The World is a Stage…

I thought I’d take a break from the news article I’m trying to translate to post a quick update! With one thing and another, the week has flown by. Luckily, I have a 4-day weekend to look forward to and will have some free time to catch up on some language study and work on my essay (I need to send it off in 2 weeks’ time). 

My partner and I have tickets to go and see the Chinese State Circus in Amsterdam on Sunday. Their show Confucius, which is being staged at Amsterdam’s RAI Theatre, promises to be a real treat. I wonder if it will be anything like the show I saw at the Chaoyang Theatre (朝阳剧场) in Beijing during my year abroad (almost 10 years ago now). If you ever visit Beijing, I really recommend a night out to watch the acrobats in action.

We also have tickets for another show next Sunday (also at the RAI Theatre) by the Shen Yun Performing Arts Company (神韵艺术团). This company has toured the world and their shows are said to be spectacular. I had a look at the company’s website and the costumes and sets look simply amazing. I can’t wait to see them live!

That’s all for now. I need to get back to my translation work and essay before I get too distracted…wish me luck.

Fun with FanFou

Sorry once again for the lack of posts. I’ve been a little unwell these past few days and we needed to take one of our cats to the vet this morning, so needless to say, I haven’t really had the time or enthusiasm to update the blog.

I’ve been trying my utmost best to improve my Chinese writing skills over the past few months as I haven’t written anything in Chinese since I graduated from university (which was almost 7 years ago…how time flies). I’m a little hesitant to write “normal” blog posts as my writing skills are rusty at best. Translating a Chinese text into English is one thing but writing a coherent piece of text in Chinese is a different kettle of fish. Remembering grammar rules and knowing how to use certain expressions and words is something that takes a certain amount of practice and, quite frankly, I think I need a LOT of practice before I decide I should embarrass myself with my shockingly poor Chinese writing skills (writing was always my weakest skill).

So I’ve set my sights low for the moment and have decided to start using FanFou.Com again. I created an account last September but I only used it a couple of times before getting bored with the lack of response. FanFou is a Chinese microblogging service which bears a striking resemblance to Twitter. One of the things I like about FanFou is the 随便看看 feature. This allows you to see the latest posts and is a fantastic way to improve your reading skills and learn some internet slang. I’m particularly fond of the 囧 character which appears regularly in people’s posts.  That one character expresses shock in a way that just can’t be described in words.

I’ve added a FanFou badge to the side menu as it seems like a good way of sharing my FanFou posts with anyone who’s interested. Read my pathetic Chinese and weep…

Links, Links, Links…

I’m still working on a post about the importance of learning Dutch so today I’m going to take the easy way out and share some links that I think are worth checking out.

• How Difficult is Chinese? -Liz has posted a great post about the challenges faced by people learning Chinese on her blog Pocket Cultures. Thoughts on learning Chinese were submitted by John Biesnecker, Ivy, a Singaporean blogger, and your’s truly.
• Mountain Songs - A fantastic website with hundreds of Chinese poems. The poems are mostly written in Classical Chinese and are accompanied by English translations and beautiful photos of the places they describe.
• Extreme Mandarin – A Chinese vocabulary blog with a difference. Yersi’s blog covers a wide range of topics, including Dungeons and Dragons, koala bears and cash.
• Chinese Sans 汉字 – John, author of Chinese Quest, has written a post about the limitations of learning Chinese (or Japanese) without learning the written language. I agree with what he has to say…I cannot make sense of anything written exclusively in pinyin.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned for some original content later this week.

有趣的汉字

It has been almost a week since my last proper update (not counting the two language learner interviews I posted on Saturday) so I thought it was time for me to prove that I’m still alive and well.

My partner has been away on business this week so I took the opportunity to catch up with some chores around the house and some reading. I just finished reading Khaled Hosseini’s book A Thousand Splendid Suns, a heartbreaking tale of two women growing up in Afghanistan. I really recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already read this wonderful book.

I’ve also been spending some time brushing up on my Mandarin as I rarely get the chance to use my skills these days (aside from the occasional translation). I discovered yet another video site, Ku6.Com, on Monday. It can be a little slow but you’ll be able to find hundreds of movies and TV series from all over the world. I watched a few episodes of a drama series called 中国家庭421, which comes complete with Chinese subtitles (perfect for anyone who wants to improve their listening skills). The expression “421″ refers to the composition of the modern Chinese family, where the average child is an only child with two parents and four grandparents, a social system which will put an enormous pressure on young Chinese to support a greying population (this also seems to be the case in many European countries). You can watch the first episode here.

I try to read at least one short text a day in order to keep my reading skills sharp. It’s amazing how I can still stumble upon unknown 汉字 despite years of study, especially in academic or literary works. What annoys me the most is that I have learnt some of these “unknown” characters in the past but have forgotten their meanings after months (years?) of not using them or coming across them in my reading. A Chinese teacher of mine always used to tell us that Chinese characters were our friends. If we didn’t spend time with them every day, they would slip away. An exaggeration, perhaps, but  a good point nonetheless. Mandarin is certainly a high-maintenance language…

Unknown characters that I stumbled upon this week include :

鸳 (yuān) – Mandarin duck (I’m pretty sure I came across this character once or twice during my time in China)

睿 (ruì) – astute, farsighted

嚣 (xiāo) – clamour

掬 (jú) – to scoop up with both hands

There are thousands upon thousands of Chinese characters, though many of these are rarely used in daily life. The exact number of characters needed for comfortable reading is a hotly debated topic. 3,000 is a good start but you’ll still come across unknown characters in the newspapers, especially in place names or anything that uses specialist jargon (e.g. articles on scientific issues). I like to liken the study of Chinese characters to Pokemon : you’ll spend years, perhaps decades, trying to catch them all.

Quelle Semaine!

What a week it has been! My mother was in hospital on Monday (discharged on Tuesday, thank God), I spent 3 hours travelling home on Tuesday, work was insanely chaotic on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and yesterday a pleasant evening with some friends was cut short when their cat started hissing and running around their house as if possessed. I do hope their cat is alright as I have two of my own and would be worried sick if they started acting like their’s did…

So needless to say, there was little time left in the day to devote to language study or updating this blog! Hopefully things will be back to normal this coming week.

I’m taking a month’s break from my “One Foreign-Language Book a Month” challenge as I need to work on an essay for the archaeology course I’m taking (the current module focuses on classical archaeology).  Lately, reading time seems to be limited to the two hours I spend commuting to and from work each day so I think it makes sense for me to spend that time doing the necessary background reading for my course and essay. I’ll find other ways to fit in some language practice into my busy work days…

I have a few links to blogs, websites and news articles that might be of interest to fellow language learners :

• Button Gaffe Embarrasses Clinton - An example of how a mistranslation could lead to a potential political catastrophe. I wonder if anyone proofread the gift before it was given to Hillary.
• Les Tribulations d’une Caissière - I stumbled upon this blog via an article on the TimesOnline website. The blog’s author, Anna Sam, is a French university graduate who has recently published a book about her experiences as an undervalued and frustrated supermarket clerk. The blog is written in French but you can read a translation of an extract from her book by clicking on the TimesOnline link above (it can be found towards the end of the article). I’m sure there are many university graduates – in France and elsewhere – who can sympathise with her situation.
• Chinese Cultural Heritage Net - Entirely in Chinese but a great source of reading material for those who are interested in China’s cultural heritage and archaeological sites.
• Kanji Clinic – A fantastic resource for anyone struggling with Japanese kanji and vocabulary. Most of the articles are centred around a particular theme (e.g. colours, animals, medical terms) and include mini quizzes at the end of most articles to test your knowledge of the kanji discussed. Many of the articles explain Japanese cultural and social issues, such as the origins of Japanese festivals and the meanings behind some of the most common Japanese surnames.

That’s all from me for now. I have a few “word-building” posts in the pipeline and may have a few more language learning interviews to share with you all in the very near future.

それでは、じゃまたね！

MySoju.Com

A short post from me today as I’ve had quite a long day at work and spent nearly 3 hours getting home due to problems with the trains. Apparently someone was hit by a train along one of the major routes but I’m having trouble finding any information about it on the local news…

I just wanted to share a link to a great site I discovered over the weekend : MySoju.Com. You can watch many Korean, Japanese and Chinese-language drama series and movies for free and it reminds me of how CrunchyRoll used to be before they removed most of the free content. So far I ‘ve watched a few episodes of Shota no Sushi (based on the manga series of the same name) and Virgin Snow, a story about the love between a young Japanese artist and a Korean exchange student set in Kyoto (one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in my personal opinion).

It’ll probably be a matter of time before the site is closed down or the webmaster is asked to remove the links to the videos so enjoy it while it lasts.

Lost in Translation

I’m afraid there will be no new posts from me today (and possibly tomorrow) as I’m tied up with some translation work. I have one more language learner interview to post later this week and I hope to get back to regular posting within the next couple of days.

For now, I’d like to share a link to a random video archive that I stumbled upon during the weekend : CNC Max. It’s nowhere near as big as Tudou or Youku but it has plenty of interesting videos with Chinese subtitles. Perfect for anyone who finds it hard to follow spoken Mandarin.

Thoughts on Translation

For the past few months, I’ve been translating news articles and biographies for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology (you can see the institute’s website here). This has been a fantastic way for me to develop my translation skills while learning more about ancient Chinese archaeological cultures. The translation work has been on a completely voluntary basis (i.e. I don’t get paid for doing it), something many translators are reluctant to do.

I worked as a freelance translator during my year-long stay in Taiwan but I’ve since had to put my translation career on hold due to economic reasons and the lack of in-house translator jobs in the Netherlands. Translating documents on a voluntary basis is a good way for me to sharpen my skills and, more importantly, build a portfolio of sample translations for prospective employers and/or clients. At the very least, it’s an excellent way to put my Chinese language skills to good use. Use them or lose them, as they say.

I’m currently working on two documents for the institute and it never ceases to amaze how much of a learning experience translation work really is. Translators do not know the meaning of every word they come across so research skills are as vital as language skills. Translators working with specialised texts are often expected to know their subject and be familiar with the jargon used. Working with texts dealing with archaeological themes introduces you to such words as 贝壳丘 (midden) and 殉葬 (being buried alive with the dead), words you’re hardly likely to come across in your average Chinese class or textbook!

As a translator, you’re constantly learning new words, new meanings and building upon your existing knowledge of the subject(s) and language(s) you ‘re specialising in. Language is always evolving and so must the translator. Every text I translate is a learning experience and helps me learn more about the way we humans use words and language to convey ideas and disseminate knowledge.

For those of you who are looking for a fun way to develop your language and translation skills, you might want to consider translating news articles or blog posts for your own use. This is an excellent way to learn new words and expressions and reinforce your understanding of the foreign language’s grammar. What are your thoughts on this? Do you use translation practice as a way to improve your language skills or do you feel it’s a waste of time?

Watch this space for more thoughts on translation and my catastrophic attempts at translating Japanese and Dutch articles.