[quote=“hannes”]is there an official translation for 統一編號?
Unified Code Number?[/quote]
I believe I’ve heard Uniform Invoice Number.
I just asked my wife about “ging” and she said it is Taiwanese for “撐”
yahoo dictionary has the following definitions:
撐
cheng
ㄔㄥ
- to prop up
- to propel with a pole
- to maintain a posture
- to hold open
- a brace
I think “3. to maintain a posture” comes close. You try very hard to achieve something but you struggle to “maintaintain the posture”. For example, you try to lift up a Hooters girl and hold her up for a minute, and then, when you start shaking with 50 seconds to go, someone says, “Bie zai ging, ah”…
Agree?
[quote=“Chris”]Here are a couple more:
全方位
烤漆
[/quote]
烤漆 – barbecued paint? 
課長 – “kacho” in Japanese; head of a section (in a company), I usually would go for ‘manager’, unless you want to make a distinction between 經理 and 課長
I think it means a baked enamel finish such as automotive paint. Am I close? 
I think it means a baked enamel finish such as automotive paint. Am I close? [/quote]
:bravo:
“baked enamel finish” or “baked enamel coating”.
That was one that dogged me for years. I knew it had to have a technical term in the US. I even called my dad and asked him to call auto body shops to find what it was, to no avail. This was back before the Internet became a widely available and effective tool for translation.
My boss at the time (Taiwanese) told me there was a special English term, and he said the people in Japan he talked to in English pronounced it “kawping”. I told him I had never heard of such a term. He probably heard a poorly pronounced “coating”. With no references other than my boss’s “kawping” and a description of the process, I settled on “heat coating”. But the (more) correct terms are above.
[quote=“hannes”][quote=“Chris”]Here are a couple more:
全方位
烤漆
[/quote]
烤漆 – barbecued paint?
課長 – “kacho” in Japanese; head of a section (in a company), I usually would go for ‘manager’, unless you want to make a distinction between 經理 and 課長[/quote]
Yes, I usually hear “section chief”. The thing is, I’ve never encountered such a term outside of Taiwan or Japan (possibly also China and Korea), and have wondered for years if there is an equivalent in the West. What are subdivisions of departments generally called in the West? I have never encountered a formal subdivision of a department; sometimes there are informal and often overlapping teams.
It isn’t in my dictionaries; I think I heard it mentioned once by someone who was repairing a vehicle. That was a while ago, which is why I wasn’t 100% positive. Just now I Googled it, and found a surprisingly interestingarticle on the history of automotive finishes. Have a look!
Here’s one for y’all:
置處長
[quote=“Chris”]Here’s one for y’all:
置處長
[/quote]
“置” means to create and fill a position within an organization, and can often simply be translated as “appoint”
處長 = “department director” or “office head” or “director/head of…office/department” or something similar (The translator will need to check the nomenclature used in the specific organization or institution, as different organizations have different English nomenclature for this term.)
so, “appoint [insert number of] department director(s)” - (I’m guessing at the context here.)
[quote=“Rotalsnart”][quote=“Chris”]Here’s one for y’all:
置處長
[/quote]
“置” means to create and fill a position within an organization, and can often simply be translated as “appoint”
處長 = “department director” or “office head” or “director/head of…office/department” or something similar (The translator will need to check the nomenclature used in the specific organization or institution, as different organizations have different English nomenclature for this term.)
so, “appoint [insert number of] department director(s)” - (I’m guessing at the context here.)[/quote]
Thanks. It makes more sense now. That definition of 置 (appoint, fill a position) was not in the dictionary. (It’s is now, though, after I added my annotation!). Plus I’d never seen it in that usage before: … 置處長、研究委員、副處長各1人
This thread is awesome. I’m learning a lot. Thanks everyone! 
Words that aren’t in the dictionary (or whose dictionary defiinitions are different from the common usage) - the bane of the translator, but also one of the things that makes translation such a challenging and rewarding undertaking!
Exactly. For example, my ABCC gives ‘wander about destitute’ for 流落 liu2luo4. (I’m trying to remember to add pinyin here, so that our fellow Forumosans who might not yet know the characters can follow along better.) But I gave an example referring to bronzes.
I ended up just using ‘scattered’ (‘were all excavated illegally, and ended up scattered abroad’.
Ok, how 'bout “wandering throughout the country”, “roaming far and wide”, or “wandering itinerant, near and far”? 
That’s assuming the context is not an 武俠 wu3xia2 novel or movie. If it is the latter, then perhaps “wandering the storybook world of martial knights-errant and villains”? :help: Yeah, that one is tough to make compact. Or “wandering the land of heroes and villains”? I think the person doing the subtitles for Crouching Tiger gave up and just transliterated it, right?
全方位 - omnidirectional; comprehensive; all-inclusive ?
課長 - office/bureau head? (from ABCC)
全方位
Another word whose translation changes depending on context. It’s a kind of a buzzword that seemed to appear suddenly about 10 years ago.
The closest I have found in English is “comprehensive”. I have also used “all-purpose”, “all-around”, “complete”, “all-inclusive”, “a complete package of…”, “a full spectrum of…”, “well-rounded”.
Another buzzword from that era was 人性化管理, which, for lack of a better term, I translated as “humanized management”. It refers to managing by treating your underlings like human beings rather than cogs in a machine. I have never found a “real” English equivalent.
I think this is called Humanistic Management
But I never took management classes; perhaps sb. who did can clarify.
I also thought of Humanistic Management back then, but I thought it sounded like it could be confused with Humanism.
[quote=“Dragonbones”]Exactly. For example, my ABCC gives ‘wander about destitute’ for 流落 liu2luo4. (I’m trying to remember to add Pinyin here, so that our fellow Forumosans who might not yet know the characters can follow along better.) But I gave an example referring to bronzes.
I ended up just using ‘scattered’ (‘were all excavated illegally, and ended up scattered abroad’.[/quote]
That’s a good translation. :bravo: I knew there was a better word (excavated) than just “dug up”, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of it at the time.
Ok, how 'bout “wandering throughout the country”, “roaming far and wide”, or “wandering itinerant, near and far”? That’s assuming the context is not an 武俠 wu3xia2 novel or movie. If it is the latter, then perhaps “wandering the storybook world of martial knights-errant and villains”? :help: Yeah, that one is tough to make compact. Or “wandering the land of heroes and villains”? I think the person doing the subtitles for Crouching Tiger gave up and just transliterated it, right?[/quote]
That’s a good one – “wandering the land of heroes and villains”, although Western readers might think just what the hell is “the land of heroes and villains”. Maybe they’ll liken it to Never Never Land with Peter Pan and Captain Hook. 
全方位
In adddition to the ones that were mentioned above, I’d like to throw in “full-service” and “turnkey”.
I want your annotated dictionaries, quite an awesome collection I suspect.
HG
I had googled Jianghu to see what others did for this translation, and actually saw Never Never Land. Check this out:
To let Western readers know what Jianghu is, a description is needed; but that description would vary in flavor depending upon whether one is explaining what Jianghu in stories is, or translating one such story which mentions Jianghu. In these two cases, I’d use something like “wandering in Jianghu, that legendary land of martial arts heroes and villains” vs. “wandering in the land of heroes and villains”.
I keep most of my annotations in just one little dictionary that I carry on me. But it’s getting quite full now. I am whiting out the obvious definitions in order to make room for more annotations! I do have three ABC’s (not ABCC) that I’d part with, though – two paperback and one nearly new hardback. Only a few added definitions in each, though. I do have a seemingly endless number of dictionaries, though… :loco: