Les mal traductions que je pense et celles de bonne

The bad translation that I think and the good ones.

May be I'm just a busy body, and this is all none of my effing business. But it really an eyesore to see bad name translation in Taipei. I don't know why they don't grow and trust native speaker to choose a better name for them instead a mere sound translation from Chinese sounds and end up in crazy and irregular transliteration not found in any standard. Nuts!

I'm going to update this post regularly when I see good translation to ponder with.

巨 匠 I really love this Chinese name for a bushiban in Taipei, it looks real good in Chinese. It has two 工 on each character and 口 an 斤 on either one. It seems like the best name they have and it could translate to "Great Craftmanship" which is an auspicious meaning.

Now look at the translation on their shops in Taipei "GJUN", what the hell is this. Not even a correct transliteration in any standard out there. If it wants to simulate English phonology to sound as close to the Chinese sounds, it doesn't achieve a great success either, further, it lost the whole great meaning in 巨匠, something that really make me disgruntle. Here's what I think of a good translation for 巨匠. 巨 = 大 = Magnum (Latin) ; 匠 = 工 = Opus (Latin), I good translation will be a "Magnum Opus" or a "Masterpiece."

8/8 happy papa day,
I saw good translation today, a cafe in downtown 土城 [tu cheng] with English name - JUST CAFE, and equivalent Chinese name is 就是咖啡 [jiu shi ka fei]. No doubt! Best translation I've seen. It fits the meaning and almost the sound.

8/28 taxiing to ximen
I saw another good translation of a boutique shop near CKS memorial hall. The Chinese name of the shop is 恩雅 [en1 ya] and the English name is just Enya. Good one! good pinyin, and is an existing female name in English repertoire.

ax