Translating a Short Slogan

[Understudy]

I'm working with a program that's looking to connect with a Chinese market - they want to translate their new slogan into Mandarin, and I'm having trouble keeping it simple while holding a similar meaning -

The slogan:

"Proud to Deliver" (In the sense that they are happy to give the service that that provide. It's a youth/community organization)

Any thoughts?

[mikomiko]

"很高兴为您服务" too long but it's the closest one.

put it in short,

"竭诚服务" ,

竭诚 jiéchéng

(1) [wholeheartedly]∶完全忠诚

(2) [with all one's heart]∶一心一意

[indulgence]

try "欢乐送"

“欢乐送” means “happy to give something” literally,the fun part is that “欢乐送” pronounces same as "欢乐颂" in chinese which means" Ode To Joy",work from Beethoven,you know.

just for reference

[skylee]

I suggest you engage a professional translator or advertising agency which will be proud to deliver a translation if paid.

[tooironic]

How about "回报社会" ("giving back to the community")? But you should really get the advice of a few native speakers and/or translator.

[陳德聰]

I am with skylee.

If this program is really looking to connect with a Chinese market, it might be time for them to employ some Chinese people.

[trissytrizzy]

I think indulgence's translation is a nice one. However, it's really hard to give you a good translation. It depends on what kind of products/service you're promoting, and which part of China you're aiming for. Mainland China? Hong Kong? Different parts of China have different cultures which might as well be a factor on whether your translation will be a success or not.

As for other users suggesting to look for a translator, I majored in Translation in university and I do not think it's really necessary to pay for a translator, not at this stage anyway. On the other hand, perhaps it's not without difficulty for you to give a bit more info about the program on the Internet so you might as well look for a translator whom you can share more info with so h/she will be able to give you the best translation.

[imron]

I think indulgence's translation is a nice one.

I think it's a poor one given the meaning of the original. It would perhaps be appropriate for a delivery company/courier that was actually doing physical deliveries of some sort, but the way I read it, that's not the meaning of 'deliver' intended by the original sentence (which I take to be talking about 'delivering a service' rather than 'a delivery service').

[Lu]

I suspect Understudy is the translator they hired, but while s/he might be perfectly competent for most of what they want and need, translating a slogan is different than general translation and interpreting.

[trissytrizzy]

To imron

My bad - I didn't read the slogan carefully. But then again, I still insist on my point of view. We don't have much information about what this slogan is for. It could be some kind of delivery service. If it's some kind of charity, what they deliver might be something abstract. In that case I still think 欢乐送 could work. However, I still agree with you : )

[陳德聰]

But then again, I still insist on my point of view. We don't have much information about what this slogan is for.

I'm working with a program that's looking to connect with a Chinese market

...

In the sense that they are happy to give the service that that provide. It's a youth/community organization

Herp derp. I think tooironic's 回报社会 is better than 欢乐送, and I don't even really like 回报社会 as a slogan at all ;)

[li3wei1]

"giving back to the community"

I don't like this in English. It suggests that you took something from the community at some point.

[Lu]

I don't like this in English. It suggests that you took something from the community at some point.

But don't we all? Most of what any of us does on a daily basis could not exist if it wasn't for other people. I'm travelling by train at the moment, typing on a computer, just having visited my grandmothers. The train is built and driven, the computer made and shipped and my grandmothers would be dead if they weren't getting professional care when needed.

[Koxinga]

You paid for the train ticket, you bought the computer, your grandmother (or someone in the family) paid for her health insurance. Where's the community in that?

[Lu]

Other people built the train and drive it, other people made the computer and sold it to me, insurance by its very nature can only exist if a lot a people pay into it, and other people care for my grandmothers. If those other people weren't there to do all those things, I could have all the money in the world and it would be useless. Community is usually seen as just the things that people do for each other for no payment, but it can be a lot broader than that imo.

[li3wei1]

To me, 'giving back to the community' means returning something you have taken or been given. The train driver, the computer maker, the grandmother carer, were all paid for what they did, they didn't do those things thinking they were 'giving to the community'. Likewise, if I've paid for those things, then I don't feel I need to give anything back. Other things are covered by taxes. The idea that a company is 'giving back to the community' implies that they have been given something or taken something without payment. In many cases, this could well be true, i.e. they may have been given huge tax breaks to open a factory somewhere, or given grants to hire certain categories of people, or other forms of 'corporate welfare'. In which case, if they want to give something back to the community, they should just write a cheque for the appropriate amount and get on with it.

Sorry, this is getting a bit off-topic.

[Kenny同志]

Consider: 為您服務是我們的驕傲。

If you don't like the cliche, you can try: 為君效勞，不勝榮幸.

[skylee]

I actually think that 榮幸 is much better than 驕傲. But the tone does not seem right.

I think the suggestions in #2, #5 and #17 are acceptable. Though they are bland ... and are nothing like a slogan.

[liuzhou]

" Ode To Joy",work from Beethoven,you know

The lyrics are by Friedrich Schiller, you know.

[Understudy]

@ Skylee , Lu - Hiring a translator was absolutely my first suggestion. I have a low-advanced level of spoken, but I'm by no means a qualified anything when it comes to translation. It's simply a matter that I've volunteered with this program for a long time, and as the only in-house Mandarin speaker, I've been dubiously selected as 'The Expert' - In my time working in China, very few things frustrated me more than trying to work on brand-related translations.

Thank you guys for the length of thoughts and suggestions, things got a bit philosophical in here! Some of these suggestions have been mirrored by native speakers in Beijing, though many people have been confused by the implied/ambiguous object in 'Proud to Deliver' as a stand-alone statement. I am still pushing my people for something other than an attempt at direct translation, as these have tended to make sense but sound a bit dry, as Skylee has noted.