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| Subject:
Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
Category: Miscellaneous Asked by: matt_carter-ga List Price: $50.00 |
Posted:
29 May 2003 20:30 PDT
Expires: 28 Jun 2003 20:30 PDT Question ID: 210540 |
I would like to have the following letter to my (angry) father-in-law
translated from English to standard (Mandarin) Chinese. The result
should be Chinese characters displayable by
NJStar, or Chinese characters displayable by Internet Explorer 6.0 or
higher, or Romanized Pinyin with numeric tone symbols after each word.
The translation needs to be done well by a human, please. I will
give a nice tip if I receive the answer by 10pm EDT 5/30/2003.
Thanks!
P.S. Personal advice on the matter is optional, but is not part of
the question. ;-)
BEGIN TEXT TO TRANSLATE:
Dear XYZ,
I would like to take this opportunity to address the concerns you
expressed
last night regarding my arriving home from work late.
First, let me summarize what I understand your complaints to be:
- My arriving home from work at 12:12am kept you awake.
- My arriving home from work at 12:12am kept your daughter awake.
- By waiting until 11:17pm to go back work, I demonstrated poor
planning.
- By working out for an hour last week before going back to work late
in
the evening, I demonstrated poor planning because I could have
worked
out another day instead.
Assuming that my understandings are correct, please allow me to
respond:
1) This household belongs to me and your daughter. You are a guest.
We
enjoy
having you as a guest, and we attempt to accommodate you, however it
will
not always be possible. During your 5 1/2 month visit, it is
inevitable
that you will be inconvenienced. As a guest, you have no grounds to
complain.
2) Your daughter and I occasionally come home late from work. That is
the
nature
of our occupations. We understand and respect the fact that the other
one
may occasionally have to work late. If one of us doesn't like that,
it is
an issue between the two of us, and it not your business to interfere
with. Your daughter is a grown woman; she can argue for herself.
3) I did not keep you awake last night. It was your decision to stay
awake
and be upset at me. You have a room with a door. If I stay out late,
you
may close your door and go to bed. If you are asleep when I arrive, I
will
be quiet when I come in. When you called me at work last night, I
told you
not to wait up for me. When you decided to stay up to wait for me, it
became your problem, not mine.
4) Last night, I waited until 11:17pm to go back to work only because
I
received repeated indications beginning around 8pm that your daughter
was
coming
home soon. Out of a desire to see my wife, I waited for her. It was
not
poor planning.
5) In my culture, unlike yours, people my age staying out until after
midnight is not abnormal. Therefore, I associated no cost with that
consequence when I planned my actions. Your assumption that I failed
to
foresee the cost is based on flawed assumptions. It is your job to
learn
and respect the culture you are visiting.
6) In my culture, regular physical exercise is an important part of
many
people's lives. I am on an aerobic and strength-building program,
which
requires exercising on certain days. Your claim that I should have
gone
back to work earlier because I could just as easily have exercised on
another day is based on a flawed assumption.
I hope that this information is helpful to you to avoid
misunderstandings
in the future.
Sincerely,
Matt Carter | |
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| Subject:
Re: Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
Answered By: answerguru-ga on 31 May 2003 00:26 PDT Rated:  |
Hi Matt, The translated letter has been sent to the email address you provided (with the spam protection removed of course). You should see it in three formats: 1. MS Word Document 2. HTML page 3. Graphics files (ordered) If you have any questions please post a clarification and I will try to respond promptly. Good luck and hope your father in law sees your point of view! Cheers, answerguru-ga Google Answers Researcher | |
| |
matt_carter-ga
rated this answer:
and gave an additional tip of:
$15.00
Thank you very much, answerguru. I had no problem downloading the translation. Thanks, also, for the quick turn-around! From what I can tell, the translation is excellent. |
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| Subject:
Re: Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
From: skermit-ga on 30 May 2003 03:39 PDT |
Coming from a rather traditional Chinese family, I would hold this letter off as a last resort, but I'm not in your shoes, I don't know what else you've tried. Assuming your wife speaks Chinese, a less confrontational approach might be a sit down, or even less casual conversation over dinner through your wife as interpreter. The sense of face-to-face, and maintaining a humble yet firm position in explaining your side of things would come across as respectful. There's less room for misinterpretation because you'll be able to gauge each others reactions, and hopefully, your father-in-law can come out of it without feeling that he's lost face. It is your house, and he should live by your rules, but if the language barrier is great enough such that you'd need a tranlator to communitcate, perhaps it would be best to have the translation come from within. I'm sure answerguru's answer will be on point and accurate to your tone and presentation, but it might be taken the wrong way. But having grown up with my parents, I understand what you are going through, I just don't know what you've tried already. Good luck! skermit-ga |
| Subject:
Re: Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
From: answerguru-ga on 31 May 2003 15:06 PDT |
Thanks Matt, I appreciate your kind rating and comment, as well as the generous tip :) answerguru-ga |
| Subject:
Re: Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
From: respree-ga on 02 Jun 2003 14:54 PDT |
Hmmm. Tough situation. Can't offer you a solution, but this paper my be of interest. Discusses respect, honor, shame "losing face", and other insights into the Chinese culture that may affect your decision on how to handle this situation. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~hci/hci/pub/shame.pdf I'm not so sure I'd agree with skermit-ga. I believe your wife is caught (through no fault of her own) in a very difficult position, as well -- between her loyalty and respect for her father and her husband. If you confront him with your wife present, if not handled properly, it may cause him to lose face in front of his daughter...Then you have much bigger problems that you had before. Good luck. |
| Subject:
Re: Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
From: matt_carter-ga on 08 Jun 2003 12:09 PDT |
Based on advice from skermit-ga, respree-ga, and several other people I've consulted with a deep understanding of traditional Chinese culture, I decided that my letter, though honest, accurate, and reasonable, would cause too deep a divide between myself and my father-in-law, and would put my wife in too difficult a position. I decided that if I gave the letter to my father-in-law, he would have lost face and would hate me, so the remaining 4 months of his stay in my house would be miserable for all of us. It would be no better than the status quo, which is frustrating, but tolerable. Therefore, I decided to back down and not give my father the letter posted above. Since he knows I intended to give him a letter, I couldn't just do nothing. So, I wrote a new, much more humble, letter. I gave him a translation of that, but he doesn't know it is a revised version. The new letter basically says that, after a great deal of reflection and research into traditional Chinese culture, I understand that my behavior may have seemed disrespectful by his culture. I assured him that no disrespect was intended, and I appreciate his concern for his daughter's well-being. I pointed out that my wife's well-being is of paramount importance to me, so he doesn't need to worry. I also pointed out that my wife and I regularly work late, and though that's unheard of in his traditional Chinese culture, it's not a sign of a poorly-run family. He read the letter and did not respond, but at least now we can all sit around the dinner table together without feeling too awkward. Just 4 more months... |
| Subject:
Re: Translate one page of English to Chinese (Mandarin)
From: answerguru-ga on 08 Jun 2003 12:33 PDT |
Hi Matt, Thanks for keeping us all posted on this matter...I was curious as to how it would all turn out. However, if you need any further help from the GA team please don't hesitate to ask. Good luck with your challenging dilemma! answerguru-ga |
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