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  鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟

  annie posted on 10/21/2006
  
  有一位台湾出生长大的朋友在阅读一本中国大陆出版的关于中国汽车发展史的书时遇到了一个问题：＂小打小闹＂的英文理解．（＂小打小闹＂这个说法是中国北方特有的吧？）
  原句为：“那个时期的（中国）所谓汽车制造都是小打小闹，没有真正意义上的创造和发展”。
  由于不理解“小打小闹”的真正意思，他很难在英文论文中正确引用。下面是他和一位大陆出生长大的朋友对这句话的不同理解，请咖啡店的朋友们帮忙给一个最合适的译法．感谢先！：）
  
  The quotes is from Chinese official publication, which describes the 2005 changes over 2004 in China's auto industry.
  
  大陆朋友：China's auto industry has not have any fundamental changes.．．．
  台湾朋友：I understand the meaning of the words but I need a translation which can better reflects the phrase "xiao da xiao nao".
  　　　　　Personally I have come up with the famous sentence by William Shakespeare : "Much Ado About Nothing"
  
  大陆朋友：Personally I think they may have different meanings.Xiao Da Xiao Nao, basically means " no major stuff, no big deal, unimportant, non-fundenmental things ..."
  But that Shakspeare classc line seems to mean " efforts in vain, aimless work, useless job ....".
  台湾朋友：Your translation is more close to its meaning, but to Westerners the Shakespeare's phrase is straightforward.
  That is a subtle difference irony between the two translations according to the readers who perceive them.
  大陆朋友I agree with you on the point of using slangs, idioms and exisiting phrases to do the translation in a more straightforward way.
  
  But from my experience both on and off work, I tend to avoid the word-by-word kind of translation in many cases. There are so many subtle and underlined differences that the exisiting phrases of a foreign language can't catch.
  
  
  

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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #1 鍏�鍗佷竴瀛� posted on 10/21/2006
  
  
  Could be translated as "child's play" or "minor league" in the context you cited here.
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #2 devil posted on 10/21/2006
  
  
  Your borrowing of Bard's sentence is itself much ado about nothing, which means quite different thing. Manufacturing automobiles ain't nothin'.
  
  ＂小打小闹＂is along the line of "tinkering" and "tweaking", small in scale, no major breakthrough or overhaul envolved.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #3 wukong posted on 10/22/2006
  
  
  I would say "small in scale and low in significance", or simply "minuscule and insignificant".
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #4 WOA posted on 10/23/2006
  
  
  How about "sub-par"?
  
  Could refer to anything 不入流，小打小闹，小儿科，whatever production scale, innovation or quality is concerned.
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #5 annie posted on 10/24/2006
  
  
  谢谢各位的不吝赐教，我相信一定会有帮助！：））
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #6 smalltime posted on 10/24/2006
  
  
  small time?
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #7 wukong posted on 10/26/2006
  
  
  
  small fry.
  
  Translation: "Back then, the so-called auto manufacturing in China was nothing but small fry, short of truly significant innovation and development."
  
  I want a share of your royalty. :-)
  
  

  annie wrote:
  
  

  原句为：“那个时期的（中国）所谓汽车制造都是小打小闹，没有真正意义上的创造和发展”。
  

  
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #8 annie posted on 10/26/2006
  
  
  ---I want a share of your royalty. :-)
  
  Sure,if I would have:))
  
  Thanks to Wukong!
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #9 Tata posted on 10/30/2006
  
  
  Me too
  

  annie wrote:
  ---I want a share of your royalty. :-)
  Sure,if I would have:))
  Thanks to Wukong!
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #10 tinkering posted on 10/30/2006
  
  
  tinkering
  
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  Re: 鍚戝悇浣嶈�锋暀锛傚皬鎵撳皬闂癸紓鐨勮嫳鏂囪瘧娉曪紟
  #11 WOA posted on 10/31/2006
  
  
  I feel like "small fry" would be the best to get the idea across, followed by "small time".
  

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