In translation industry, it’s a general rule to have translators to translate into their native language. And only this way, the maximum smoothness and cultural appropriateness can be ensured.

However, as Chinese is a very unique language system that had independently evolved for 5,000 years, and Chinese culture dramatically differs from that in the West, this “general rule” may not always apply in this special language combination. For example, we are often asked to translate documents relating to traditional Chinese literatures, art crafts, tourism brochures for local resorts, domestic political affairs, ancient poems, histories, and local government policies. For the most time, these documents are written by local Chinese person with absolutely no international communication experience and usually composed/worded in a way that are very hard to be understood by non-Chinese speaking people. 

Many native-English-speaking translators who can translate Chinese are educated/trained to read “Standard” mandarin language, but they may not be able to thoroughly understand those specially written “typical” Chinese text intended for native Chinese audience only. 

What is the best way to translate Chinese into English? Our suggested solution is to choose the translator according to the nature of the text content. 

(1) If the document is some sort of “typical” Chinese text composed/worded in a special way difficult for foreigners to understand, let’s have a Chinese translator to take the translation task, and then have his translation edited by a native English speaker. The first step ensures the accurate understanding of the text, and the second step makes sure the English text will be very smooth and culturally appropriate. 

(2) If the document is written in a modern/standard way (like some product specifications, technical manual, financial report, marketing brochures, etc), native English-speaking translators will be ideal enough to handle them. Maybe a Chinese translator can take the proofreading task to ensure these isn’t any mistake in understanding.