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Subject: How to say Chinese dishes in English - simply and clearly?
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voice_cd
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How to say Chinese dishes in English - simply and clearly?
Beijing has corrected over 6,500 traffic signs and will next target other public facilities including toilets, museums, hospitals, sports venues and restaurant menus in an endeavor to weed out bad English translations before the 2008 Olympics.
It will be an unbearable embarrassment to have a public sign reading "Racist Park" - a venue dedicated to ethnic minorities (Min Zuyuan) during the Games when numerous foreign guests will be in Beijing.
Those English translations, however, may be relatively easy to correct. What about the restaurant menus?
Among the next moves, many howlers on restaurant menus, such as "cow bowel in sauce", "corrugated iron beef" and "acid food" will be targeted.
"In standardizing the menus, we will take both China's splendid catering culture and practicability into consideration. The names of the dishes should be simple but clear," an official said on the press conference given by BOCOG, adding the names are supposed to signal what food the customers are going to eat.
However, it is really a hard work to combine the culture and practicability. Many Chinese-style dishes have legend stores behind them while others can't be distinguished as what they are made from merely through their names.
2007-4-12 03:29 PM
#1
belleabc
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it's really a tough issue. for example, how to say 粽子，饺子，汤圆 in english. they are always called dumplings, but if they are all put in the same menu, how to differ them?
2007-4-12 04:02 PM
#2
visitor93
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In this case, the Chinese Pinyin could be used, and then be followed with some simple explanations.
2007-4-12 04:36 PM
#3
polaris1120
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perhaps will never be solved... transliteration, free translation or literal translation? hard to tell... i prefer to list the ingredients and cooking methods. don't entertain any extravagant hopes for the aesthetic feeling of the English names...
2007-4-12 04:44 PM
#4
martinfox
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if you can't translate it to English , then just speak Chinese.
ha ha¬¬
2007-4-12 06:02 PM
#5
kailar
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Using Pinyin is quite a constructive idea especially for some Chinese-style craftwork and food
2007-4-12 06:03 PM
#6
zhangwuji156
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谁能告诉我Seven Happiness是什么食物呀？
文章里说的，没看明白
2007-4-12 06:27 PM
#7
hooiluangoh
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Very funny
I think to write them in pinyin will do the job. It's just like many French dishes are not translated. Escargot is escargot is escargot.
You can always have fine prints explaining the ingredients or a picture that tells all.
2007-4-12 07:57 PM
#8
applegui
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i totally agree with you,i even don't know how to translate the daily dishes.in my opinion, writing then in pinying is the favorable way for us chinese ,perhaps for all the people from this earth
2007-4-12 08:18 PM
#9
alex_vow
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simply pinyin may not suffice
I don't quite agree, as the 2008 olympic game is approching, and especially more and more foreigners will come into our country, pinyin can not vividly describe the features of the cuizine. for example gongbao jiding , if you translate it as kongbao chicken, the foreigners at least will know that it is a dish with chicken as the ingredient.
2007-4-12 09:48 PM
#10
white1
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QUOTE:
Originally posted by
zhangwuji156
at 2007-4-12 18:27
文章里说的，没看明白
七喜丸子
2007-4-13 12:11 PM
#11
pandamonium
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Pinyin - waste of time
Foreigners do not understand Pinyin, so leave the menus in Chinese - it means as much as pinyin to most visitors! I am amazed that people cannot see that!
In the UK we could call "Fish and chips"
"Whitby golden history"
or "Fruit of the earth blesses fruit of the sea"
but English people are dull and simple, so we call it just what it is "Fish and Chips"
even then you have to guess that a chip is potato and not a micro-processor!
so not only must the words be translated but also the thinking, that is
simply describe the food like this
Animal (or vegetable)
Preparation method
Cooking method
Type of sauce
overall property of dish
then other additives
For example
Chicken, pieces (with small bones), fried, no sauce, dry, with cashew nuts (whole), dried red pepper, and ground pepper
Would be a description of the common "Sichuan fried chicken"
Working out all the descriptors would be a tough job but you only need to it once - and foods not on the main list could be "translated" by filling in the boxes (in Chinese) is some form of software
restuarants across China could translate their own menus for fun
No more
"The splendid kitchen, explodes the duck in pans on fire!"
on the menu
2007-4-13 12:40 PM
#12
pandamonium
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Important
Yes, the bones are important
Westerners are very good at choking on bones!
So need to note
Many bones (fine, small)
Few bones
Few bones (large)
So many people killed by small bones - why?
because in many western countries it is the job of the cook to remove all bones
so western people are not practiced at spitting out or avoiding eating bones
they try to swallow them, choke and die
2007-4-13 12:44 PM
#13
liangzai
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QUOTE:
Originally posted by
voice_cd
at 2007-4-12 15:29
However, it is really a hard work to combine the culture and practicability. Many Chinese-style dishes have legend stores behind them while others can't be distinguished as what they are made from merely through their names.
Bull. You just need a good dictionary and someone who knows English. Any foreigner who has a working command of Chinese would do, but they are never asked to assist in translations. Furthermore, it would be fruitful to make a standardized database of translated dishes and road signs, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel a thousand times a day. Many such translations exist on the net.
If there's a legend to the, just describe the legend somewhere else, in fine print. What the food is made of has priority.
If there is no English equivalent, use pinyin (and only pinyin, not some stupid old transcription system) and MAKE IT a new brand. After a while foreigners will learn and say "Oh, have you tried these Nanxiang xiaolong?? They're so delicious!" (after all, "ketchup" is a Chinese word...).
Image Attachment:
1.jpeg
(2007-4-14 01:12 AM, 44.55 K)
2007-4-14 01:12 AM
#14
hanjingjing
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It is very hard to translate all chinese menu in English. In cuizine culture, there are lots of differnces between China and Western country. for some simple dish, you can name it in English according to its ingredients and cook method. Maybe, when the foreigners order it, the waitor can give a simple explanation. However, for some sophicated dishes with complicated cooking method, if you translate it in English, I think it very hard to understand for foreigners. They will be very confused about such dish. In this case, I think it is better to name it in Pinyin. To let foreigners have a clear understanding of our affliuent cuizine culture, more employees in hospitality indstury should be given more training on how to introduce the Chinese dishes to westerners. Particulary, with 2008 Olmpic Games fast approching, a large number of foreingers will rush to China for this great events, the personnel in hospitality industry should pay much more attention to it .
2007-4-16 02:23 PM
#15
squatters
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I think we can use pictures to explain these
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(2007-4-18 06:09 PM, 4.79 K)
2007-4-18 06:09 PM
#16
fly2008
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typical local dishe and specialty of China
http://www.chinesefolkculture.com/LocalDish_Specialty.asp
2007-4-21 09:19 AM
#17
fly2008
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2007-4-24 08:45 AM
#18
pandamonium
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I think
the menu is post #14 is just perfect
foreingers will love it
that restaurant will soon be the most busy in Beijing or whereever
Don't feel bad about being laughed at
when Chinese people cry with laughter at my pronunciations of words in their language
I am just happy to be bringing them so much joy
2007-4-24 11:54 AM
#19
caringhk
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QUOTE:
Originally posted by
voice_cd
at 2007-4-12 15:29
Beijing has corrected over 6,500 traffic signs and will next target other public facilities including toilets, museums, hospitals, sports venues and restaurant menus in an endeavor to weed out bad ...
Pls note some words don't have an English equivalent!
In that case, the original chinese words must be retained.
& the reader to interprate or finds it's meaning.
2007-4-24 02:08 PM
#20
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