Tuesday, September 25, 2007

关于英文翻译

老实说,我写博客,只是希望和支持我的人联系。
Frankly speaking, I blog because I want to keep in contact with my supporters.

有人说我写博客破坏自己作为一个艺人的神秘感。
Some people had said that because of my blog, I have spoiled the mysteriousness of an entertainer.

我不会理会传统的想法。
But I don't agree to such old fashioned thinking.

我的网友当中,很多受英文教育的,本来就是要写纯中文的博客,发现,太多年轻人看不懂,读不明白我的内容。
Amongst my net pals, many of them are English educated. I initially had the intention to write only in Chinese, but I realized that many youngsters just couldn't read, nor understand what I was writing.

职业病啦,我始终无法忍受那么支持我的人,来了我的地盘,又看不懂我的内容,我觉得很过意不去咯,这就是我。。。
Occupational hazard lah. Really couldn't tolerate having so many supporters coming into my territory and not being able to understand my thoughts. Just not my style and don't feel good about it lor…

发现。。。 Discovery…

现在的一些人,态度消极多了,你不欣赏我,我就不做了,这样下去,地球如何运转呢?
These days, some people tend to have very negative mentality. If you don't appreciate my works, then I have to give up. If that was the attitude, then how can the earth still spin leh?

一些网友奉劝我放弃英文翻译,很失望这样的建议。
Some net pals even advised me to give up the English translation, and I felt utterly disappointed by those suggestions.

也许你们不明白我的处境,这个就好像,一个很欣赏你的人要来和你做朋友,你因为他听不懂你,你就叫他滚蛋的道理是一样的。
Perhaps some of you don't understand my situation. Imagine telling someone who appreciates you and wants to be your friend, ask them to get lost just because he or she don't understand what you are talking about.

如果你不会叫欣赏你的人滚开,你就应该明白为什么我的博客得要有两种语文。再说,我的电影已经悄悄的走到很多国家去,包括了一些在美国求学的孩子(非新加坡人),来新加坡访问我的时候告诉我,他们认识我的电影是因为,老师在上课的时候用我的电影做教材,所以认识我,这种情况,在中国更是普遍,对于很少注意我消息的朋友,你们不妨上百度网站看看, http://www.baidu.com, 然后上去他们的" 贴吧" ,输入" 小孩不笨" ,你就可以看到,亚洲网民,大陆,香港,台湾。马来西亚等地方的孩子观赏小孩不笨之后的一些回响。
If you're not the type who would tell that person who appreciates or admires you to get lost, then you would understand why I must have 2 languages on my blog. Besides, my movies have already made to many other countries. And some students in the US (non Singaporeans), who had come to Singapore to conduct interviews with me, were telling me that they knew my movies because their teachers had used my movies as teaching materials during their lessons. And these scenarios are even more common in China. For those of you who don't follow news about me that closely, you can drop by the Baidu website to have a look, http://wwwbaidu.com and then click on "贴吧 " (Post) and type in "小孩不笨 " (I Not Stupid). From there, you'll be able to see forum feedback from audience in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia etc posting their comments and thoughts about " 小孩不笨" (I Not Stupid).

这个网站,已经有四年了,我经常上去看看,有时侯也会留言,听听各地朋友的反应作为资料参考收获不少。
This website has been around for about 4 years, and I read it frequently. Sometimes I also post some messages, and listen to feedback from people all over Asia, and I use their comments for references, to which I do gain a lot from.

老实说,做什么事,不一定每一件都近人意,不过既然博客是一个属于自己的园地,只要我的出发点不是在损人害人,我还是会继续坚持下去的,不懂华语的朋友别担心,我不讳抛弃你们的!风再刮,雨再大,有我在你不用怕!
Honestly speaking, we can never please everyone in anything that we do. But since the blog is my own playground, and as long as my intentions are harmless, I will still hold my ground and blog. For those of you who can't read or understand Chinese, don't worry, I won't abandon you guys! No matter how strong the wind blows and how big the rain is, with me around, no sweat!

翻译的问题,各位不要太苛刻啦,其实是我要求翻译的风格接近原文的风格,我不希望,中文的很滑稽,英文的很正统,风格十万八千里,搞得不三不四,到时大家还是有话讲。
With regards to the translation, pls don't be so harsh lah. Actually, I have requested my translator to translate as closely as possible to what I have originally written. Because if the Chinese version was comical and the English version is so proper, then the entire style would have been miles apart, and would not fit in at all. And with that, people will start having other opinions about the translations again.

最后,针对我称呼成龙为 " 老人家" 的争执,让我来解说一下。
Lastly, let me clarify the dispute on " 老人家" old man.

称呼一个人老人家,其实在一定程度上是尊敬他的,在这里造个句子给大家参考比较:爷爷带着孙子散步,他老人家就是喜欢运动,锻炼身体。请各位成龙的支持者详看一下,梁导是那里不尊敬他?如果我形容成龙为:这老头子、老家伙。。。这,就是不尊敬他了,明白吗?
Addressing someone as an 老人家(lao ren jia )in chinese, to a certain extent, is not exactly being disrespectful. I'll give you an example: Grandfather brought his grandson out for a walk. The "lao ren jia" just likes to go for an exercise, to keep fit. Would all Jackie Chan fans pls read it in detail, and tell see if I have been disrespectful to him? If I had described Jackie Chan as " 这老头子 " "the old fogey" or "老家伙 " "old goat"… Then I'm really being disrespectful, get it?

还半信半疑吗?可以试试看问问华文老师,如果是因为英文的直接翻译惹祸也请大家原谅,因为" 老人家" 的英文翻译还有更贴切的吗?有的话,我一定取代现有的old man 。
Still don't believe ah? you can ask the Chinese language teacher. If it's because of the English translated term ,can any one tell me, what would be a more appropriate or the closer term for " 老人家 " ? If there's really a better or correct term for it, I'll replace it without any hesitating .

真的是。。。。伤脑筋哦!!! Aiyoh, really headache leh!!!

呼呼呼。。。。 (Liang Po Po panting away again…)

38 comments:

Princess Carol said...

Hahaha... Didn't know Liang Po Po blogging today... 呼呼呼。。。

莓果水晶 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

i applaud yr article man. a bit long and tedious to read lah, next time yr english version must come out faster lah.

but indeed, i think it's good that u bother to have 2 versions. and good job to the translator lah. if it's the same pretty one that did the 1st translations for you, hehehe...

Marcus XA said...

Hi Mr Neo, you are right about how u address Mr Jackie Chan. I'm truly supportive of you translating Chinese to English in your blog. That's what we have to do here in Singapore. As English is so widely used here, we don't have much opportunity to read in Chinese. We do speak alot of Mandarin, but when it comes ot reading Chinese, many will fail! Just take a look at our computers, everything is in English(even though we can change everything to Chinese), i dare say 90% of the software in the market are in English. It's just so difficult to get Chinese software!(Well, I know cos' i'm always on the lookout for Chinese software!) Furthermore, look at the amount of English books, magazines and newspaper, signboards, etc....here in Spore.

We can have pure Chinese medium, yes, we shouldn't mix them together. But sometimes, it is necessarily to mix the 2 together so that the mass can understand. This is the way Spore is, we can't change it. There's always a need to be bilingual. Of coz unless you are talking about Taiwan, Hong Kong or China. It's sad to know many youngster see themselves learning Chinese just for the economic value, and even sadder when our government confirmed that. Many still don't see the need to master Chinese well cos' they are beginning to see themselves more as Singaporean Singaporean and not Singaporean Chinese.

Alright, i'm getting long-winded... hopefully, i make sense to u...

Anonymous said...

what's wrong with the translation? don't stop the translation! English pls... ENGLISH!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Good thing you are not as narrow minded as those who criticized your blog.

Germaine said...

it's alright to do translations..
cuz if it;s onli chinese..
some of ur supporters may nt understand and will feel left out..
so continue to have eng translations!!

:)

Anonymous said...

pls lah, 老人家 is old man, old man is 老人家。no need to change.

Anonymous said...

eh upstairs anthony, how u know it's a pretty one who did the translations. maybe this time is fat fat one leh, hahaha, newspaper report director neo like the fat fat ying ying leh. hahaha

莓果水晶 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hi hi,

I wonder if anyone has advice you to have 2 blogs, one in Chinese and one in English.

Anonymous said...

actually, it's quite amazing that you can have english and chinese at the same time. not many blogs i know of have it like that.
but already writing in chinese can be so tedious, imagine trying to translate it into english also. besides, like marcus xa sayss, not many singaporeans can read and write in both english and chinese at the same time. so what if we are taught both lanuguages in school. everyone has only enough brains for being able to competently handle 1 lanuguage at a time. (hahaha, maybe yr translator got 2 brains!)
anyway, the jackie chan old man, nothing wrong lah. i call my father old man too, but i don't find it disrepectful at all. so don't bother abt it. he's old, he's a man...

Unknown said...

hello, i've been reading ur blog but haven't been dropping any comments. I really admire u, so talented n humourous. keep it up! also, there're million kinds of ppl out there, u can't fulfil everyone's wants, so just be urself, we, ur admirers will always be there supporting u! =)

Anonymous said...

upstair anonymous who say upstair anthony, jack neo where got so poor taste one. hahaha, and anthony, who is the same pretty one doing translation, and how u noe ah, haha, i kaypoh.

but write english good la. yr chinese so cheem, u use all the chen yu i dun understand leh. at least english easy to read oso.

Anonymous said...

梁导啊梁导,你本来就写中文写的好好的,干嘛没事学写英文,就算有翻那又真么样,结果还是如你说的,人家意见多多。算了吧,写回中文吧。

Anonymous said...

boi hiaw kin lah...yong sim dio ho...(不要紧啦。。用心就好。。)

Anonymous said...

wah lau, what's wring with translation? ppl here doing a good job, readers happy, author happy, then so be it lah. those not happy dun read the english part lah, just read the chinese part lah. and the translator prett or fat, what has it got to do with u guys man? and dun insult fat ppl ok.

夏娃 said...

有些题外的意见想发表
881很好看,一部很不错的电影
不懂要去哪里说这些话,所以跑来你这里说,呵呵

Anonymous said...

梁导说得对.你必须有双语,才能与大众沟通.而且,现在的年轻人虽然在学校学中,英两语,但并不代表他们能对双语有完全的理解能力.写了中文版,再附上英文翻译,可以达到教育那些有兴趣学习的网友门...

我觉得你应该继续用双语写下去.你让我非常尊敬,我也对你的翻译非常佩服.希望你们两位都会继续加油,写出更多精彩的故事.

谢谢!

小玲

Anonymous said...

keep english up~! i cant read chinese, english keep me coming back. tks!

Anonymous said...

wow, director neo, me first time come yr blog. u write so many things here. so happy that u share yr stories wif us.

and so good u can have chinese and english blog too. my english not that good but my chinese more worse hahahaha.

i oso read yr last time blog, u say someone translate to english for u one. so happy that got ppl can help u lo. hehehe. i hope to learn my english better, so next time oso can help u do the translation. lol.

Anonymous said...

I have been very impressed with you blog and it keeps me coming back for more. Keep up the good job! Maintain both languages, please! I believe u have a lot of supporters who are more english educated as well. I am one of them :p

Anonymous said...

夏娃小姐,请不要在梁导的部落格写881的东西。请尊重一下梁导。现在讨论的话题是梁导的部落格英文翻译。

瀅錦 said...

梁导,看来你真的动了‘真气’,哈哈。基本上,部落格是你的,你要怎样,也无需向大众交待。开个部落格,什么都不写的人大有人在。你刚好相反,尽量让有兴趣看的人都看得懂。这反映出你的部落格是尽量user-friendly(这个字眼,中文该怎么表达)的。

好啦,不要生气了。解释了,还是会有人讲的,这个就是网络世界。要懂得过滤哪些是“垃圾”,哪些是好料:P

hock said...

cheers!

Michelle Chong said...

I think is a good idea to translate Chinese to English, because I myself have difficulties in read Chinese wordings..

At least people who don't understand Chinese, don't feel left out..

Pls do translate!! =)

Anonymous said...

梁导你好,这是我第一次来到你的网站。觉得很精彩。很期待你的阿窿电影。你的广州之旅,也让我读到捧腹大笑。而针对中英双语的部落格,我觉得是很好,很突破的一个做法。这样才能让世界各地人朋友认识到你。其实,我的英文程度也不是很好,但是,读了你的英文翻译,我觉得很容易了解,最重要的是,有带着你原有的幽默。如,把“老头子”翻译成 “old fogey” 和 “老家伙” 翻译成 “old goat”。。。真的是笑翻了。。。 希望你可以继续用双语写部落格,让我们都有机会学习。 谢谢。。。

晴字。

Anonymous said...

i miss liang po po show... althg that time when it is show on movie, i was still young...

Anonymous said...

呼呼呼呼。。。呼呼呼呼。。。

Eric Hong said...

i can both english and chinese but i think u put the english one better.......i like reading the english ones......^^

Anonymous said...

hi director neo. i'm interested to know if u need another translator to help you. in my opinion, i think yr current translator is quite sub-standard. he or she don't seem to know how to do a good job with the translation. how can he or she call jackie chan old man? this is ridiculous!

Anonymous said...

DEAR梁導演~Don't Worry!別擔心!雖然我看不太懂Singapore English~但是華文我會啦!哈!當然我也不能私心的希望你只寫中文摟!廣大喜歡與支持你的朋友遍及各地嘛!哈!

Anonymous said...

支持梁導!很喜歡看你的電影。
感覺新加坡年輕華人不會閲讀中文比較可惜;馬來西亞華人看三種語文都很純屬,而且一般會講五六種語言,爲什麽新加坡人做不到呢?
我認爲還是教育制度的問題

tsenghuat said...

Jack,take it easy.There are always someone who will find fault on you.We got eyes to see.

tsenghuat said...

Jack,take it easy.There are always someone who will find fault on you.We got eyes to see.

Anonymous said...

哗!这次你真的写得好长哦!一口气说完很舒服吧!

对于一些看不懂中文的网友来说,付有英文书写会比较好,虽然不是很正统,但很原味。

关于那些喜欢在别人部落格批评人的人,就别管他了,每个网站都会有这种人的存在,或许这些人本来就有种“破坏公物”的心里。。。

Anonymous said...

^^ Just continued to blog lah..
Be it in Chinese or English or both

:) your readers ll read it no matter what..

cheers
jojo

footiam said...

If you can write in two languages, why not flaunt it? I wish I can do that in my blog too. Besides,readers can always choose to read in the language they are comfortable with. They can always choose to skip, skip and skip the part written in a language that they dislike.I use a translator in my blog; you just have to click 'Chinese' and all the English words disapear and you get to read in Chinese. But then, the personal touch is all lost and you are not even sure if the translation is 100 per cent accurate. Go on blogging in two languages man!