The Thorn In My Side

The thorn in my side this week has been getting things translated into Chinese. This is a lot harder than you might think. The problem lies in two areas.

One, it's hard to find someone who can translate that knows our material well enough to translate it with the proper tone, and without losing the impact we've worked hard for with the english version. Chinese doesn't translate word for word, so there are many variations of how it can be translated.

Second, and the even bigger headache, is finding someone to input it into the computer. I learned this week how to change the language on my computer. I've never had to do that before. If you ever are interested, you can change to any language, and if you look at Chinese alone, there is a long list of variations on the language you have to choose from. It is actually very hard to find someone who can input on the computer, and those who can are seriously talented because they have to do it from memory, and there are over 10,00 symbols!

Let me explain: Albert, a volunteer here, can input Chinese characters. Since there are so many variations, I had to ask him which he uses. He uses ChangJie, which is a form of Taiwanese Chinese. I switch the computer to read ChangJie, and he uses a basic, English keyboard, and uses a series of keystrokes to bring up the needed character. He has to know it all from memory. It's amazing! Another way to input is some people have this software that allows them to make the strokes of the characters, and it can read the movement and type the characters as you go.

The reason this has been such a problem is we had an incredbly urgent, past due document that needs to go to print already, but couldn't find anyone to translate and input, and we'd also need to find a third person to proofread it. It's difficult since a lot of times the person who translates it can't input it, and then can't proof it. It's so challenging to find people, all within the same time frame, who can do all these things, so being on such a tight deadline has proven extremely hard!

I'm very close to finishing getting the translation, but am still waiting on some more being input. Just another part of life in Asia!