Since I find myself in this situation quite often, I believe it deserves a brief explanation from my part. When asking a client with a translation request from English to Chinese if the dialect is simplified or traditional, I usually get the same answer: “I’m not sure.” This article is basically a comparison between Simplified Chinese and the Traditional Chinese in the context of English to Chinese translations. For those in need of a Chinese translation, but do not know much about the differences of the two flavors, this article is for you.

Simplified Chinese:

Chinese simplified is the written text that is used in mainland China and among people of Chinese origin  in Singapore nowadays. This written form mainly evolved and was adopted after the end of civil war and the establishment of today’s P.R. China in 1949, may also be called the “modern form” of Chinese text. The reason and purpose for the Chinese government to develop this simplified writing system is believed to be simplifying the writing method, easing the effort in writing, and encouraging more people to become literate.

Traditional Chinese:

The written text of Chinese that is used in Hong Kong and Taiwan nowadays. This traditional version had been written by Chinese people for thousands of years. Although people in Mainland China and Singapore began to adopt the Simplified text after 1949, people in Hong Kong and Taiwan continued to use the “old” traditional text due to the political separation.

Differences:

At the beginning, they had no difference except for the writing method of the Chinese characters. While Traditional Chinese has some 4,500 characters, simplicity was the main benefit of the new flavor, with just some 1,500 characters to use.

Simplified Chinese characters also have fewer strokes and are easier to write than Traditional Chinese ones. However, the rapidly changing world have brought out more and more new words (such as the “Internet”, “Software”) into daily life, and naturally, these new words may have different local versions in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. To use proper terms is the main concern when a specific version is specified as the target translation language.  Secondly, the political isolation between P.R. China and HK/Taiwan for several decades also created some slight variation in the style and wording of the language, which is naturally reflected in their written forms.

Although the eternal dilemma focuses on the balance between cost and quality, the relationship between the quality of the outcome and the amount of time spent in the processing is also an important point under discussion when it comes to translation projects. Although it may seem more obvious in certain cases than others, I would like to expose my point of view on this respect.

We as people, in the modern world, are in a rush, especially Americans.  Deadlines must be met, projects must be done, and things must be completed in in the right way and in a timely manner.   While quality and efficiency are always key and desirable in projects, it is clear that the amount of time that one spends on a translation project has a direct relation with the quality outcome.  If you have 5 hours to prepare for an exam, you might score better than if you have only 30 minutes.  This obvious analogy is true in most cases of nearly everything, including translations.

While machine translations (MT) are increasingly popular and seemingly time efficient, and do produce quick results, they often result in translation errors.  This translation method is sometimes just what a person needs to get the gist of the content.  With a simple human revision (post-editing) to check for major errors and basic comprehension, a short document can be translated in a matter of hours.  This is a great option for those who are working with a tight deadline and who are not using this text for client facing work.

However, more often than not, quality is a major priority.  The more time a human translator has for a project, the better the outcome.  Allowing for enough time is important, if possible.  The average human translator can translate an average of 2,000 to 2,500 words per day.  After translation, it’s important for the document or project to go through several polishing steps.  To reach the highest quality standards, Trusted Translations uses three steps: translating, editing and proofreading.    The average editor can edit up to 5,000 words per day, and the average proofreader 10,000 words per day.  It’s important that a document goes through this three-step process to ensure consistency in the document; and if quality is a top priority, this three-step process is essential.

Often times, when translation agencies are working under tight deadlines, the translation process is split between several translators and is even split between multiple editors and multiple proofreaders.   As one might imagine, not everyone will translate in the same way.  This often results in inconsistencies which affects the overall quality of the document.  If a translation company has enough time to plan ahead and assign just enough translators, fewer editors and ideally one proofreader the cohesiveness will be of a much higher quality than when split into many hands for all three steps.

As expected, time has a strong correlation and impact with the level of quality. However, this is not to say that rush projects are always done poorly or that good translations cannot be done expediently, I’m simply saying that when it’s possible to dedicate more time to a project, it works in the favor of both parties.

“Translations”

The same thing always happened to him. When someone translated one of his poems into a foreign language (at least, a foreign language that he knew), his own verses sounded better than in the original. This is why it came as no surprise that he found the French version of his poem “Time and the bell” amazing, graceful and full of substance.

Two years later, an Italian translator who did not know Spanish translated that French version. Although he had never been a big supporter of indirect versions (keeping in mind however that this is how he had been introduced to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Confucius years before), he greatly enjoyed his poem” in italico modo.”

Another three years passed and an English translator who, like most English translators, did not know Spanish based his translation on the Italian version based on the French version. Despite being so far from the original, it was the most pleasing to the original Spanish speaking author. It just surprised him a bit (he actually attributed it to a printing error) that this new indirect version was entitled “Burnt Norton” and that the name of the alleged author was a T.S. Eliot. Nevertheless, he liked it so much that he decided to personally take on the task of translating it into Spanish.

Mario Bendetti

in Cuentos Completos (Ed. Seix Barral 1994, p.497)
Mario Bendetti (born in Uruguay in 1920) is described as a poet who also writes stories and novels. His novel La tregua (1960), whose cinematic version was nominated for an Oscar in 1974, has been translated into 19 languages. He has published over 80 books and earned countless awards.