Turning Chinese English into English English

William Pacino

reprinted from "The Nor'easter" Northern New England Chapter newsletter

The rewriting assignment came from a friend, a Chinese software developer who was involved in a side business selling Chinese audio amplifiers and speakers. This high-end audio equipment, imported from China, had an owner’s manual prepared in China and written in English.

The problem in the manual was that the Chinese English was scrambled – the most important part of the sentence was at the end, much of the document was written in the past tense, and there was an oversupply of politeness and formality. This document needed a rewrite in order to move the nouns, verbs, and adjectives around so that this document written in Chinese English sounded like English English.

This was not an easy assignment. First I had to understand what was being said via the Chinese English descriptions and I then had to rearrange the sentences in a way that did not corrupt the meaning of the delivered information.

Ten Samples

I have chosen to display ten samples from the original Chinese English document and what I did to rewrite these samples in English English.

The audience for this information is an American purchaser of high-end audio stereo equipment. The reason that this American user purchases this equipment to enhance the audio listening of recorded music via audio CDs or DVDs. Thus the document talks of a concept such as “sound image”. I could have rewritten such a phrase to “…. the listener hears”. But I choose to leave some wording that dealt with the sensory experience of listening to music, rather than reducing it to nothing but a cold hard description.

In the following twelve examples, the first selection, marked CE1 to CE10, is from the original Chinese English owner’s manual. The second selection, marked EE1 to EE10, is the rewritten English English.

CE1

Thank you for choosing the Multi-Channel Amplifier.

It was designed deliberatively and inspected strictly in order to ensure your maximum enjoyment on perfect stereo music playback and high quality home theater sound.

EE1

Thank you for choosing the Multi-Channel Amplifier.

This product has undergone careful design and thorough inspection to ensure your maximum enjoyment of perfect stereo music playback and high quality home theater sound.

CE2

As a breakthrough, the frequency band climbed up to 100kHz easily, fitting the playback of beautiful and infinite harmonic of SACD or DVD-Audio software. The more important thing to audiophile is that it is easy for them to feel the sound timbre harmony, balance and naturalness from the unit’s new design amplifier circuit.

EE2

In a breakthrough, the frequency band climbs up to 100kHz easily, fitting the playback of the beautiful and infinite harmonics of SACD or DVD-Audio software. The more important thing to audiophiles is that it is easy for to hear the sound timbre harmony, balance and naturalness from the unit’s new design amplifier circuit.

CE3

Important Safety Issue

In order to reduce risk of fire and electric shock, never expose this unit to raining/shower or high humidity environment.

Warning

In order to reduce electric shock risk, please do not remove the unit cover. There is no part for user maintenance inside the unit. Always assign the repair job to the professional.

To keep high performance for a long time, please comply with the items as below

• Before operation, please read this manual book in detail, and pay attention to these notice issues relative.
• Do not expose the unit to the straight sunshine, nor to the extreme high or low temperature.
• Do not put this unit in raining/shower or high humidity environment, nor near vase, water pail or kitchen sink, etc. If there were fluid got into the unit, this may cause severe damage.
• Avoid to put the unit on the unstable platform or height with risk of falling, nor put the unit at the place where was easy to be shaken by speakers’ sound wave. Particularly do not put the unit on the speaker cabinet.
• There will be heat created while the unit is working. For working in normal, please ensure there are good ventilation and heat release condition for the unit. The ventilation holes on the top side and bottom side of the unit are used to prevent from temperature increasing abnormally.

Never block these holes, especially never use fabric or paper to cover these holes, nor put the unit on the rugged carpet, bed or couch while the unit is working, for it will lower the effective space of the bottom side of the unit, weaken the air convection and interfere the heat release in normal. If the unit was put inside the Hi-fi component cabinet which would block the ventilation and air flow, please ensure there is space larger than 100 mm width on the top side and both sides of the unit.

EE3

Important Safety Issue

In order to reduce risk of fire and electric shock, never expose this unit to water (rain/rain shower) or a high-humidity environment.

Warning

In order to avoid the risk of electric shock, do not remove the unit cover. There are no parts for user maintenance inside the unit.

To keep this product operating at a high-performance level for a long time, follow the steps below:

• Before operation, read this manual in detail, paying attention to warnings and other notices.
• Do not expose the unit to full sunlight, nor to extreme high or extreme low temperature.
• Do not expose this unit to water or a high-humidity environment.
• Avoid putting the unit on an unstable platform or at a height with a risk of falling. Do not place the unit where is can be shaken by the speakers’ sound wave. Do not place the unit on the speaker cabinet.
• There will be heat created while the unit is working. For normal operation, ensure there is good ventilation and heat release for the unit. The ventilation holes on the top and bottom of the unit are used to prevent an abnormal increase in temperature.

Never block these holes, especially never use fabric or paper to cover these holes, nor put the unit on a thick rug or carpet, bed or couch while the unit is working. If the unit is placed inside an cabinet with other Hi-fi components which blocks the ventilation and air flow, ensure that there is an air space larger than 100 mm on the top side and both sides of the unit and the component cabinet.

CE4

The unit’s function configuration was based on the enhanced principle of “User Friendly”. In addition to the basic design fundamental of “Absolute Sound Quality”, its function, display, and signal terminal are set up in the position of end user wholly. So there is most basic operation function on the front panel, i.e. Power On/Off, Volume Control, Input Signal Selection and relative display, maximizing the comfort of operation by friendly man-machine interface.

EE4

The unit’s configuration of features is based on the enhanced principle of “User Friendliness”. In addition to the basic design fundamental of “Absolute Sound Quality”, its features, display, and signal terminals are completely controlled by the end user. The most basic operation features are on the front panel of the unit, for example, Power On/Off, Volume Control, Input Signal Selection and relative display.

CE5

Mute Button

By pressing this button to reduce the master volume of the unit by preset attenuation rate and prohibit all other operation temporarily.

EE5

Mute Button

Press this button to reduce the master volume of the unit by the preset attenuation rate and prohibit all other operation.

CE6

If you used dipolar speakers, they should be set up at two sides of the listener at a higher position. Their sound was delivered to forward and afterward direction of the room. This kind of configuration made the listener not find out the sound source position but feel to be surrounded in a diffused soundstage. The height of these speakers should be more than 60 cm higher than the listener's ears and was better if a bit higher than a standing listener for your easy wandering in the room.

EE6

If you use dipolar speakers, they should be set up, at a higher position, on both sides of the listener. Their sound is delivered to both forward and backwards into the listening space. In this type of configuration, the listener is not aware of the sound source position, and instead feels surrounded by a diffused soundstage. The height of these speakers should be more than 60 cm higher than the listener's ears and is better if adjusted for a standing listener.

CE7

If traditional speakers were employed for playback surround sound, when setting up, please do you best to let their sound diffuse at the rear of the room for simulation of dipolar speakers' diffused soundstage. Usually it is easy to obtain the best performance if putting these surround speakers at the position a bit after the listener but with similar height, so that a lot of reflection sound was produced by these speakers facing to rear wall crosswise, and reached listener position with part of direct sound at same time.

EE7

If traditional speakers are used for playback surround sound, when setting up, try to let their sound diffuse to the rear of the room for a simulation of the dipolar speakers' diffused soundstage. Usually it is easy to obtain the best performance by putting these speakers at the position behind the listener but at a similar height, so that a great amount of reflected sound is produced by these speakers facing the rear wall, as well as direct sound reaching the listener at the same time.

CE8

Every powering on, its volume would adjust to your preset level automatically. The extreme high volume had adverse effect upon your speaker system and the unit. A proper preset low volume level would protect your speakers from the impact of high volume level when powering on the unit.

EE8

Upon every powering on of the unit, its volume will adjust to your preset level automatically. Extreme high volume will have an adverse effect upon your speaker system and the unit. A proper preset low volume level will protect your speakers from the impact of a high volume level when powering on the unit.

CE9

The unit was equipped with microcomputer inside aiming at complicated function operation. But under some rare condition, signal source or static from outside may bring strong interference and cause operation wrong. If it happened like so, please turn off the unit and wait for over 5 minutes, then power on the unit again, it was expected to be recovered to working normally.

EE9

The functions of the unit are controlled via a microcomputer inside the unit. In rare instances, signal sources or static from outside the unit can interfere with the normal operation of the unit.

If this happens, turn the unit off and wait for five (5) minutes and then power on again the unit. Normal operation is expected.

CE10

We are striving for better product quality and performance continuously. The unit design or specification was subject to change without notice probably.

EE10

Unit design and specification are subject to change without notice.

William Pacino currently works as a solo technical writer in a start-up optical telecommunications company. His ideal writing situation would be an opportunity in the automated measurement and test industry where his previous work experiences with Tektronix and Analog Devices could add much value. He is a Senior member of the Northern New England STC chapter and lives in Chelmsford, MA. He can be reached at william.pacino@verizon.net.