hongkongtranslators

What are the differences between Traditional and Simplified Chinese (i.e. Mandarin)? Chinese is becoming one of the most frequently spoken languages in the world today as more and more people study it. There are two varieties of Chinese: Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, which confuses learners. Actually, they are two distinct writing systems. Different dialects … Read more

Interpreters are probably the most mentally challenging job in the bilingual and multilingual field. In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter listens to the source language, translates in his/her head, and speaks in the target language all at the same time. What’s more, the linguist needs to possess a profound understanding of the cultural differences to convey the speaker’s … Read more

It’s 2020 – VR, AR, SR, MR, CR, 5G, AI… the future is now. Can we expect human translators to be replaced with translation robots soon? Translation machines and AI-powered translation robots are speedy, cheaper and convenient. They don’t need to sleep, don’t need a salary or benefits, will never retire, and support multiple languages. … Read more

Verbatim, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is an adverb that means “in exactly the same words as were used originally”. Even though Chinese and English are both SVO languages, they don’t always feature the exact same word order. It would make no sense if verbatim translation is applied. The example below is a proper translation … Read more

Some say translation is like playing with ice. The translator is given an ice cube. Melting. No longer a perfect cube. The translator must add back some water to rebuild it. No matter how masterly the linguist is, the rebuilt ice cube might look the same but it’s not the original ice cube anymore. There are … Read more

Love at first sight is not always the best tale in the TEP world. Well, actually, never. First instinct is important. But after creating an initial translation draft, it’s always useful to review and revise. What’s better, review and revise again. An even cooler idea – go do something else and come back to review and … Read more