Two editors-in-chief spoke exclusively to China.org.cn about
their Chinese-English Dictionary, designed for foreign learners who
wish to pass the "Han Yu Shui Ping Kao Shi" (HSK). The two editors
explained the design and special features of the dictionary during
the interview.
China.org.cn: Recently the Foreign Language
Press published a new Chinese-English dictionary. Please explain
why you decided to come out with this dictionary.
Wu Xunnan: More and more foreigners are now
beginning to learn Chinese as the country enjoys consistently rapid
economic growth, so it is quite necessary to publish a dictionary
for foreign learners of Chinese, but it is also very
time-consuming. We finalized this dictionary based on the
standardized proficiency vocabulary for Chinese learners who wish
to pass the Han Yu Shui Ping Kao Shi (HSK). We decided to include
8,000 essential words. All the dictionaries based on the
proficiency vocabulary before this one are all Chinese ones in
which only the prefixes are translated into English. This
Chinese-English dictionary is the first one especially designed for
foreign users.
China.org.cn: So this dictionary is very
unique?
Qian Wangsi: Yes. Our new dictionary is based
on the "Chinese proficiency vocabulary", plus all the first letters
are arranged alphabetically, in Pinyin, with homophones
arranged according to strokes and homophones with the same strokes
ordered based on the first stroke.
?
In terms of paraphrase, explanation of basic knowledge is omitted
because we assume that the foreign users already have this
knowledge. For example, "eight" is paraphrased as "the result from
adding seven to one" in most dictionaries, but this is apparently
unnecessary for foreign learners. The word has been explained in
this dictionary as "a Chinese figure, namely the Arabic numeral 8,
the capital form of which can be written as '捌'".
Some explanation of the words related to Chinese culture has
been made in the dictionary. For example, "The Creation of the
World" - here we have briefly introduced the ancient Chinese myth
of Pan Gu, who separated heaven and earth. We have also tried our
best to introduce Chinese culture, history and geography via
examples. For example, "Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the
world at 8844.43 meters above sea level." Additionally, to help
users comprehensively understand each word, not only commonly used
meanings but also dialectal meanings are included in the
dictionary.
In addition, all the first letters, example words and sentences
in this dictionary are marked with Pinyin, which is quite
different from other dictionaries. We consulted with Mr. Zhou
Youguang, a famous linguist, known as "the father of
Pinyin", and also discussed this issue with many foreign
friends, including other publishers. All of them think that
Pinyin is the most convenient method for foreigners to
learn Chinese. Foreign learners can read words based on
Pinyin and they can also easily look up new words in
dictionaries according to Pinyin.
Several parts of speech designated for a single character in the
Chinese language are not easy for foreigners to grasp. Thus, parts
of speech have been covered beside each word based on the Chinese
dictionaries published in recent years.
Most of the quantifiers in Chinese have no counterparts in
English and they have different usages on different occasions,
making grammar more difficult for foreigners. Thus, words in this
dictionary are accompanied by appropriate quantifiers that are
ordered based on how they are used. In addition we mark
Pinyin for each quantifier.
In brief, our market was the foreign reader from the very
beginning. In fact, we have considered their needs from all angles
and expended great efforts to compile a dictionary with these
characteristics.
Wu Xunnan: I have two points to add to Mr.
Qian's statement. The example sentences are vivid, which promotes
flexible learning and usage. The dictionary also includes common
idioms, proverbs and slang in order to assist learners in gaining
more Chinese vocabulary words. Also, the dictionary gives
explanations for words that are literally difficult to
understand.
Finally, I want to introduce the editors and translators. Most
of them are senior editors and translators engaged in international
communication as well as our professional staff who compile
dictionaries and teaching books in foreign languages. Many of them
know several foreign languages and they are familiar with cultural
differences as well as the readers' needs and perceptions. The
editors and designers are also good at cross thinking and have
expended great efforts to make this dictionary target foreign
users.
China.org.cn: That is great to hear. Thank you
for your time.
Wu Xunnan: Thank you. I hope more foreigners
will get to know this dictionary and use it when studying the
Chinese language.
(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, December 18, 2007)
