An overseas international school Principal asked me to help him to translate the following into Mandarin:
MISSION STATEMENT
The school will strive for high academic standards and develop confident and principled human beings with a strong sense of responsibility to family, country and the world.
VISION
Independent and responsible learners who live happy and healthy lifestyles.
SCHOOL MOTTO
Bridging learning to life long excellence.
VALUES
RESPONSIBILITY
INTEGRITY
CONFIDENCE
COMPASSION
HARD WORK
Within an hour, the job was completed (See below):
任务
本国际学校争取高水准的学术成绩，培养学生有自信，为家庭、国家和世界尽力。
远景
培育独立、有责任感、身心健康的人生观。
校训
终身学习，追求卓越。
价值观
尽责
诚实
自信
怜悯
努力
It was a good idea to write those things down. But my concern now was how to implement them.
2 comments:
Did you omit to include "principled" from the Mission Statement?
Bridging learning to lifelong excellence, may mean educating the students to learn and achieve a lifetime of excellence.
It will be good to talk to the principal and understand more the underlying meanings and/or intentions of these statements, so as to arrive at an accurate and meaningful translation, instead of a straightforward translation.
I agree to Kevin's insight. It is necessary to talk with the principal to understand fully what ideals the school has so that these ideals can be correctly reflected in the school mission statement. Merely translated it off-hand may not achieve its intended purpose.
Post a Comment