The Importance of Knowing the Chinese Language

Ask most people and they will state that there is no use in learning the Chinese language. They state that if they face any problems and require access to any documents in the Mandarin or Cantonese language, they will get a translation of the same done in the English language. For this they have to get hold of a reliable translator and even then, they are totally dependent on him or her.

What if that Chinese translator does not have a good idea of the English language? Chances are that he or she might make a blunder of the translation and provide you with misleading information. This is no problem as far as classical text is concerned and you shall be able to figure out what the written text means, even if there are some mistakes in the same.

The problems will surface when you try to get translations done of technical pages and they are imperfect. There is no way that you can trace out the mistakes in the translation. This is where a basic knowledge of the Chinese language helps. The Chinese culture is centuries old and originated long before the European culture.

There are priceless documents that have been passed down from generations to generations and are written in the Mandarin or Cantonese script. In recent years doctors have been amazed to observe the vast treasure trove of medical remedies that are hidden in China. All these scrolls and documentations are in the Chinese language and in order to know about them fully, one needs to have adequate knowledge of the Chinese language.

You might get hold of a translator for doing the translation of such pages, but the results might not be foolproof all the time. Chances are that these documents might contain biological terms that they are not conversant with. Let us look at it from an English-speaking native’s point of view. He or she knows French, apart from English, but has no idea of medical science. If you request them to translate `red blood cells’, it will not be surprising if they translate the same as `red blood prison’. This translation contorts the entire meaning of the original term and keep in mind, that this is a simple example, things might get more confusing with other cases.

`Boil’ (eruptions on the skin in medical parlance) might well be translated as `stew’. Be prepared to be confused if you see a translation that goes `red stew on feet’. If you want to access the vast medical treasure trove that is available in China, the only way out is to decipher these centuries old medical treatments that are time-proved, you need to have knowledge about the language they are written in. Who knows, there might be countless solutions for the maladies we are facing today, and whose cure has not yet been discovered, in these old scrolls. It needs someone who knows both medical science and knowledge of the Chinese language, to decipher.

So you should learn the Chinese language or at least find a reliable Chinese translation .