A little help pls!

[Canadian Ice]

Hi there,
 So I have taken some advice here and tried to keep my mandarin down to a few words at a time and wrote this to my Lady.

?? ? ??
?? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??..=)

She speaks mandarin...and little english so we are using the translater.
She thanked me for my effort...but also said and I quote:
"I am very moved that you can write me in chinese. Though it is very hard for me to understand them, I can know that you have tried your best to let me know your heart and your passion in it."

Now am I doing something wrong ....I thought I kept it very simple...I am confused now.
I translate it as this:

How are you today? I hope. . . Your day full of sunshine! Your letters light up my life!
I tried very hard to learn your language. This is difficult. . . . Grammar! Maybe if I try to learn. . . . . . . We will be able to talk to each other soon! This makes me very happy. I will do my best to try to write Mandarin. . . . I will then write the English translation. . . . For you to read. . . I hope this will help...=)

advice pls?

Rick

[Hans]

Try to write simple Chinese instead, you limit the risk of just causing confusion. Although I've written emails and chatted with my lady for months and months and she has great patience with all the mistakes I make, she still doesn't understand me sometimes.

For instance, you can use these simple (note, simplified Chinese characters) phrases:

How are you today?
I miss you! ?
Miss you every day! ?!
I love you! ?
Take care! ?
Very happy to receive your email

And of course you can also tell her that:
Chinese is very difficult ?
Chinese is pretty difficult ??

Good luck!

[Philip]

Hi Rick,
it looks pretty good to me. Only problem is that, although you have written a few words at a time, in some places they are not complete sentences. For example, "I hope. . . Your day full of sunshine! " - it doesn't make grammatical sense in English, so it may have some problems being understood in Chinese.  I would write short sentences. I would get rid of the dots. What is their purpose?

I would have written your words like this:

How are you today? I hope that your day is full of sunshine! Your letters light up my life!
I tried very hard to learn your language. This is difficult! Grammar! Maybe if I try to learn, we will be able to talk to each other soon! This makes me very happy. I'll try hard to write Chinese.  Then I'll write the English translation for you to read. I hope this will help. =)

As you can see, I haven't changed very much. Hope this helps

[shaun]

Rick, Philip knows what he is talking about.  Simple complete sentences with simple words.  There will still be issues but you can tell her to always believe the positive way and ask questions if she doesn't understand.  I am constantly typing to I do not understand.  Please type differently.  She does.

[Canadian Ice]

I will try that...thanks!!

Rick

Hi Rick,
it looks pretty good to me. Only problem is that, although you have written a few words at a time, in some places they are not complete sentences. For example, "I hope. . . Your day full of sunshine! " - it doesn't make grammatical sense in English, so it may have some problems being understood in Chinese.  I would write short sentences. I would get rid of the dots. What is their purpose?

I would have written your words like this:

How are you today? I hope that your day is full of sunshine! Your letters light up my life!
I tried very hard to learn your language. This is difficult! Grammar! Maybe if I try to learn, we will be able to talk to each other soon! This makes me very happy. I'll try hard to write Chinese.  Then I'll write the English translation for you to read. I hope this will help. =)

As you can see, I haven't changed very much. Hope this helps

The reason I did it like that was...I translated it to Chinese...then back to English and the chinese translation lost a few words especially the small ones ...and....is...etc.
So when I got it close I just left it.
But the way she is writing back to me as in her statement...it looked as though she never understood any of it....just got me confused is all.

Thanks
Rick

[rockycoon]

Be glad she doesn't send messeges like the one I got...:-/

???200???

[Willy The Londoner]

The major problem is using colloquial type phrases that may mean something to you in English but does not come out well in Chinese when using online translations


But whatever you do keep sentences short - no more than three or four words.   And be to the point because using flowery words and phrases just confuses the translator.

Write as if you are talking to a child.  I can understand more Chinese spoken by a child than by the adults - because they use words that are simple and to the point.

Willy

[Martin]

The major problem is using colloquial type phrases that may mean something to you in English but does not come out well in Chinese when using online translations


But whatever you do keep sentences short - no more than three or four words.   And be to the point because using flowery words and phrases just confuses the translator.

Write as if you are talking to a child.  I can understand more Chinese spoken by a child than by the adults - because they use words that are simple and to the point.

Willy

Willy brings up a good point here.  Colloquial phrases should also include sarcasm.  At least in my experience (and that of at least one other member), the women don't seem to understand sarcasm.  Sometimes, the sarcastic statements are taken quite literally.

[Rhonald]

Wait untill you try translating chicken parmesan into simple chines in Yahoo! Babel fish and get back ?? :blush:

[Martin]

Wait untill you try translating chicken parmesan into simple chines in Yahoo! Babel fish and get back ?? :blush:

Rhonald...this is a PG site.  Try to keep it clean please. HAHAHAHA

[rockycoon]

I got "chicken BAMA cheese"   why, what did you get

[Bee964]

I have had problems with translation too. One woman I was chatting with got upset with me because of a mistranslation of a sentence. There was some sarchasim in it and the translation was a little off the mark. Thats when I realised that short, simple sentences that are to the point are best and don't be sarchastic. Also tell her to say something to you right away if there is any confusion in any translation. You may have to word it different to get your point across. I have had to do this several times too.

Dave C

[feisnik]

It also helps to use the grammar and spell-check in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome before you send the letter, as these translators have no idea what you are saying when your spelling and/or grammar is off. For instance they might translate "Sarchastic" as "Saccharine" rather than "Sarcasm"! :-P

[Neil]

Not to mention words that are not misspelled but are still wrong like: there and they're and their, then and than, etc.    It's always best to double check the translation by translating it back.  That's why MDBG is a great website - scroll down to see what the Chinese characters actually mean - some have many meanings.

[ttwjr32]

you would think with all this technology we have someone would have
come up with a program that would solve these issues?