Translation or Language program in one year, any advice ?

[mhuygen]

This is Manuel from France. I am a part-time librarian / part-time translator (from english to french language & I hope in a few years from chinese to french)

in France, and I am considering asking for a Confucius scholarship to go and study chinese in a chinese university next year.

I passed HSK4 with 246/300 last year, and I just tried HSK5 a few days ago, confirming I was still far from the goal....

 

So this is my question : I'd like to enhance my level in order to begin to translate chinese to french. I'm kind of confused with all the programs 

According to your experience, your knowledge, what you heard of, in my case which are the most suitable universities and degrees I should apply for ?

I must specify that one year would be the maximum duration for me in China, since we are raising a young kid in France with my wife. 

[Zbigniew]

5 hours ago, mhuygen said:

I'd like to enhance my level in order to begin to translate chinese to french.

It's good to hear of your commitment to this goal. In order to achieve it, though, is it absolutely necessary for you to spend a year at a university in China?

If the translation you intend to do is exclusively written stuff, I'd say your time and money could be better spent staying in France and engaging in the concerted study of texts, mainly of the kind you aspire to be a translator of ultimately.

[happy_hyaena]

5 hours ago, mhuygen said:

This is Manuel from France. I am a part-time librarian / part-time translator (from english to french language & I hope in a few years from chinese to french)

in France, and I am considering asking for a Confucius scholarship to go and study chinese in a chinese university next year.

I passed HSK4 with 246/300 last year, and I just tried HSK5 a few days ago, confirming I was still far from the goal....

 

So this is my question : I'd like to enhance my level in order to begin to translate chinese to french. I'm kind of confused with all the programs 

According to your experience, your knowledge, what you heard of, in my case which are the most suitable universities and degrees I should apply for ?

I must specify that one year would be the maximum duration for me in China, since we are raising a young kid in France with my wife. 

 

Here's my advice:

 

1) Study a Chinese language learning programme for a year (2 semesters).

2) Aim to do the HSK 5 in or at the end of your first semester. (Might be what's needed to continue getting your scholarship.)

3) Aim to do the HSK 6 at the end of your second semester, or to at least destroy the HSK 5 if you're not happy with what you got in semester 1.

4) If all goes well, apply to a translation programme.

 

Pick the 20 hours/week programmes. In my particular schedule we did 4 hours before lunch every weekday, then I had the afternoon available to do homework along with my own self-studies. I didn't care for HSK at the time so I studied the next year's school books, particularly their 综合-class' books. I stayed for one semester, but the idea is that I would study enough to be able to skip the next level (from 3rd level to 5th level, skipping 4th level) if I had stayed for an additional one. It depends on if you want to prepare for the HSK or if you want to get ahead in your classes if you feel they are a little too easy. If you get placed in a challenging class/level just focus on your schoolwork and HSK. If what I wrote here is unclear then feel free to ask me to clarify.

 

As for a specific school, I might be wrong (and others with more experience are free to correct me) but my impression is that it doesn't matter that much since teachers come and go, and even at one university you're not sure to know which teacher you'll ultimately end up with. What's most important is your own attitude to your studies, how you pick your friends, how proactive you are to talk to native Chinese and so on. Maybe the 师范/normal universities are better environments in general?  Also, I'm not really sure but from what I've heard the CSC will hand you a short list of schools that you can choose between?

 

Finally, I just want to say that you're probably at the perfect time in your Chinese studies to go and study in China. I also prefer self-studying, but being able to take a break from my life in my home country to put all my time and focus into studying Chinese and trying to navigate the Chinese life was just what I needed, and attending a university through a CSC scholarship is probably one of the easier and cheaper ways to do it. Good luck!

[mhuygen]

33 minutes ago, Zbigniew said:

If the translation you intend to do is exclusively written stuff

 

Yes it is.

I agree with you, I've been studying on my own for a while now, and in fact all we need is time to study, and engagement.

[roddy]

Hidden some off-topic posts. OP's asked a very specific question and has even put it in bold for us.

[somethingfunny]

I'd agree that trying to improve your Chinese generally while focussing on what you want to translate in the future would be a good strategy.

 

This thread contains a lot of good information about translation programmes in China.  It's 13 pages long so I'm not going to go through and pick out the relevant bits for you, but it contains people's experiences on different programmes, and I think it even does discuss programmes which include French/Chinese translation.  I'd take a look through it and it should give you a better idea of the kind of thing on offer.

 

One thing to remember is that most postgraduate programmes in China are three years long.

[mhuygen]

2 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

his thread contains a lot of good information about translation programmes in China.  It's 13 pages long so I'm not going to go through and pick out the relevant bits for you, but it contains people's experiences on different programmes, and I think it even does discuss programmes which include French/Chinese translation.  I'd take a look through it and it should give you a better idea of the kind of thing on offer.

 

Wow, thank you so much, that's exactly the thread I needed.  I will read all those testimonies carefully.

You made my day, somethingfunny, thanks for your precious help !