Certification Programs in China

© Copyright Translation Journal and the Author 2006

URL: https://translationjournal.net/journal/38certific.htm

Certification programs for translators and interpreters in China were started a few years ago and are now still at the formulating stage. They were introduced to satisfy demands brought about by the fast-paced commercial and economic boom in the country. This article attempts to describe the current state of these programs.

Currently there are two nationally recognized certification examinations. One is CATTI (China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters, 2003) and the other is NAETI (National Accreditation Examinations for Translators and Interpreters, 2001).

The former is organized and sponsored by the Ministry of Personnel and the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), and the latter by the National Education Examinations Authority and Beijing Foreign Studies University.

The two examination programs are both open to the general public without limitations on applicants’ education, background or experience. CATTI sets four proficiency levels: Senior Translator and Interpreter, Translator and Interpreter Level One, Translator and Interpreter Level Two and Translator and Interpreter Level Three. Currently only Level Two and Level Three examinations are available. NAETI offers three proficiency level exams with Level One as the highest and Level Three the lowest.

For both programs, a Level Two certification is considered essential for a professional translator.

Unlike most similar certification programs in many countries, both exams test the candidates’ ability to do two-way translations (foreign language(s) and Chinese). For example, if you are sitting for an English-Chinese translation test, you are expected to complete both English to Chinese and Chinese to English translation tests. In order to acquire certification, you have to pass both.

In other words, once you have passed the exam, you are certified as having the ability to translate both into and from Chinese. CATTI allows use of dictionaries in the translation test, but NAETI does not.

CATTI examination for each available level consists of two parts. The first part tests the candidates’ general English proficiency with vocabulary, grammar and reading questions. The second part tests their translation skills (altogether four paragraphs, two for other language to Chinese translation, and two in the opposite direction). NAETI exams only test candidates’ translation skills (similar to CATTI).

The languages included in CATTI’s exams are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. The only languages available in NAETI are Chinese and English.

CET Band 4 and 6

CET stands for College English Test, the purpose of which is to test for Chinese college students’ (non-English majors) general English ability–listening, reading comprehension, and writing–against specified teaching syllabus. CET tests are not a professional-level certification.

Students who failed to pass CET-4 test are ineligible for a BA degree. Therefore, for all college students (non-English majors), passing CET-4 is obligatory.

CET-6 is a higher level test of a similar nature. But it is optional and is an exam of the students’ English achievement at college level.

CET Band 4 and 6 are also open to the general public. CET-4 and 6 certificates showing “优秀” (Excellence) are reserved for high-scoring students/takers.

TEM-4 and 8

TEM stands for Test for English Majors. They are English majors’ CET-4 and 6 with different names and of much higher proficiency levels.

However, TEM-4 and 8 are not open to the general public or non-English majors. Again, these are only academic tests aimed at testing for a student’s general college-level English proficiency according to a syllabus and are not professional certification programs.

For English majors, TEM-4 is obligatory and is a prerequisite for a BA degree. TEM-8 enjoys a similar status as CET-6.

CATTI and NAETI Level Three (lowest level) examinations are recommended for students whose English level is equivalent to or above CET-6 with some years of translation practice.
Further references:

http://www.neea.edu.cn/info/info.jsp?infoid=463&class_id=08_02
http://www.CATTI.net.cn
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/28/content_420317.htm

Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese

This article summarizes the differences between two distinctive Chinese writing systems, i.e. Traditional Chinese (TC) and Simplified Chinese (SC).

First, please tell me some general information about Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.

At present, there are two distinctive Chinese writing systems coexistent in the world – Traditional Chinese (TC) and Simplified Chinese (SC). SC was actually simplified from the TC using a methodology that tries to maintain the basic features of Chinese characters while making it less complicated and easier to learn. As one of the countries that had the biggest illiterate population, the Chinese government thought, through simplifying the writing system and thus making it easier to write, more Chinese would be able to access education. But this simplification is based upon rather regular rules, and a large number of characters were not changed at all.

But how different are TC and SC? For example, can a person from Taiwan or other TC areas read and understand an article written in SC and a person from Mainland China vice versa?

Generally speaking, people in Taiwan or other TC using areas would be able to understand articles written in SC. When reading, he/she should find some familiar but “new” characters intermixed with TC ones. Through context and good guesses, he/she would finally be able to understand the article. For a person from Mainland China, the experience could be very different.

Before we learn more about this, a little history would be helpful. The truth is, before the 1960s, mainland China used TC instead of SC. Books were printed in TC, and people were taught to use TC in schools as well. From the 1960s to 1970s, TC was still used in some places, and some books were printed in TC. Therefore, older people in Mainland China do have an advantage in reading and understanding TC.

However, the problem does not stop here. It is the dialectal uses, rather than character differences, that make TC and SC really different. For example, if we want to translate:

Through cooperation, we may acquire more useful information from the market.
TC would be: 透過合作，我們可能從市場獲得更有用的訊息。
SC would be: 通过合作，我们可能从市场获得更有用的信息。

If you observe carefully, you will find that of the nineteen Chinese characters, twelve are the same. This may help illustrate differences between SC and TC characters. Besides these differences, the words in bold were different dialectal translations.

If a translator only knows how to use TC or SC characters, but is not familiar with those dialectal uses. The translation would be unnatural and may sound strange in some cases.

O.K. Now I know the basics, but please show me something really useful when making wise choices: When should I use TC or SC?

To put it simply, if you want your article to be read and understood in Mainland China and Singapore, you would choose SC. If you stress a readership in Taiwan, Macao and Hongkong, you would opt for TC. TC is also widely used by Chinese people living in Southeast Asian countries, USA and some European countries. If you want to specifically target a readership in Hong Kong or Macao, you should also be careful that their dialect is not the same with that of Taiwan.

How to choose a translator?

Ideally, you would consider hiring a translator from Taiwan for mandarin (non-dialectal) TC translations, a translator from Hong Kong or Macao for specifically targetted TC markets and a translator from Mainland China or Singapore for simplified Chinese translations.

But sometimes, when a native TC or SC translator is not available to you (a number of factors including pricing, location, etc), you may consider using, for example, a Taiwanese, Hong Kong or Macao, etc translator for SC translation, and a Mainland China or Singaporean, etc translator for TC translation, etc. provided he/she is experienced in the target system.

The fact is, almost all professional (full-time, experienced freelance) translators do both translations in the market. Anyway, the differences between the two systems (from dialectal point of view) are probably no bigger than those of the American English and British English.

*This article lists some major Chinese speaking countries and areas only. Obviously, in an article of this scale, it is impossible to list all the countries/areas that use TC and/or SC.

It is NOT the author’s intention to say only translators living in the countries/areas mentioned have necessary skills and/or resources to do TC or SC translations.