Translation Program?

[Ron Goninan]

Okay all, I'm looking for a good (actually working) program that can take PDF scanned copies of Chinese Book pages with Chinese Text and will convert same in to English text! Surely there must a be a program "out there" that can do this. Let me know???

[Protector]

You have no idea how much I'm laughing right now...

[mjjbecker]

Okay all, I'm looking for a good (actually working) program that can take PDF scanned copies of Chinese Book pages with Chinese Text and will convert same in to English text! Surely there must a be a program "out there" that can do this. Let me know???

 

Translating Chinese texts about esoteric principles requires an indepth understanding of the subject matter. The reality is that most Chinese people are unable to do this, never mind a computer.

 

This is not my opinion, but rather that of a professional translator I discussed the matter with, who has excellent English but no background in Chinese philosophy, religion, martial arts or other esoteric matters. It is also the opinion of a Chinese university lecturer friend of mine.

 

The reality is, even if you pay a good translator to do the work for you, they will probably get it wrong, because they will not correctly understand the material.

 

I'm not a computing expert, but I suspect we are some way off any kind of computer or software able to translate such things. It would need to be able to think so as to grasp the nuances of meaning. Not only that, in your case it would need to think with the understanding of a master of the particular art, who has been given the oral instructions needed to grasp the meaning, and who has then spent the time internalising the principles involved.

 

Given the above, you are left with two choices. Learn the language yourself, and with the advice of your teacher(s) you may be able to grasp-and then translate the material. Otherwise, you need to find a teacher who has good enough English to be able to translate and explain this information for you.

 

A third option (that you've followed over a period of time) of drip feeding information onto online forums such as this one is not likely to get you the quality of translation needed, unless there is a member here who has a high level understanding of these related martial arts (Southern white crane methods).

 

So, learn the language, or find someone trained to a high level in these martial arts who can translate for you. A typical translator will not be able to, and we seem to be some way off any kind of computer capable of thinking at a human level, never mind thinking with the understanding of a martial arts lineage master.

[Zhongyongdaoist]