ChinesePod

yīnwèi zhè gēnběn bùshì Zhōngwén ā ，zhè ge cí shì cóng cūnshàngchūnshù de xiǎoshuō lǐ lái de ，fānyì de rén zhíjiē jiù yòng le cūnshàng suǒ xiě de “hànzì ”，zuòwéi fānyì ，qíshí jiùshì méiyǒu fānyì ，suǒyǐ nǐ yào zhíjiē cóng zìmiànshàng qu lǐjiě huì juéde shìdǒngfēidǒng 。

Because it's not Mandarin, this phrase comes from a Murakami Haruki novel. The person that translated it directly used the 'Kanji' that Murakami used as a translation. In fact, there was no translation, so if you try and comprehend it from it's literal meaning, you might feel that you seem to understand it but at the same time not quite understand it.

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大家都到齐啦！我来介绍一下，这位是我同事汤姆。他中文超厉害的，已经通过HSK六级了！而且已经有好几年的翻译经验了。

dàjiā dōu dàoqí la ！wǒ lái jièshào yīxià ，zhè wèi shì wǒ tóngshì tāngmǔ 。tā Zhōngwén chāo lìhai de ，yǐjīng tōngguò HSK liùjí le ！érqiě yǐjīng yǒu hǎo jǐ nián de fānyì jīngyàn le 。

Everyone's present! Let me introduce my colleague Tom. His Chinese is super awesome. He has already passed HSK level 6! And he already has quite a few years experience translating.

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我问过了，是工作内容和你的专业问题。你大学的专业是语言文学，上份工作是翻译没问题。但是这次你来是做市场部助理。

wǒ wèn guo le ，shì gōngzuò nèiróng hé nǐde zhuānyè wèntí 。nǐ dàxué de zhuānyè shì yǔyán wénxué ，shàng fèn gōngzuò shì fānyì méiwèntí 。dànshì zhè cì nǐ lái shì zuò shìchǎng bù zhùlǐ 。

I asked. It's a problem with the job description and your major. Your university major was in linguistics. Your last job was as a translator so that's fine. However, this time you want to work as a Marketing Assistant.

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那我在中国只能做翻译？

nà wǒ zài Zhōngguó zhǐ néng zuò fānyì ？

Then can I only work as a translator in China?

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要不然这样吧，我回去和经理商量一下。把你的职位改一下，改成市场部翻译。但是你实际的工作内容还是不变。

yàoburánzhèyàng ba ，wǒ huíqù hé jīnglǐ shāngliàng yīxià 。bǎ nǐde zhíwèi gǎi yīxià ，gǎichéng shìchǎngbù fānyì 。dànshì nǐ shíjì de gōngzuò nèiróng háishì bù biàn 。

How about we do this: I'll go talk with the manager about it. We'll change your title to Marketing Department Translation, but in reality the work you're doing won't change.

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应该可以，我听说有些公司就这么干的。这样也容易通过，反正翻译是外国人天经地义。

yīnggāi kěyǐ ，wǒ tīngshuō yǒuxiē gōngsī jiù zhème gàn de 。zhèyàng yě róngyì tōngguò ，fǎnzhèng fānyì shì wàiguórén tiānjīngdìyì 。

It should be. I've heard that some companies do this. This way it's easy to get through. Anyway, a translator is a perfectly acceptable job for a foreigner.

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好吧，看来我要一直在中国当翻译了。

hǎoba ，kànlái wǒ yào yīzhí zài Zhōngguó dāng fānyì le 。

Okay. It looks like I'm always going to be a translator in China.

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因为我们前几天翻译的时候，发现有这个问题。

yīnwèi wǒmen qiánjǐtiān fānyì de shíhou ，fāxiàn yǒu zhè ge wèntí 。

While we were translating recently, we discovered these problems.

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