Big $$ Lost in Translation Between English and Chinese

In the past twenty years, the total US trade with China grew about 600% to $660 Billion. Its impact on jobs, certain industries and the national economic structure has been widely debated. However, one area has been largely overlooked throughout this time: the role of translation between English and Chinese. 

There are over 300,000 American businesses that are doing business with China. It’s reasonable to estimate that at least 90% of them use translation at some point to help communicate with the Chinese. During these communications, how many times have American businesses run into confusion with the Chinese counterparts? A lot. 

Americans like to write dates in the order of Month, Day, Year. Chinese, on the other hand, like to write dates in the order of Year, Month, Day. Take June 01, 2019 as an example: the American way would be 06/01/19. If the translator doesn’t rearrange the numbers’ order, it would confuse the Chinese as January 19th, 2006. Imagine how much confusion this could create! 

A mistake on date translation is easy to avoid once people understand the above rules. Some translation mistakes are more difficult to discover but are still commonly seen. 

In English, the sense of time is expressed by changing the forms of verbs. In Chinese, however, the sense of time is expressed by adding words around the verb. (Chinese grammar doesn’t allow word form change). If one only translates word by word from English into Chinese, he/she is likely to confuse with the sense of time. 

For example, “The White House Visitor Center needed an update to reflect the space’s changed function in a post-9/11 world”. To translate this sentence into Chinese, it’s important to add a word which means “at that time 当时” ,before “needed 需要” to show that this was a past need, not a present need. If one only translates word by word, and doesn’t add anything, it would sound as if the White House currently needs an update. Big difference, right? 

Therefore, if you need to use translation to help with your business communications with the Chinese, it’s important to know these differences.  

What do you think? 

Min Xiong

Mandarin and English bilingual business communicator, cultural ambassador, teacher and former journalist