Translating 'expect'

[ai_ya]

Hello, I am having great difficult translating 'expect' in this sentence:

'What level of Chinese should I expect to be learning?' or

'What level of Chinese should I be expecting?'

What I mean is, what level of Chinese does the class start from.

The pattern ''What level/ type of.....can / should I expect' is often used in English.

i.e 'What type of service can I expect?'

'Who should I expect to see there'

etc.

Does anybody have any ideas about how to translate this?

Thanks!

David

[HashiriKata]

Before you attempt to translate sentences from one language to another, it may help to ask yourself what the sentences really mean in the source language. The word "expect" in English is sometimes used only as a gloss for politeness without any concrete meaning and in such cases, its translation into Chinese may not be called for (but I wouldn't be surprised to see someone going to a great length to translate "expect" regardless whether it means something or not!).

[ai_ya]

This is exactly what I was thinking myself, it's more of just a politeness 'function word', but I thought Chinese must also have some sort of way to express the politeness in these sentences - which I'm not sure how to go about! The translation doesn't necessarily have to contain the word 'expect'.

Thanks again :]

[zhxlier]

There's no way to translate literally.

What level of Chinese should I expect to be learning?

（你们的）课程是什么程度？

What type of service can I expect?

你们提供什么服务？

在汉语里以“我”开头提这样的问题很不自然。

Edited September 16, 2008 at 07:57 PM by zhxlier

[jinhr]

It can be translated as follows——“我能得到什么样的XX”