differences - 翻譯

a difference that makes no difference is not a difference, and i think this is
very important comes to translation: how to reconcile the differences of
languages and culture.

for example, i have found it difficult for students in taiwan to say the word
"make" (meiiik). then i realized that to people here "mei4 mei4" and "me4 me4"
are both understood well as 妹妹, so there is no urgency to complete the
pronunciation -- an efficient way to communicate. however, "bake" and "beck"
are different in english, and after the first time someone asks "can or cannot"
a person will remember to spit out that T in "can't" the next time.

on the other hand, emphasizing on things that do not make a difference in
translation would actually confuse readers. this has been pointed out for
ages: the 歐化 of chinese language makes chinese difficult to understand.
i am an editor of an internation journal and i review papers for several other
journals as well. it is very easy to spot papers from taiwan. there is an
insistence of including lots of non-essential information, especially in the
literature review section but in other sections as well, just to cover
every ground and make paper longer. unfortunately, authors' doing so
invariably obscures the main points the paper tries to convey. typically a
25-page paper of this kind can be reduced to 10-15 and the abbreviated paper
will be much easier to read.

as i have mentioned in my earlier posts, in the US there are [almost] complete
freedom (academic freedom) in what to cover and how to deliver in classes, so
we pay much less attention to what the class' names are -- that is one
difference that makes little difference to us -- just so all teachers may
contribute their diverse expertise to students without having to go through
the curriculum committees. so, it may be more important to spell out details
of what the class may cover than to come up with a fool-proof english name
that is hard to understand and remember.

my apology for writing in english here, but chinese data input is not my forte.

as a side-bar, even though i do not intent to hide my identity (google
"lifegetter" and you can find out lots about me, as lucifer2 has done),
because i do not want to force my views upon you solely base on my
credentials -- it is not healthy for academic creativity -- i do appreciate
that the common courtesy of internet anonymity be observed.

Thanks, and it has been a pleasure.

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