Newspaper Translation

[EndOfTheLine]

Hello, I was wondering if I was correct in the translation of this small section of an article I found on http://news.cn.yahoo.com/08-06-/1028/2j8ux.html

近日,去外地某欠发达山区县参加一个活动,见到参加活动的当地部门领导坐的几乎都是清一色的新车。原来,尽管并不缺车,但由于刚换届不久,新官不坐“旧轿”,当地一下子添了不少新车。

recently, went outside of some area developed mountain district country participation in an activity. Seeing participation in the activity, the local department leaders, sit nearly are the uniform new cars. Originally although does not lack the vehicle, but because just changed session soon, the new officer does not rie "the old sedan" the locality has added many new cars all of a sudden.

As I have typed the above statement, I realize there are plenty of grammatical errors in my translation from Mandarin chinese to English. If there is any way some people could help me break down the structure in these sentences, I would greatly appreciate it. I translated most of this through an Oxford English to Chinese dictionary which may be out of date since there was a few characters I could not seem to find using the radical index.

近日 means recently

去外地 means go outside of the place, land, or earth?

某欠发达山区县参加 means someone owes the mountain district country people participation.

原来,尽管并不缺车 originally although does not lack the vehicle

但由于刚换届不久 but just because changed session soon

新官不坐“旧轿”, the new official does not ride the "old sedan"

当地一下子添了不少新车 the locality has added many new cars all of a sudden.

Are the above sentences gramatically correct in their English translation? Thanks for the help!

[creamyhorror]

Why didn't you just use an online or software dictionary? It's the 21st century you know. I recommend StarDict (http://stardict.sourceforge.net) - there are quite a few useful Chinese dictionaries available on the site. Also get Chinesepera-kun if you use Firefox, which will allow you to obtain definitions for any Chinese text you put your mouse over.

edit: I recognize that it's quite important to learn radicals, but if you know them already, you might as well make use of modern methods.

[Oliver_CL]

I am an english learner, I can read the chinese articles easily, and I will give my translation below yours, I hope I can help you anyhow.

近日,去外地某欠发达山区县参加一个活动,见到参加活动的当地部门领导坐的几乎都是清一色的新车。原来,尽管并不缺车,但由于刚换届不久,新官不坐“旧轿”,当地一下子添了不少新车。

recently, went outside of some area developed mountain district country participation in an activity. Seeing participation in the activity, the local department leaders, sit nearly are the uniform new cars. Originally although does not lack the vehicle, but because just changed session soon, the new officer does not rie "the old sedan" the locality has added many new cars all of a sudden.

recently, I went out of town to attended a campaign hold at some developing mountain district area, and found that nearly all the local governors' cars were brand-new, who appeared there too. Since the replacement of local leaders executed not long ago, tne "new" leaders didn't like "old" cars, as a result, there were many more new cars right off.

[adrianlondon]

"creamyhorror" - he's trying to translate into English, not into Mandarin* And even if that wasn't the case, translating word by word (or character by character) doesn't give nice free-flowing paragraphs, any which way.

* Despite it being in the "learning Chinese" forum. hmm.

[creamyhorror]

"creamyhorror" - he's trying to translate into English, not into Mandarin* And even if that wasn't the case, translating word by word (or character by character) doesn't give nice free-flowing paragraphs, any which way.

I know that. I was just addressing what he said about not being able to locate "characters using the radical index." It would've been a trivial task with an online lookup tool, as compared to trying to dig through an old paper dictionary and being unable to find zi/ci.

Anyway, as it stands, the original attempted translation is virtually word-for-word.