--- Forwarded Message from "Steve & Laura Spinella" <[log in to unmask]> --- >From: "Steve & Laura Spinella" <[log in to unmask]> >To: "LLTI-Editor" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: #7885 Chinese translation - from Word to Web? >Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 14:52:31 +0800 We find it is generally better to show quiz questions (and other action items) in a bilingual format rather than just having separate monolingual versions. Because Chinese and English are such distant languages, translation is fraught with unintended consequences. Bilingual versions provide greater contextual clues even for people with little knowledge of the second language. Example: You have your button marked "next" to change screens. But next can mean next in line, next in location, etc. AND the Chinese speaker in San Francisco might better know that "next" means [click this button to continue to the next screen in this sequence] than any Chinese word you might cut and paste here. This practice is also common on all sorts of forms in Taiwan. Since Chinese is terse and distinctive from English, this is more doable and less confusing than bilingual forms using two western languages, where people might sometimes be confused which language is which. Steve www.team.org.tw/ccg ----- Original Message ----- From: "LLTI-Editor" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 2:24 AM Subject: #7885 Chinese translation - from Word to Web? > --- Forwarded Message from "Carol Reitan" <[log in to unmask]> --- > > >Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:57:33 -0700 > >From: "Carol Reitan" <[log in to unmask]> > >To: <[log in to unmask]> > >Subject: Chinese translation - from Word to Web? > > We've been asked to facilitate getting Chinese and Spanish translations of an > extensive online orientation for new students (including a short quiz) on the > college website. Spanish will pose no particular problems, but I'm a bit worried > about the Chinese translation. > > I'm hoping that some of you will be able to suggest the best way to plan this. > Here's what we know so far: > > *We will be given the Chinese translation of each page of the website in > Microsoft Word format. (traditional characters) (Those that will be doing the > translations, do not make web pages.) > *We will be using Dreamweaver to make the web pages. Unfortunately, those making > the web pages do not know Chinese! > *There are some text boxes that will need to have Chinese characters appear in > them. (This is a quiz that has the multiple choice responses in a text box. The > user clicks on the correct answers to respond.) > > So, (after experimenting with the 3 characters that I know) we're planning to > cut and paste from the word document into the pages in Dreamweaver. > > Any tips, suggestions, warnings? Any and all help will be appreciated. The > English version is found at: > http://www.ccsf.edu/Offices/Matriculation/Orientation/ > > > Carol > > > > > Carol H. Reitan > Technology Learning Center > City College of San Francisco > 50 Phelan Avenue, LB2 > San Francisco, CA 94112 > ------------------------------------------------- > 415.239.3554 > [log in to unmask] > http://www.ccsf.edu/tlc > > > > *********************************************** > LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for > Language Learning, and The Consortium for Language Teaching and > Learning (http://consortium.dartmouth.edu). > Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. > Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) > *********************************************** >