|
Because I'm apparently insane, I want to hone my (text) translation skills by translating some of my fanfics into Mandarin Chinese (because I figure, since I wrote those stories, I have the best chance at getting across the original author intent). So far I'm hitting a skill wall because my English to Chinese skills aren't as good as I'd like to think they are, but I also have some philosophy/resource issues that I could use advice on. (And I could definitely use someone fluent in Chinese to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong in my translations because they are not reading like proper Chinese at all.) Here's some issues I've been running into: -- Is there an industry wide rule/guideline for inserting and/or removing words that weren't in the original in order to clarify the meaning of the text? So far I've been using [brackets] in English and (parentheses) in Chinese. -- When I come across a name that doesn't have an official transliteration, should I pick characters that simply sound alike, or try to "localize" the name so it has the same meaning? -- I can handwave translation convention (i.e. everyone "speaks" whatever language the story is in)for single-language plots, but what about multiple language ones? How do I portray the foreign language? Should I just have it be incomprehensible to the viewpoint character, or allow for some kind of bilingual bonus? -- How do I portray accents in Chinese? Where could I find resources about how to portray regional dialects anyway? -- In translating dialogue, should I try to reflect the speaker's intellectual/educational level as closely as I can, or go for clarity of meaning? -- Is there some kind of resource on Chinese slang? (Being super sheltered growing up means I know pitifully few cuss words.) I'm my own mind-altering substance. 8)
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2015 04:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:07 |
|