|
 |
How do you evaluate the quality of your Chinese business card translations? Good meanings alone are not enough.
For example, an Ivy League University Chinese professor transliterated Mr. Birch's name as Bo Qi, meaning "broadly knowledgeable" and "to enlighten." The transliteration sounds very good indeed. We were horrified when we learned the name, however. Bo Qi sounds exactly the same as a Chinese term meaning "to have an erection." At Good Characters, we have multiple reviewing processes in place to ensure no such embarrassing translations.
Be aware of cookie-cutter translations
Faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance are three principles of translation that were first proposed by a scholar in the Chin Dynasty named Yan Fu. Many English-Chinese dictionaries and websites offer examples of Chinese name translations. A third of these translations are fine, but two-thirds lack elegance or the good taste that should accompany names.
|
|
|
