General > General Technical Chat
Where does all the weird Chinese component terminology come from?
tooki:
--- Quote from: pdenisowski on January 06, 2023, 11:45:39 am ---
--- Quote from: gamalot on January 06, 2023, 05:59:39 am ---The most common is translation errors, and it is difficult to find electronic engineers with good English to do document translation.
--- End quote ---
When I was working on my engineering degree I supported myself in part by working as a translator, and the cardinal rule of translation was always: translate into (not from) your native language. The vast majority (like, 95%) of translation issues are caused by people who are translating into their non-native language. A Chinese -> English translation would always (ideally) be done by a native English speaker.
--- End quote ---
Absolutely. I worked as a technical translator for one big product (a decent size software package plus all the documentation -- user manual, help files, correspondence templates, website, etc.) from German to English. Since I also did support for the product, sometimes I'd have to write a brand new FAQ, for example, and I'd typically do it in English and then write a draft in German, but always gave it to a native speaker for proofreading. My German is good enough that it wouldn't have been bad, just not perfect.
--- Quote from: pdenisowski on January 06, 2023, 11:45:39 am ---Having a native speaker edit / proofread a translation by a non-native is also very much hit or miss: there's only so such "editing / proofing" you can do before it turns into a re-translation job.
--- End quote ---
Yep. In fact, that's how I got the job doing the software translation: originally, a Swiss employee had done an initial translation to English, and of course the owners figured they just needed a native speaker to proofread it. But after discovering some translations that were so off that I couldn't figure out what they meant (or worse: ones that look right superficially, but are actually quite wrong!), it quickly became apparent that going back to the original German to verify the intent, and then comparing that to the "English" translation, was actually more time-consuming than simply starting over. So we trashed the nonnative translation and I did a whole new one. Along the way, it became a great UX review of the original German, since if a user interface is hard to describe, it may well be hard to use, too! And we found some interesting things, too, like: Was the original German menu item "Titel bearbeiten" singular or plural? For English, I had to know, since "Edit title" and "Edit titles" are not the same. But in German, since that particular word lacks a plural marker, they'd never thought about it! Sometimes, I'd reword things in English, and the boss liked it so much, he retranslated it back into German. (The company was run by academics at the time, and they were great at writing very verbose prose, but not the concise text needed for user interfaces. But they could translate concisely!)
I had to immerse myself in the language of library science to do that job, but the end result was quite good.
If anyone cares, that product is Citavi, a reference management program (like, to help you with a bibliography). Mind you, it's been 10 years since I left that company, so the product (and thus the language) has evolved since then. But I did take a look at the latest version recently (and, in fact, used it for real for the first time on a publication of my own!), and it looks like all the major terminology and wording is still mine. :P
tooki:
--- Quote from: pdenisowski on January 06, 2023, 02:06:06 pm ---
--- Quote from: harerod on January 06, 2023, 01:05:53 pm --- These translations usually happen during projects and are billed by my hourly rate, since I still apply my expertise as an engineer.
--- End quote ---
Must be nice :) I recall seeing medical translation jobs advertised with the requirement that the translator be an actual licensed physician (MD) -- I always wondered how many people who went to medical school and also learned a foreign language were willing to work for < 20 cents a word.
--- End quote ---
Absolutely. People who need technical* translation work done often fail to recognize that a good technical translator not only needs to be a native speaker, but also a fundamentally good writer and a subject-matter expert. That combination doesn't come cheap, but it's necessary to achieve high quality.
*For those who don't know, in the writing/translation world, "technical writing" (and "technical translation") fundamentally just means the counterpart to "creative writing": reports, documentation, memos, etc. Many would even consider typical "business" writing (correspondence, etc) to fall within it as well. As such, I find it rather curious that in school, we place so much emphasis on literary and creative writing, and not nearly enough on technical writing, despite the fact that that's the kind of writing most people will actually do throughout their careers. (Some of the rules apply equally to both, but others are exact opposites. A great example is how in school, we're taught to use synonyms to avoid repeating the same words over and over. But in technical writing, you want to use words consistently for clarity.)
gamalot:
--- Quote from: tautech on January 06, 2023, 08:17:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: gamalot on January 06, 2023, 02:51:28 pm ---
--- Quote from: tautech on January 06, 2023, 02:03:32 pm ---
Sorry no again.
Context.
Earlier User manual for electronic equipment is best I can do for now as not being at workstation where I might still have copies of those old manuals.
When revealed you will chuckle as it baffled an EE friend for several days just how a simple translation could go so wrong.
--- End quote ---
I added another answer (SRF) while you were typing, it must be right! :box:
--- End quote ---
Your answers thus far for a Humorous Frequency translation:
harmonic frequency
resonant frequency
tuning frequency
self-resonant frequency
Sorry, are all wrong !
In terms of English understanding, #1 is the closest.
Did I say it baffled an EE for some days ?
--- End quote ---
My last try:
Humorous Frequency -> 幽默频率 -> 诙谐频率 -> Witty Frequency -> 机智频率 -> Smart Frequency -> Automatic Tuning :palm:
tautech:
--- Quote from: gamalot on January 07, 2023, 06:11:02 am ---
--- Quote from: tautech on January 06, 2023, 08:17:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: gamalot on January 06, 2023, 02:51:28 pm ---
--- Quote from: tautech on January 06, 2023, 02:03:32 pm ---
Sorry no again.
Context.
Earlier User manual for electronic equipment is best I can do for now as not being at workstation where I might still have copies of those old manuals.
When revealed you will chuckle as it baffled an EE friend for several days just how a simple translation could go so wrong.
--- End quote ---
I added another answer (SRF) while you were typing, it must be right! :box:
--- End quote ---
Your answers thus far for a Humorous Frequency translation:
harmonic frequency
resonant frequency
tuning frequency
self-resonant frequency
Sorry, are all wrong !
In terms of English understanding, #1 is the closest.
Did I say it baffled an EE for some days ?
--- End quote ---
My last try:
Humorous Frequency -> 幽默频率 -> 诙谐频率 -> Witty Frequency -> 机智频率 -> Smart Frequency -> Automatic Tuning :palm:
--- End quote ---
:) Not yet.
Some context WRT FFT usage from a 10yr old manual:
The FFT process mathematically converts a time-domain signal into its
frequency components. You can use the Math FFT mode to view the following types
of signals:
● Analyze the Humorous wave in the Power cable.
● Test the Humorous content and distortion in the system
................
gamalot:
--- Quote from: tautech on January 07, 2023, 07:09:20 am ---
Some context WRT FFT usage from a 10yr old manual:
The FFT process mathematically converts a time-domain signal into its
frequency components. You can use the Math FFT mode to view the following types
of signals:
● Analyze the Humorous wave in the Power cable.
● Test the Humorous content and distortion in the system
................
--- End quote ---
This has nothing to do with Chinese, it's just a person who is not good at English mistakenly wrote harmonic as humorous.
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