Chat attack

thesis paper

论文

(lùnwén) 

A: I was writing my thesis paper recently and ended up making a huge mistake when translating a word. 

最近我写论文,那天翻译一个词,犯了大错。

(zuìjìn wǒ xiě lùnwén, nàtiān fānyì yīɡècí, fàn le dàcuò.) 

B: What word? 

什么词？

(shénmecí?)

A: People of color. The literal Chinese translation is youse renzhong, which translated back to English would be "colored people." Later on, a friend of mine from the US told me that the word is controversial. 

People of color。 这个词的中文翻译是"有色人种"。 而这中文词直译成英语是"colored people"。但后来我美国的朋友和我讲这个词有争议。

(People of color. zhèɡècí de zhōnɡwén fānyì shì "yǒusèrénzhǒnɡ"。ér zhè zhōnɡwéncí zhíyì chénɡ yīnɡyǔ shì "colored people".dàn hòulái wǒ měiɡuó de pénɡyǒu héwǒjiǎnɡ zhèɡècí yǒu zhēnɡyì.)   

B: Yeah, you have to be careful when translating words like these.      

对,这些词的翻译还是要注意。

(duì, zhèxiēcí de fānyì háishì yào zhùyì.)  

B: I will surely be more sensitive about it in the future.       

我以后一定会增强自己的敏感度的。

(wǒ yǐhòu yīdìnɡhuì zēnɡqiánɡ zìjǐ de mǐnɡǎndù de.)

Illustration: Xia Qing/GT