Quality of Lessons

Some of your translations are very imprecise and even incorrect. When we are learning a language, the translations should be as accurate as possible. I know it is not always possible or meaningful to use literal translations, but sometimes, your translations are not only not literal, the message is way off. Do you have any plans for improving this? Because of the poor quality of the translations, I have to waste a lot of time trying to figure out what is being said.

Your comment has no validity or argument unless you have something to back up your words. Which apparently, is not the case.

I am accurate but I like Rocket Chinese. I am not trying to argue because you obviously have not studied or you would know what I am talking about. I am not trying to debate with anyone. I am, as a serious student of the chinese language, trying to make a valid suggestion. Now, if you study well, you will know what I mean. If not, then you are merely a child trying to sound intelligent, but you really don't know what I am talking about.

你好monte, We are constantly improving and refining our courses so that they meet the needs of members. It is often difficult to provide perfect translations for many Chinese words. This is because often the context changes the meaning of the word and taking the word out and providing a translation will often yield a different translation to that which you would find when translating a whole sentence. Unfortunately translation can never be literal because a) meaning is actually lost and b) no two languages match up word for word. I n saying this however, we are on the look out and if you have any specific examples please don't hesitate to let us know and we will look into it. 谢谢了 - Lin Ping

Lin, I will give you some examples. In lesson 13.1, Tao says, Wǒ juédìng yào xiàng tā biǎobái. This means he is going to confess his feelings to her. Your translation says, I've decided to pop the question. " In lesson 13.3, Tao says, Nǐ néng lái cān jiā wǒde hūnlǐ, wǒ hěn gāoxìng. A good translation for this would be, I am so happy you could come to my wedding." but your translation is, "I'm glad you could make it." This is only a rough translation. In lesson 16.1, Tal says, "Shì wǒ zài Běijīng kàndào de yíge hěnbàng de juéshì yuèduì." Your translation refers to this band as an "indie" band. It is a jazz band. These are only a few examples . The translator seems to try to be creative and cool in her translations, but accuracy would be better.

I would actually recommend moving away from using English translations entirely, and instead just try to develop a feel for the words how they are used in Chinese, and their different subtleties. As Lin said, there are many ways to translate the same thing, and they all could convey similar meanings. So no matter how you spin it, relying on English should only be a last resort for a dedicated student such as yourself. English of course must be used to learn, but I would just limit its use to learning a new Chinese word which you didn't know before, and then learn the usage of its Chinese counterpart by its feeling when you use it in a conversation.

Well, Oggie, It depends on what your level is. If anyone trying to teach an English speaking person to speak Chinese, without providing English translations, had a website that depended on paying customers, and the customers did not know what was being said, the company would go bankrupt. This might work in total immersion, but it would take a long time to learn. When you are trying to learn a language, it is very simple. You need to comprehend what is being said and you need to try to learn as much as possible, the exact meaning of each word. And then you practice, practice and practice. And it will slowly but surely come to you. The teachers and translators should not try to find "cool" ways to say things. They should try to be as accurate and precise as possible.

The learner's level is a very important factor, I agree. Also, I feel this sort of hits on a literal vs idiomatic translation. At a beginner's level, I would hope that the translation material is quite straight-forward to avoid confusion, and that idiomatic material be avoided as much as is reasonable. But especially as you get to a higher level, or encounter more cultural things, it becomes quite difficult to translate. For example 草泥马？I guess we could call it a grass mud horse, or perhaps just an Alpaca? Hard to say. This is a silly example, and maybe you just study Chinese for business so you aren't interested in these kinds of things like 草泥马、汪星人，etc. In addition, we must consider the English spoken in different countries. I wouldn't say something exactly like a British person (I have forgotten the specifics of what British entitles - sorry Howard), and vice versa. Rocket Chinese is based in New Zealand, so I'm sure some sayings might be different there, and the translators may be used to hearing that English dialect. Iagree with you that things should be accurate to help us learn faster, its just that sometimes it is hard, or more appropriate to use idiomatic phrasings. In the meantime, I still recommend my idea to try focusing on the Chinese + the characters as a way to further your Chinese study~.

你好monte, 真不好意思这么晚才答复。I am sorry it has taken so long to reply. We have tried to stay clear of direct translations in our text because can lose the meaning/feeling of the sentence. The examples above don't have the same feeling and the nuances are different when we translate them literally. We are trying to be as accurate as possible in our translation of the overall meaning. If we translated the sentences as you would indicated and then translated them back into Mandarin, then we would most likely come out with something verging on mid to classical Chinese. We understand that at times this can be difficult but we feel that it gives students a better acquisition of the language and comprehension of exactly when and where to use certain phrases. Of course everybody has their preferred style of learning and we have also tried to create a course that caters to everybody. We are sorry that have found this part of our course unsatisfactory. Oggiedoggy 谢谢您的支持！没有您的投入我们怎么办？:)

Some of your translations are errors. Plain and simple. There are many errors and apparently your company never likes to admit errors. You pretend you are helping us but really, you are just making errors and then making excuses for your errors. You have a good voice for teaching, but you, or whoever does your translations makes numerous errors.

Hi everyone This is something I touched on a long time ago! Please stop trying to be cool and with-it. Just present the translation as could be looked up in a dictionary. I don't go with this "just feel the chinese nonsense" I want to be able to use words learnt in other situations and therefore need to know the English correctly. I stopped using another Learning on-line method becasue the English was so wrapped up in Idiomatic American to render them almost laughable e,g. calling your doctor "Hi Dude". I have lived in Asia almost 20 years and try never to use idiomatic English (since I am from the North West of England and 60 yeard old, so my idioms would fall on deaf ears). However by not using idioms, my English has never been misunderstood! I am an engineering manager so communication is vital! Actually Lin Ping states that it would come out as "classical Chinese" well that would be more understood than "Hey Dude...." I have re-written most of the part 2 lessons since Lisa makes such a hash of the translations Take for example the english translations done for the Chinese Drama Bu Bu Jing Xin 步步惊心 perfect example how to match emotion and translation without recourse to idioms I agree entirely with Monte J! Howard

Hi Howard and Monte J, Thanks for your feedback on the course. I'm sorry to hear that you aren't happy with the translations. We do understand that our style of translating and learning is not suitable for everyone which is why we offer the 60 day money back guarantee. I have passed on your comments to the Development team for their consideration when making improvements to the course. If you do prefer to have the literal translation of characters, I would recommend using My Vocab to save the meaning/s. This way you won't lose the meaning in context but will still have the literal meaning when you mouse over the character/s. Thank you again for your feedback and all the best for your Chinese! - The Rocket Languages Team

I would love to hear the unpublished version of the comments from the development team !! Maybe these guys (Monte J and Howard) are from another Planet? It is almost impossible to translate English into English let alone Chinese,and in such a way that pleases everyone. Perhaps they should have private lessonsfrom a Master of Literature at Beijing University?

I don't hold with sarcastic comments, as I said I am from the North West of England (Please read my comment) and I can translate Scouse, Manc, Geordie, Oz, Cockney etc into standard English, Did you understand my comment about calling a doctor "Hey Dude" is that standard English? however "Good afternoon Doctor " certainly is. Don't mix fashion with quality. I am astounded that you say you can't translate English into Chinese. I don't understand why I should need a private lesson etc. What's your point? Howard

Well said, Howard. There is one good site for a good English Chinese dictionary and translation help. www.mdbg.net. Any serious student would benefit from using this site to clarify things.