Translation to Chinese (Hong Kong)

Discussion started , with 19 comments.
  1. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    This attached document may be 10 years old, but it forms the basis of most of my translation work into Chinese (Hong Kong), plus the latest terminology by HKICPA and various listed company annual reports.

  2. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    One of the difficulties in the translation to Chinese (Hong Kong) is the fact that there are translations to Chinese (Simplified) a la Mainland China and Singapore as well as to Chinese (Taiwan) and many confuse Chinese (Hong Kong) with the former two, which has developed its own nomenclature for the industry due to cultural differences.

    I came across Manager by accident and have been using it for some time to manage my family's businesses. While I am comfortable with any English software, one of the hindrance in local adoption of Manager and many other accounting software is one of language. There is a demand among local businesses and companies for an accounting software with a Chinese UI which is affordable or free of charge. By translating Manager I want to be able to introduce to local users a good and solid alternative.

  3. Lubos Hasko Manager

    Hi. As per https://www.manager.io/desktop/translations/ three languages are currently available as an option:

    • Simplified Chinese (China)
    • Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
    • Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong)

    Are you saying "Chinese (Singapore)" should be added as well?

  4. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    No. I was just referring to variations in the Chinese language due to locale.

    I will be working exclusively on Chinese (Hong Kong).

  5. Lubos Hasko Manager

    That's great. Is the font in the program large enough for Chinese text to be easily readable? I suspect Chinese script requires larger font. Thoughts?

  6. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    I can read the text easily but the left menu in Bold can be a bit difficult to read for others... may be having the option to turn off the Bold font.

    On MSWORD the default size for Chinese characters is one size bigger than its English equivalent.

  7. Lubos Hasko Manager

    OK, let me know of places which are problematic when reading the text.

    For now, I have increased font-size and removed bold style from left navigation is language is set to Chinese

  8. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    FEATURE REQUEST

    Having run Manager in Chinese for the past few days, I think we may need to have the option to change the size of the font to make the left navigation menu more visible.

    Or, fix it at 1-2 size bigger, eg., change Arial 10 to 12.

    Is the font size preference a planned development? Thanks.

  9. Lubos Hasko Manager

    Which version of Manager are you currently using? In version 17.9.3 or newer the font size is already increased by 1 and font is not bold if language is set to Chinese. I just checked and it seems very readable now.

  10. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    I am on v17.9.22

    The Chinese characters is legible (much better now they are not bold) but the navigation panel on the left can still do with one/two size bigger for clearer viewing, if possible.

  11. Lubos Hasko Manager

    The latest version increases font size to 14px in the left navigation

  12. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    Perfect! Thanks

  13. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    I noticed recently the different versions of the Chinese translation have streamlined into 2 basic versions - Simplified and Traditional.

    I understand the rationale behind this but it is too simplified as different regions of the Chinese language have different terminologies and practices, and not just in the typeface alone.

    Is the merged traditional version based on the Hongkong translation? If so, what happened to the Taiwan counterpart?

  14. Lubos Hasko Manager

    You are probably right.

    How does Wikipedia deals with this? They have just one site for both Traditional and Simplified. Apparently, they have some sort of program which translates between the two scripts.

    If there are major differences between regions, shouldn't Wikipedia have separate site for China, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc? They do not.

    Could you shed some light on this? Also, just to confirm, can you give some example where translation for Taiwan would be different from translation for Hong Kong?

  15. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    I need to do some research on this to get back to you between HK and Taiwanese terms.

    As far as Wikipedia is concerned, I noticed there is no automatic translation. I can be reading an article in English and I need it in Traditional Chinese for a term, only to find that just the Simplified Chinese version exists.

  16. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    By the way, I see "Onlyair528" has joined the Traditional Chinese translation. May be s/he can shed more light on this - Chinese is only my 2nd language.

  17. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    Sorry for visiting this topic after much delay.

    Here is an example of where Traditional Chinese differs from place to place.

    Currently, user Simon has translated the word Business as 商業 - a more literal translation of the word.

    But in the previous Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong) version, I translated the same word as 業務, which is more applicable locally.

    This is just one example of where different places (Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc). has different variations of the same business and accounting terms - we and our clients find the current Chinese translation very odd indeed.

    So what happens when we don't share the same terms?

  18. Lubos Hasko Manager

    OK, I have changed this translation to be "Chinese, Hong Kong" to avoid ambiguity

  19. Simon Chinese, Taiwan Translator with no proofreading rights

    Hi Lubos
    If you are making this set of translation specific for HK, please create a separate translation for Taiwan, as we share slightly different vocabulary, just like English US and English UK.

    Thank you.

  20. erph.com.hk Chinese, Hong Kong Translator with no proofreading rights

    Hi Lubos,

    Yes, please create a separate set for Chinese (Taiwan) - it's more than US vs. UK English. It's an entirely different culture, accounting standards and terminology altogether!