi go_manly,

The 已经 here means, 'already', so a direct translation of the sentence would be "No, I'm already very satisfied". I think the original translator left out the 'already' in the sentence level translation because they didn't feel it was natural in English, and that was possibly assumed in the meaning. The 已经 here also acts to emphasize satisfaction with the bronze.

In the expansion, 太不容易了 would directly translate to 'too not easy', but of course that's a bit stilted in English. I think 'really not easy' would also be a good (and more direct) translation. I think the translator went with 'amazing' because 太不容易了 is somewhat like a set phrase and emphasizes amazement/admiration rather than being very literal.

Posted on: You Sing Terribly!

Every Chinese person in every Chinese club I've ever been to. ;)

Posted on: Special Green Hat

Hi menglaoye,

In the 2nd expansion, the 别送了 is a polite way of saying to the person, "There's no need to see me off", or "There's no need to take me". 送 can mean either 'to give a gift', 'to take someone somewhere', or 'to see someone off'. The 'seeing someone off/taking them' is similar to 'accompany', (which is 陪), but different in that in both cases, there is necessarily a destination implied.

As for why there is no 给 with 送 in the 3rd sentence, I'm not sure if there is a specific linguistic reason, but I do know that 送 alone can be used to mean 'to deliver', or 'to give as a gift', or both. So, in this sentence, because the context implies giving the flowers as a gift, I think either 'to send', or 'to give' would be accurate.

Posted on: Special Green Hat

The word 总经理 can actually be used to describe a CEO or a president of a company in some situations, but that being said, you're right. The best translation here would be 'General Manager Chen' given the context of the situation and the dialog.

As a side note, titles being used as or a part of a form of address, are an interesting issue in translation. Many times, they're unnatural when directly translated, but without them, you lack the clarity of the original. I guess it's good that we have the pop-ups!

Posted on: Getting to Know CPod Teacher Helen (and exciting content news)!

If only it were that simple! There are many different ways to transcribe the different dialects. The most common are using Chinese characters which correspond with the sound (and also sometimes the meaning) of the word, and using IPA, which is purely phonetic. The difficulty lies in a lack of standardization. (with both the characters and the IPA) We'll see what we can do though.

Posted on: Getting to Know CPod Teacher Helen (and exciting content news)!

Also, I'd like to throw in that I'm actually fascinated by dialects. I'm really looking forward to these lessons.

Posted on: Getting to Know CPod Teacher Helen (and exciting content news)!

...wait, how am I going to translate these dialect lessons! ha!

Posted on: The Customer Comes First

This definitely has to be one of my favorite dialogs. Very funny :)

Posted on: 中年危机

I'd say 'cheesy' includes 'mushy' in it's meaning. Also, I don't think 'mushy' is always an accurate translation of 肉麻. (For example, a person can like 'mushy' movies, but 肉麻 is an awkward (and implies dislike) feeling. That being said, I don't think either of these words fully explain 肉麻! Like so many words of it's kind (my favorite kind) it's unlikely that a word-to-word translation can fully convey it's meaning.

Posted on: Designing the New Apartment 3

化解 can mean to dissolve (a situation), resolve, settle and also to 'ease up' or neutralize. At the sentence level, I felt 'ease up' was the most appropriate. In the pop-up, there was only to dissolve, but in the vocab, both are listed. But basically, it means to reconcile a conflict or conflicted situation. (i.e. the feng shui)