Should KudoZ\'s asker indicate who are the audience of their translation (Mainland China, Taiwan, HK

On 2002-06-24 03:02, Summit wrote:

We have observed a few questions posted in KudoZ are lacking of context. But to me, the most serious problem is: \"Who are the audience\".







I agree with Summit\'s suggestion. It is great to see new people joint in the Forum discussion. I have been busy with my home improvement work and did not write my comments for a while. I did enjoy reading all your messages. To be honest, I \'d rather sit back and read you guys talking.



There are many things need to be improved in the Kudoz question. I surprised that many askers do not give enough context and put all the translators in a guessing game. I think the immediate improvement can be made by including the following 3 parts of information:



1. How the word or phrase is used in a sentence? Please quote the sentence where the word or phrase is used.

2. What field is it about? For example, computer, education, power plant, etc.

3. Who is the targeted reader? Please indicate if the translation is intended to be used in the mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. Sometimes, the Big5 or GB code can be an indicator, but it is nice to mention it.



When such information is offered, it can help the translator to come up with the most appropriate translation, and save lots of time from guessing. When you select someone’s answer, be sure to say “Thank you!” I do have a problem with certain askers who enjoy taking the free translation, but do not even bother to say “Thank you!”



[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-07-10 03:42 ] ▲ Collapse

On 2002-08-29 21:23, Eloquo wrote:

Would my audience prefer simplified or traditional Chinese? Or are things even more complicated? I\'m sure my client wants to build just one Chinese site for \"all\" Chinese and not three sites.



Kind regards,

Gerard de Noord





Hi, Gerard



It sounds like your client\'s operation is online only. If it is also on-site, that will be a different story. In my opinion, you should have the website in both Traditional (Big5 code) and Simplified (GB code) Characters, treating each version as a separated language. It is costly, but will allow you to reach the most of the viewers. It is a \"politically correct\" thing to do.



If your client cannot afford to have both versions done at the same time. Start first with the version in Traditional Characters. This is because that the viewers who prefer to read Traditional Characters are in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other part of the world. Those Chinese people can freely access the web site in gambling nature and participate in the gambling activities. For the Chinese people in mainland China, where the Simplified Characters are used, I think they are having tough time to access your gambling website because such gambling activity is banned by the Chinese Government. By the way, I DO support this decision made by the Chinese Government. Although it is difficult for the Chinese Government to have a total control over this issue, it is so far so good. Another thing you need to know is that the credit cards are not very popular in mainland China yet. Most people still feel comfortable to pay in cash. I did see that some people start to use bank debit card now.



Kevin



[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-08-31 17:44 ] ▲ Collapse