Sissy 中级口译数字口译(1)

A Brief Introduction
A. Some Practical Difficulties for Chinese Interpreters For an interpreter, to do a long series of figures in interpretation is always by no means easy. And for an interpreter whose mother tongue is Chinese, the difficulties involved seem to be even greater. Notably among the difficulties are the following:
1) In Chinese, one tends to say “万”
and “亿” of which there is no equivalent in English. Hence “一万” must be rendered into “10千” (ten thousand); “三万” into “30千” (thirty thousand); “二十万” into “200千” (two hundred thousand), etc.. And “一亿” must be rendered into “100百万” (one hundred million); “一亿三十万” into “100百万零300千” (one hundred million and three hundred thousand);
One thousand Ten thousand One hundred thousand One million Ten million One hundred million One billion Ten billion One hundred billion One trillion
一百
一千 一万 (首位*10) thousand 十万 (首位*10) thousand 一百万 一千万 (首位*10) million 一亿 (首位*100) million 十亿 (首位/10) billion 一百亿 (首位/10) billion 一千亿 (首位/10) billion 一兆（万亿）
(1) To lay emphasis on the speedy and accurate rendering of figures involving “万” and “亿” as a first step. (2) To practice the rapid reading of 5-digit numbers, 8-digit numbers and, then, 10digit numbers, etc. in both Chinese and English, and then combine them with various “units of measurement” until accuracy and fluency are achieved.
b. In the case of C-E and E-C interpretation, figures do require a sufficient amount of training. By figures we mean, in a larger sense, not only a long series of figures combined with various units of measurements but also a long string of document symbols and long series of proper names (of persons/places).
阿拉伯数字 1 10 One Ten
英语 一 十
汉语
100
1，000 10，000 100，000 1，000，000 10，000，000 100，000，000 1，000，000，000 10，000，000，000 100，000，000，000 1，000，000，000，000
One hundred
(2). An easy table could be useful when you hear the numbers. You just fill in the form.
万亿 千 百 十 亿 千 百万 十 万 千 百 十 个 Thou (兆) 亿 亿 亿 万 Milli 万 Billi Trilli
Lecture 11 Interpretation Skill: Figure Interpretation (1)
Teaching Procedures
I. Dictation II. Interpreting Figures
Interpreting of Figures I
万 千 百 十 亿 千 百 十 万 千 百十 个 Thou 万万 万 亿 亿亿亿 Billi Milli (兆) Trilli
3) Quite a few units of measurement in Chinese —— such as li (1/2 kilometers), mu (0.66 hectare, or 1/6 acre), jin (1/2kilogram), etc. —— usually have to be converted into the metric systems by the interpreter on formal occasions, so as to facilitate understanding. And this extra bit of work (concerning conversion in units of measurement) could be quite a strain on an interpreter unless he has already acquired some experience in the course of training and practice.
B. Some Practical Hints to Remember
1) Two significant points: a. as indicated earlier, it is risky trying to do a long series of figure in interpreting without jotting them down in a feasible way. To ensure accuracy it is always helpful and reassuring to speedily jot them down as they are being uttered (or read) by the origarison is expressed in Chinese are, in some respects, different from those in English, especially when the questions of countable and uncountable nouns are involved, e.g. (1) Though in Chinese we say “倍” when we talk about “学校为……的三倍” in describing the increase in the number of schools, in English we shall have to say, for instance, “There are three times as many middle schools now in our province as there were in the early post-liberation days.”
“十亿” into “1,000百万” (one thousand million, or one billion); and “一百亿”, “10千百万” (i.e. ten thousand million or 10 billion ), etc.. All this may cause complication for a beginner or for those young interpreters who have not undergone sufficient training in this regard.
3) Some possible signs used:
(1) Using comma (,) each representing one group of 3 naught, e.g. “forty thousand”, represented by “40,” means “四万”; “six hundred thousand”, represented by “600,” means “六十万” “seven million”, represented by “7,,” means “七百万” “thirty million”, represented by “30,,” means “三千万”
一兆两千三百四十五亿六千七百八十九万一千二百三十四
请用英语和汉语分别译出所述数字 12亿9988万； 542 million 830 thousand
1 billion 299million 880thousand; 542,830,000
汉语数字分段法：
第一段位 第二段位 第三段位 第四段位
个 万 亿 兆（万亿）
examples
1. 请用英语和汉语分别表达下面一组数字：
1234567891234
One trillion two hundred and thirty-four billion five hundred and sixty-seven million eight hundred and ninety-one thousand two hundred and thirty-four