Last year, I ever wrote a blog about how to improve readability of your English-Chinese translation. In that blog, I have introduced some approaches to improve the quality of your translation. In fact, these approaches also work when you do a Chinese-English translation. Now lets’ review such approaches and see some examples.

1) Familiarize you with terminology of the specific field.

When translating some technical materials, you may find yourselves that you cannot find the correct expression or wording for some technical terms. In such cases, you shall do some Google and dictionary searches to find the correct translation. Of course, you could get yourselves more competent in technical terms in a specific field by reading more related materials.

For example:

请不要在晚上 3 点至凌晨 1 点之间使用快速日期和星期调节功能，因为此时用于变更设置的拨针轮盘正在运作并可能因此受损。

In the sentence, you probably don’t know how to translate “拨针轮盘”, so you’d better do some Google or dictionary researches, and you will find “wheels” are usually used to express it. So the translation shall reads as follows:

The quick date and day adjustment must not be used between 3 p.m. and 1 a.m., because the wheels for the change are active during this time and may be damaged.

For another example:

孩子们的注意力得到了改善。

How to translate “注意力”? If you translate it as “attention”, it is not quite correct. In fact, you can say “The children have longer attention span.” or “The children have improved their concentration.” Attention span means the length of time during which a person can concentrate or focus attention on a particular object or idea without diversion.

2) Avoid colloquial translation

When translating formal documents, colloquial translation shall be avoided, or your translation will sound bad and have a poor style. For example:

该设备是利用油缸的提升，用于在水平地面上起吊及移动货物。

The equipment uses the lifting force of the oil cylinder to lift and move goods on horizontal ground.

The crane is designed to lift and move goods on the horizontal ground through the lifting movement of the cylinder.

3) Avoid word for word translation

Either for English-Chinese translation or Chinese-English translation, you shall avoid word for word translation as much as possible. For example:

进行全面、专业的维护是托盘车安全运行的一项十分重要的准备工作。忽视按规定的时间间隔维护保养会导致托盘车失灵并对人员和设备造成潜在的危险。

Thorough and professional maintenance is vital preparation work for the safe operation of pallet trucks. Ignorance of regular maintenance leads to operational failure and the potential danger this brings to both staff and facilities.

Thorough and professional maintenance is a vital prerequisite for the safe operation of pallet trucks. Ignorance of regular maintenance as scheduled may lead to operational failure and potential dangers to both personnel and facilities.

4) Make your translation precise and correct.

It is very important to delver a precise and correct translation especially for UI strings. For example:

距离预产期的天数

The number of days to the date when you will deliver your baby

Days to Baby

月经周期时间长度

Time Length of Menstrual Cycle

Menstrual Cycle Length

怀孕结束日期

The end date of pregnancy

Date Pregnancy Ended

5) Eliminate wordiness or redundancy

Similar to the above rule, this rule leads to precise translation too.

考虑到每年消耗掉的酸性饮料高达上百万加仑，牙酸蚀病怎么不会广为流行？

Considering the fact that the quantity of acidic beverages that have been consumed annually is up to millions of gallons, why isn’t dental erosion prevailing?

Considering the millions of gallons of acidic beverages consumed annually, why isn’t dental erosion widespread?

6) Read through your translation after finishing it.

At last but not the least, you are strongly suggested to read through your translation before you deliver it. You can spot the errors hidden in your translation and make sure your delivered translation sounds natural, professional and accurate.

Read Also: Something about C-E Translation

Take a look at how we helped our client by localizing their project for Chinese language. Click here to read the complete case study