Lost in Translation

It is a familiar scene: You come across a Chinese term, look it up in a Chinese-English dictionary, or Google it, find its English translation, and plug it in the sentence, Bingo!

But, wait! Is that the right word?

Often, there are multiple English word choices for one Chinese term. Is it valid or effective or efficient for 有效? Or is it legal or lawful for 合法? Or is it complex or complicated for 復雜? Or is it assessment or evaluation or appraisal for 評估? Or is it relation or relationship for 關系? Or is it flexible, agile, nimble, or versatile for 靈活? Or is it country, nation, or state for 國家? Or is it precision or accuracy for 精確? Or is it jamming or interference for 干擾?

The list can go on and on. Do we use the first choice on the list, assuming it must be the most-often used one? One of my former colleagues believed so, as she was learning English at the time.

Below is a list of Chinese terms, just the tip of the iceberg. They are totally problem-free until one tries to find their appropriate English versions. Word choice is a constant battle.

Dictionaries can help only so much, not because they are incapable, but, rather, they don’t have enough space to explain, say, why legal not lawful should be used for 合法 in a particular context.

But, the list below, alphabetically by pinyin, tells you why.

安全 (an quan): safe or secure

Dictionaries list both safe and secure under 安全. In many cases, they seem to be used interchangeably: home security – home safety; personal safety – personal security; safety devices – security devices.

While they both mean “free from danger” (沒有危險), they each express a different sense of 安全 and protection against a different kind of danger.

When one says: It is safe to say that we have a deal now, he is suggesting his conclusion won’t cause him any trouble, political or legal.

When one says: The building is secure, he is saying that no criminals can get into the building and, say, steal classified information.

When he says: The building is safe, he is saying the building doesn’t have, say, any structural problems that can cause physical harms to people.

But, not all 安全 are created equal.

Simply put, safe, for 安全, is more about free from danger or harm to humans, as in injury to the head, cut on the arm, and bruise in the face.

Whereas, secure, for 安全, is more about free from danger or harm to systems, organizations (even countries), as in information theft, identity theft, violation to rights, and breach of national security.

Case in point: Shortly after a passengers plane takes off, crew members would give safety demonstration (安全演示), not security demonstration, because it is about how to protect oneself from physical harm during an emergency situation; but not about how to protect the aircraft flight systems from being damaged by terrorists, or operation systems from being hacked by hackers.

After the demonstration, the crew members would recommend you read the 安全說明 in front of you. It reads: Safety Instructions, not Security Instructions.

On my recent trip to China, in a train station, on a baggage scanning machine, I found 行李安全檢查 translated as Safety Check.

The translation is correct if it means: The machine checks if your baggage is strong enough, packed to the standards, wrapped tightly, or if any contents are falling out. This, obviously, is not what the scanner is looking for.

The translation is wrong if it means: The machine checks if any baggage contains firearms or illegal drugs. In this case, 安全 should be security.