"How do you pick the translations of the Chinese words in Han Trainer ?"
Here's an excerpt from our own guidelines to illustrate this:
As a Chinese native speaker, you may consider all meanings of a word to be important. But keep in mind that a German speaker (for example) is primarily interested in how he can use a word (= “standalone translation”) – not what it means as well (“no – translation meanings”).
General rule: If a meaning isn't really important, don't include it! Most learners prefer to see less translations und meanings than too many. Focus on the important stuff!
The important stuff are the valid standalone translations of a word.
You are not required to list all meanings a Chinese word can have, but you are required to list all different standalone translations of that Chinese word.
Include meanings only
If they are really essential and important
If a word has only meanings but no valid standalone translations
Finally, if you decide to include no-translation meanings, proceed as follows:
In every mother tongue, write all no-translation meanings between <m></m> tags.
Let's take the word “ bia3o ” (表) as an example:
Translation 1: watch
Translation 2: <m>surface</m>
This enables Han Trainer to recognize if there are no-translation meanings among the translations of a word.
No-translation meanings will be displayed in a different color (grey) in the software, in the vocabulary list and on the learning cards.
When a word with standalone translations and no-translation meanings is displayed in Han Trainer,
all no-translation meanings will be displayed in grey color
The text: “'superior' is greyed out because it is only a meaning of zha3ng zhang. 'superior' cannot be translated directly as zhang.” will appear in comment line if it's not yet occupied
As an answer, the no-translation meaning will be accepted like a normal translation
More examples:
biao_surface
„a watch” can be 表 or手表, so this is a valid standalone translation.
“surface” cannot be translated as 表 . It would be translated as 表面 , so this is a no-translation meaning (it is rather important, so write „<m>surface</m> into the vocabulary repository XLS file)
Preferably, the filename should be “biao_watch.swf”, but there is no need to change this for existing files
lai_come
“to come” can be 来 or 过来 , so this is a valid standalone translation.
“to take place” cannot be translated as 来 . It would be translated as 带来 , so this is a no-translation meaning (write „<m>to take place</m> into the vocabulary repository XLS file if this meaning is really important)
“the next” cannnot be translated as 来 . It would be translated as 未来 , so this is a no-translation meaning (write „<m>the next</m> into the vocabulary repository XLS file if this meaning is really important)
tian_day
“day” is a valid standalone translation
“sky“ is a valid standalone translation for 天 . It can also be translated as 天空 , but this doesn't matter here.
“heaven“ cannot be translated as 天 . It would be translated as 天堂 , so this is a no-translation meaning (write „<m>heaven</m> into the vocabulary repository XLS file if this meaning is really important)
yi_one
“one” is a valid standalone translation
There are also combinations such as 一起 , where 一 has the meaning « all », or
?? , where 一 has the meaning „when“, but not all of them are important. In this case « all » is an important meaning (write „<m>all</m> into the vocabulary repository XLS file), but « when » is not an important meaning and can be ignored (don't include it into the XLS file). Generally, we only want meanings that are really important.
yao_important
”important” cannot be translated as 要 . It would be translated as 要紧 (yaoqing), so this is a no-translation meaning (write „<m>important </m> into the vocabulary repository XLS file)
”essential” ( 必要 ) is another meaning of 要 , but it's not an important meaning. Generally, we only want meanings that are really important . This one isn't, so it can be ignored (don't include it into the XLS file).
”to want” can be translated as 要 or 想要 , so this is a valid standalone translation. It should be put at the beginning (i.e. into the translation1 field).
Preferably, the filename should be “yao_want.swf”, but there is no need to change this for existing files.
gui_expensive
”expensive” can be translated as 贵 or 昂贵 , so this is a valid standalone translation.
”valued” cannot be translated as 贵 . It would be translated as 珍贵 , so this is a no-translation meaning (write ”<m>valued</m>” into the vocabulary repository XLS file if this meaning is really important)
