Interpreting of Figures and Times

1
Interpreting of Figures and Times

• a Some Practical Difficulties for Chinese
  Interpreters
• For an interpreter, to do a long series of
  figures in interpretation is always by no means
  easy. And for an interpreter whose mother tongue
  is Chinese, the difficulties involved seem to be
  even greater.
• Notably among the difficulties are the
  following

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• In Chinese, one tends to say ? and ? of which
  there is no equivalent in English. Hence ??
  must be rendered into 10? (ten thousand) ??
  into 30? (thirty thousand) ??? into 200?
  (two hundred thousand), etc.. And ?? must be
  rendered into 100?? (one hundred million)
  ????? into 100???300? (one hundred million
  and three hundred thousand) ?? into 1,000??
  (one thousand million, or one billion in American
  usage) and ???, 10??? (i.e. ten thousand
  million or 10 billion in American English), etc..
  
• All this may cause complication for a beginner
  or for those young interpreters who have not
  undergone sufficient training in this regard.

3

• The ways comparison is expressed in Chinese
  are, in some respects, different from those in
  English, especially when the questions of
  countable and uncountable nouns are involved,
  e.g.
• (1) Though in Chinese we say ? when we talk
  about ?????? in describing the increase in
  the number of schools, in English we shall have
  to say, for instance, There are three times as
  many middle schools now in our province as there
  were in the early post-liberation days.

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• (2) Though in Chinese we use the same word ?
  when we talk about ????, in English we shall
  have to say,
• for example, Our province produces twice as
  much grain as it did on the eve of liberation in
  1949.

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• 3) Quite a few units of measurement in Chinese
  such as li (1/2 kilometers), mu (0.66 hectare, or
  1/6 acre), jin (1/2kilogram), etc. usually
  have to be converted into the metric systems by
  the interpreter on formal occasions, so as to
  facilitate understanding. And this extra bit of
  work (concerning conversion in units of
  measurement) could be quite a strain on an
  interpreter unless he has already acquired some
  experience in the course of training and practice.

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b Some Practical Hints to Remember

• 1) Two significant points as indicated earlier,
  it is risky trying to do a long series of figure
  in interpreting without jotting them down in a
  feasible way. To ensure accuracy it is always
  helpful and reassuring to speedily jot them down
  as they are being uttered (or read) by the
  original speakers.

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• 2) In the case of C-E and E-C interpretation,
  figures do require a sufficient amount of
  training. By figures we mean, in a larger sense,
  not only a long series of figures combined with
  various units of measurements but also a long
  string of document symbols and long series of
  proper names (of persons/places).

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• (1) To lay emphasis on the speedy and accurate
  rendering of figures involving ? and ? as a
  first step.
• (2) To practice the rapid reading of 5-digit
  numbers, 8-digit numbers and, then, 10-digit
  numbers, etc. in both Chinese and English, and
  then combine them with various units of
  measurement until accuracy and fluency are
  achieved.

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3) Some possible signs used Here two possible
sets of signs or symbols are introduced.

• (1) Using comma (,) each representing one group
  of 3 naught, e.g.forty thousand, represented
  by 40, means ??six hundred thousand,
  represented by 600, means ???seven
  million, represented by 7,, means
  ???thirty million, represented by 30,,
  means ???
• (2) Imitating the system used in Roman numerals
  with each horizontal line drawn above the
  numerals representing one group of three naught.
  e.g. 59,000 ? noted as 435,000,000 ?

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• i. An easy table could be useful when you hear
  the numbers. You just fill in the form.

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• ii. If a number is bigger than a million, the
  easiest way is to use a point after the number
  of million.
• For instance, 396?, can be put in this way,
  3.96 million. Apply the same way to the
  following numbers 3,956??39.65million 3?9,650
  ??396.5million If the number is bigger than a
  billion, adopt the same way to do it.
• e.g. 129??12.9billion

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• iii. Note the following ways of uncertain
  numbers
• ?? some a few several
• ??? more than/ over a dozen
• less/no more than twenty
• ??? dozens of
• ??? Decades
• ????? well over seventy
• ????? in her/his early twenties
• ?????(????) in her/his late thirties
• ???? thousands and thousands of
• ???? hundreds of
• ???? thousands upon thousand of
• ??? hundreds of thousands of
• ?????? millions of
• ??(?) hundreds of millions of
• ?? a decade
• ??? a score/four score and seven years ago
• ???(25-30) a generation
• ??? half a century

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• iv. In Chinese we often hear or talk about
  ordinal numbers. If we interpret in English, we
  have to change the ways of asking/inquiry.
• ??????????Is this your first visit to China?
  This isnt your first visit to China, is it?How
  many times have you been in China?
• ?????????Did your team win the championship?Did
  you get/win the first place in the competition?
• ????(??)????Is this your oldest/youngest
  child/son/daughter?

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Supplementary materials (Source from LDCE)

• If the number is large, it should not be too
  exact 90-odd people but not 97-odd people.
• Age
• Hes nineish, nine or so/or thereabouts
• (about 8-10 years old). Hes ninetyish,
  nitety or so/ or thereabouts (about 88-95).
• Dates
• On the ninth of May of thereabouts / (esp.
  BrE)
• or so (between about the 8th and the 11th) in
  1890 or thereabouts / (esp. Br.E)
• or so ( between about 1888 and 1895)
• Time at nineish, nine or thereabouts / (esp.
  Br.E) or so (at 9 oclock or slightly later)

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• Money
• ?9 or so / or thereabouts,
• some ?9, a good ?9, ?9 odd (nine pounds
  oddbetween ?9 and ?10) ?90 odd (90-odd pounds
  between about ?90 and ?98)
• Gross a group of 144, 12 dozen sold in grosses
  (How many grosses (of envelope) do you want?
  (group of 144))
• Ream a measure for sheets of paper (in Britain)
  480 sheets, in US, 500 sheets.
• Teenagers ages between 12-17 years old.
• Medium term five years Short term less than
  five years Long term over five years

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????????

• ??????????,????????,????(million,
  billion???????????)???????
• ??????,?????????????????(????????)?B?b????,?M?m
  ????,?
• two billion thirty-four million
• ? 2 B 34 M??????
• ? 1 B 240 M

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v. ???

• ????,?????????????/,????????????/,?????????
  ???????????????,?????,????,??????????,?????????
  ????????1?????????????
• ? 1/3002/0858?2?????????????????? ?
  101/7489/0540

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• ???,????,???????????????(???),??????????????????
  ??????????,?????????????????????????????,??????
  ??????,??????????????11/30,02/0,858 ?130M
  20Th 8Hu 58?210,1/74,89/0,540 ?10B 174M 890Th
  5Hu 40

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• ??????????,????????????
• ???(???)?,??????billion?million?thousand???,????
  ??????
• ? thirty two billion four hundred fifty seven
  million eight hundred twenty six thousand nine
  hundred and thirty-seven ? 32,457,826,937
• ????????????,?????????????????32,4/57,82/6,937,
  ?????????????????????????
• ???????????? ????? 98/1 pp20-23

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a The Metric System Chinese Equivalent

• Length ??
• meter/m ?3?? kilometer/km ??2??
• Area ??
• sq.m ???3???? hectare/ha ??15??
  (1? 0.66ha) sq.km ????4????
  (km2)
• Weight/mass ?????
• kg ??2??
• q ??200?? MT ??2000??
• Capacity ??
• litre/l 1??

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Attention!

• ton???????????????
• ton????
• ????????? (?????,?long ton ?gross
  ton??,??2240?,???1016.06??)
• ????????? (????????????,?short ton ?net
  ton??,??2000?,???907.2??)
• ????,metric ton?tonne ???1000??
• ????tonne????????????1000??,??????????????????????
  ?tonne?

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b The British US System

• Length ??
• mile/mi ?1,609km fathom/fm ?1,829m
  yard/yd ?0.914m foot/ft ?30.48cm
  inch/in ?2.54cm
• Weight ??
• pound/lb. ?0.454kg ounce/oz.
  ??28.35g
• Capacity ??
• gallon/gal. ?? 4.5461
• Temperature ??
• Cº (Centigrade) ??(Fº-32)5/9 Fº
  (Fahrenheit) ??Cº9/532

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vi. Interpretation of times (?????)

• In scientific English the use of times is quite
  common. As for the expression of times, there are
  many differences between English and Chinese. For
  example, to increase 4 times, in Chinese it can
  be put into increase 3 times (??3?), and also
  be put into???4?. In English we can say to
  reduce 4 times but in Chinese we cannot say in
  the same way. We can say to reduce three
  quarter (??????), or to be reduced to one
  quarter.

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????????

• ?????????????????????,?????????????
• ??asas???
• ????????????asas? X times as ???(??) as
  ??(X??????)?
• ???????X????X??X??,??????????????????
  ????,???????,???(X-1)??? 10 times as large
  as, ?????(?)?10?,???9??
• On the earth everything is six times as heavy
  as on the moon.
• ???????????????6??

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• ?????than???
• ????????,????X times ???than????????????(?
  )????,?????,??????X????X??X????(X-1
  )??
• Kuwait oil wells yield nearly 500 times more
  than US wells. ??????????????????

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• ????(??that)???
• ??????X times??(??that)????????,???????X
  ????X???(X-1)???
• In the workshop the output of July was 3.5 times
  that of January. ????7??????????3.5??
• The earth is 49 times the size of the moon.In
  1980 the export value of machine tool was 8 times
  that of 1970. 1980????????1970??8??

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?????????

• ????????,??????????????,??????????????????????
  ??????????????????????,??????,?????(X-1)?,???(X
  -1)?????????????????,?????,?????X??

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• ???????????
• ?????????increase?rise?grow?raise?exceed??
• ????????????
• ??times
• ???fold??????
• by a factor of ???
• ??3?,??3 times ? three-fold(threefold),???by a
  factor of three????
• With the result of automation productivity has
  increased 6 times in that factory. ????????,?????
  ??????5??(??????6?)

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• ???????????
• ???????????double(??)?treble(??)?quadruple(??)??
  
• As the high voltage was abruptly trebled, all
  the valves burnt.???????????,???????

30
????

• ???????????,???????????,????????,????????
• ?three times??
• ????????????????????????????
• ??????????????????????????????

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?????????

• ????????????????????????????????????????????????
  ???????,????????????????,?????(?????),??????
  (?????)? By using this new process the loss of
  metal was reduced four times. ???????????????????
  ?(??????????) The principal advantage is a
  four-fold reduction in volume. ???????????????
• ? ????????????,????????????????reduce 4.5
  times, ??????()?,?????????,?????????

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?.??????????

• 1 ??????????,?????????vary with, be
  proportional to, the morethe more??????????vary
  inversely with, the morethe less???
• ????????????The prices of commodities vary with
  the quality.
• ??????,?????????If the voltage remains constant,
  the more the resistance the less the current.

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• 2 ????????????????
• ????by??,????
• ?????????,??????????????6.2?The total volume
  of state purchase in the first quarter rose by
  6.2, compared with the same period of last year.
• ?????????
• ????????????1990????12?The output of cars in
  Japan last year was 12 less than in 1990.
• ??????????
• ?????????30???The loss of metal has been
  reduced to less than 30.

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?????????

• ??????????????????????,????(trend
  language)????????????
• The area of cultivated land decreased by 7.6
  million hectares, but the yield per hectare rose
  by an average of 180 kg.
• Average annual grain supply per person grow from
  200 to 400kg, and meat from 9 to 15kg.

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???????????????????

• ??????an increase??, a rise??, a climb??, a
  jump??, a growth?? to increase??, to rise??, to
  climb??, to jump??, to grow??, to reach??, to go
  up???
• ??????a fall??, a drop??, a decline??, a
  decrease?? to fall??, to drop??, to decline??, a
  decrease??, to go down??, to bottom out?????, to
  slow down??, to decelerate???
• ????to remain (stable)??,??,??,?? to stand
  at??,??,?? to level out (off)??,???

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• ?? ??N?,??N
• ?? a N yuan increase a N percent increase
• ?? a N-fold increase/increase
• N-fold/N times
• ????????N?,??????, ??????????N-1??
• ??During the critical year of 1917 Party
  membership rose tenfold from 20,000 to 200,000.
  
• ?????1917?,??????? ?? ????,???????

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• ?? ?????????over???
• ?? A?B?N-1??A?B?N?
• ??N times ?N-fold????????????,??????????????N,??
  ???N????????N?(?five times greater,???5)?????
  ??????????????(?seven times
  smaller???7,???????)?

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Cautious!

• ????,???
• ???????????????????
• ?????????,???????
• ?,???10 thousand(??)
• ??,???????million
• ?, ???100 million(?????)
• ??,???????billion
• ???,???,?????10,???(thousand)?
• ?????????????,??830 thousand?
• ????,???,???????million?
• ???????,?????,??????,?3 million 560
  thousand?
• ???,?????100,????(million)?
• ?????????????????,??867 million
• ????,???,???????billion?
• ??????,?????10,???(billion)?