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Chinese to English - Rates: 0.05 - 0.08 USD per character / 20 - 40 USD per hour English to Chinese - Rates: 0.05 - 0.08 USD per word / 20 - 40 USD per hour
English to Chinese: A Visit to the Doctor——By Valerie Sartor
Source text - English Three pretty young nurses in pink uniforms fluttered around me, cooing softly as they hooked up yet another IV transfusion into my left arm. For the last three days, I had faithfully shown up and sat in a chair next to a dozen other people. Many eyed me curiously. Chinese public medical treatment at first unnerved me but soon I lost my reserve and found myself cheerfully chatting with other suffers. Privacy in Chinese hospitals is unknown; illness and bodily functions are simply accepted. My repeated visits to the local hospital not only removed some nasty tummy parasites but also exposed me to vast cultural differences between China and the West regarding medical care.
Foreigners often feel uneasy about Chinese medical practices. In Western–style hospitals here they prefer to give IV transfusions over injections, shots, pills and powders. And before treatment patients purchase both medication and paraphernalia: needles, tubes, and tape. Medicine is extremely cheap by Western standard. Many Western prescription-only pharmaceutical drugs can be cheaply bought over the counter. (Many Western pharmaceutical firms manufacture their drugs here.) Medical care is even cheaper—my local hospital in Inner Mongolia charges only 5 yuan to consult a doctor. Patients choose doctors by looking at a wall in the entranceway where physicians’ pictures and bios are displayed in color next to a schedule board listing their hours.
Medical patients keep their own medical records in the form of a booklet issued by the hospital after you registering to see a doctor. Sitting in a crowded, grimy waiting room with many other people, I waited and watched as my chosen physician examined others and prescribed treatment. Thirty-five minutes later a hefty nurse gestured to me so I scrambled past the crowd and sat in a wooden chair, knee to knee across from the doctor.
“Problem?” he queried.
“Terrible stomach pains and the constant runs,” I replied.
“Bad smell?” he asked, not looking at me.
Shamefaced, I nodded. Instantly he knew that I had contracted giardia; no sample was needed. I handed him my book; he wrote his analysis, signed it and handed it back, along with a prescription.
“Next,” he sighed.
It was my responsibility to buy all the necessary drugs, either from the in-house pharmacy or outside, and bring them back every day of treatment.
Chinese patients pay up front before receiving services, which include consultation, drugs, and overnight stays. Credit cards and deferred time payments are rare. Each service and/or product is itemized and patients are free to choose or reject options and prices. Personally, I felt that the antibiotic treatment offered to me was too intensive. I opted to receive treatment for five days rather than seven. It was entirely my own decision.
In China patients simply show up at the hospital or clinic. No preset appointment is necessary, except for surgical procedures. Furthermore, nurses and even doctors often do multitask and seem much more flexible than Western medical personnel.
Translation - Chinese 三个身穿粉红色制服,年轻又漂亮的护士在我身旁忙来忙去,一边给我左臂吊上又一包静脉输液,一边嘴里嘀咕着什么。过去三天我都老老实实地来到这里,并坐在一张椅子上,旁边还有其他十几个病人。许多人好奇地盯着我看。起初中国的公共医疗使我紧张不安,但很快我就不再拘谨审慎,并且与其他病人兴致勃勃地闲聊起来。中国医院里根本没有隐私可言;疾病与身体机能活动都不算隐私。我多次去当地医院看病不但除掉了肚子里几条讨厌的寄生虫,而且让我感受到中西方在医疗保健方面的巨大文化差异。
Translation - English We tend to think branding originated from Western advertising industry; however, the earliest “brands” can be traced far back to the early Chinese and Egyptian civilizations. Potteries made several thousand years ago in China have symbols or marks left behind by pottery craftsmen; the livestock pictured on ancient Egyptian murals also have markings stamped on them. These designs could be the first “brands” in history.
With the passage of time, now the Americans have the “Cadillac” brand, the Japanese “Toyota”, and the Germans “Mercedes-Benz”; they are all proud of these famous quality brands they can call their own. China’s national brands paled when compared to world-class brands – an undeniable fact and a reality we have to face. Brand globalization converts international competition into a domestic one in which foreign brands keep attacking China’s domestic market. Under such circumstances, one question we must answer is: “How can Chinese brands meet foreign competition head-on?”
Many Chinese companies think of nothing but getting their products onto the international market and targeting only at big cities. This approach appears to be very impressive, but it is actually quite foolish. We must realize that, China, with a population of 1.3 billion or about 20% of the entire world’s population, has already become the largest developing market in the world, with its consumption expenditure increasing faster than any developed country’s. It is China’s home market, especially its rural market that has about 900 million people, that provides genuine opportunities for national brands to grow. This is why many strong foreign brands, while trying to penetrate China’s home market, are making every attempt to focus their strategies around its rural market.
Product quality is the lifeblood of a good brand; consumers’ preferred choice invariably is good quality product. The inconsistent quality of products manufactured by Chinese companies does little to inspire confidence in the Chinese people, thereby severely affecting the efforts to build their brands. Therefore, for a national brand aiming to compete against foreign brands, it is imperative to improve the quality of its products. Enterprises must clearly understand that a faulty product, even if only 1% of it is defective, means 100% loss to its buyer. Only by creating products that are superior in quality to those of foreign brands can national brands successfully withstand all competition.
Chinese to English: 标准普尔与中信证券:推出全新的中国A股市场指数
Source text - Chinese 在2003年12月15日,标准普尔与中信证券联合宣布推出中国A股市场指数。近期中国A股市场向合格境外机构投资者开放,在国际投资界引起了广泛的回响。中国A股市场全面对外资开放,在短期至长期而言,均将对全球的投资模式带来深远的影响。目前,重要的是为中国市场制订综合全面的基准指数。现在采用的指数并未能反映市场整体的表现,而且计算方法设有严格的限制。
Translation - English On 15 December 2003, Standard & Poor (S&P) and China's CITIC Securities jointly announced the launch of indices covering China's A-share stock market. The recent opening up of China's A-share stock market to foreign qualified institutional investors had aroused extensive reverberations among international investors. In the short or long term, the fully opening up of China’s A-share stock market to foreign capital will bring far-reaching effects on investment patterns globally. Presently, it is important to develop a comprehensive benchmark index for China’s market. The indices currently being used are unable to reflect overall market performance; moreover there are strict restraints in their calculation methodology.
S&P and CITIC Securities are committed to create two new series of indices. One of the series is mainly intended for the use of investment portfolio managers, and falls into the category of benchmark indices that reflect overall market performance. With its constituents selected from the largest and most liquid stocks in the benchmark index series, the other series’ coverage is relatively narrower, and is more useful for tracking the performance of derivatives markets.
Discussion Topics
This meeting will focus on discussing the scope and constituents of the indices.
Topic One: Based on trading value, the proposed 50-stock index covers about 33% of the total China’s A-share market value, and accounts for about 25% of the overall market liquidity.
a. Can the 50-stock index reflect the liquidity and volatility of China’s A-share market?
b. What is the number of stocks do foreign qualified institutional investors generally prefer to invest in? Will this number increase or remain the same in the future?
c. Is the maintenance of a sector balance important for those indices designed for derivatives transactions? Or should the focus be solely on the companies’ market capitalization and liquidity?
d. How important is free-floating in China?
Topic Two: Based on total trading value, the proposed 300-stock benchmark index covers more than 60% of the total China’s A-share market value, and accounts for about 55% of the overall market liquidity.
a. Does the benchmark index with coverage of 60% of total market value and more than 50% of liquidity give a good representation of China’s A-stock market?
b. Is the 300-stock index easily replicated in China’s stock market?
c. Given that the China stock market is rapidly changing and relatively unstable, will the turnover rate of the 300-stock index reach unacceptably high levels?
Topic Three: In the past two years, many large companies in China actively raised capital by floating theirs share as well as got themselves public-listed. It is anticipated that in the next 12 to 18 months, the initial public offering market will be very active.
a. What is the earliest time that newly listed companies can be included in the index?
b. Should any conditions be set on the companies’ market capitalization in order to restrict the number of eligible newly listed companies to be included in the index? (For instance, the market capitalization of the newly listed company must at least be 10% of the index value or rank in the top five of the index, or other limiting conditions?)
English to Chinese: 'Asian Brown Cloud' poses global threat
Source text - English A dense blanket of pollution, dubbed the "Asian Brown Cloud," is hovering over South Asia. In the biggest-ever study of the phenomenon, 200 scientists warned that the cloud, estimated to be three kilometers thick, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year from respiratory disease. By slashing the sunlight that reaches the ground by 10 to 15 percent, the choking smog has also altered the region's climate, cooling the ground while heating the atmosphere. The potent haze lying over the entire Indian subcontinent -- from Sri Lanka to Afghanistan -- has led to some erratic weather, sparking flooding in Bangladesh, Nepal and northeastern India, but drought in Pakistan and northwestern India.
Using data from ships, planes and satellites to study Asia's haze during the northern winter months of 1995 to 2000, scientists discovered not only that the smog cut sunlight, heating the atmosphere, but also that it created acid rain, a serious threat to crops and trees, as well as contaminating oceans and hurting agriculture. The pollution could be cutting India's winter rice harvest by as much as 10 percent. The cloud could cut rainfall over northwest Pakistan, Afghanistan, western China and western central Asia by up to 40 percent.
Translation - Chinese 亚洲南部的上空正笼罩着又浓又厚、污浊不堪的云层,它被称作"亚洲褐云"。在这项到目前为止规模最大的研究中,200名科学家提出警告,说这层据估计厚达三公里的“亚洲褐云”,正是导致每年几十万人死于呼吸道疾病的罪魁祸首。这层令人窒息的烟雾遮挡住了10%到15%射及地面的阳光,并且业已改变了亚洲南部地区的气候,使得地面温度下降,同时也使得大气层温度升高。这一大片黑压压、暗沉 沉的烟雾笼罩了整个印度次大陆——从斯里兰卡到阿富汗——导致了那里不时气候反常,在孟加拉、尼泊尔和印度东北部引起泛滥洪水,却在巴基斯坦和印度西北部造成严重旱灾。
Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Linguists, UK.
Professional Certifications
2007: Diploma in Translation - Chartered Institute of Linguists, United Kingdom.
2004: SAP Certified Solution Consultant - SCM Procurement (MM).
2003: Certified in Production and Inventory Control Management (CPIM) -- APICS The Association for Operations Management, U.S.A.
Education
2006: Specialist Diploma in Translation (Nanjing University, China)
1994: Masters of Business (IT) (RMIT University, Australia)
1990: Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (Singapore Institute of
Management)
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