Translation of business card

[chinese_student]

Hi!

I have created a business card and translated it into Chinese for a stay in Taiwan. But because my Chinese isn't too advanced yet, I'd like to know whether my translation is correct. So here is the English and the (traditional) Chinese version. Everything in CAPITAL letters has been blanked out for privacy reasons. It'd be great if someone could have a look. Thank you very much!

English:

NAME OF UNIVERSITY

Undergraduate in Engineering

Vice Chairman, Engineering Society

NAME

ADDRESS

Phone: NUMBER

E-Mail: EMAIL@EMAIL.COM

Chinese:

NAME OF UNIVERSITY 大學

工程的學生

副委員長, 工程學會

NAME

ADDRESS

電話: NUMBER

電郵: EMAIL@EMAIL.COM

[Guoke]

工程的學生 --》 xx工程系學生

副委員長, 工程學會 --》 xx工程學會副理事長

（參考：中國地球物理學會）

[chinese_student]

Thanks, Guoke!

Could you please also explain the difference between 副委員長 and 副理事長 ? My dictionary says both mean Vice Chairman. Are they used in different contexts or what is the difference?

[Brianlee0311]

Let me revise a little bit.

xx大學

xx工程學系( if you have some focus like IT "資訊")

xx工程學會副理事長

Name

Address

Tel

E-mail (Taiwanese doesn't say 電郵, but Chinese may say that )

I suggest you can check some business card template. That will be helpful.

[skylee]

I am curious - is it necessary or common for an undergraduate to have or give out business cards in Taiwan? Or in any other countries?

I find it strange. But I left school decades ago and have no idea about the current trend.

And what is e-mail called in Chinese in Taiwan (like on printed material) if 電郵 is not used?

[in_lab]

I have two business cards in my pocket that have no title before the email address. Checking online, I see "email", "mail", and "信箱".

[imron]

Could you please also explain the difference between 副委員長 and 副理事長 ? My dictionary says both mean Vice Chairman. Are they used in different contexts or what is the difference?

I'm not sure about Taiwan, but for a 学会, in mainland China 副会长 would probably be more common. Regarding the different meanings, yes it depends on context. 長 means the person in charge, so 委員長 will be the person in charge of a 委员会, a 理事长 will be the person in charge of a 理事会 and so on. Depending on the entity you are representing, you need to use the appropriate word to describe that entity.

[semantic nuance]

Vice Chairman, Engineering Society (資訊)工程學會副會長

I agree with imron that you'll need to make sure of the entity to have a proper translation.

In business card, E-mail is generally written as it is. From my experience, I rarely read any tranlsated word for Email in business card here in Taiwan. E-mail can be translated as '電子郵件信箱'.

Hope it helps!

[chinese_student]

Thanks!

So if I understand it coorectly, 委員長 is head of a committee and 理事長 is a director general. So I'll stick with 委員長, because that seems like a better description.

@skylee: I spoke to Taiwanese students about this. They said it's obviously not mandatory, but definately helps people to remember you, so it's not a bad idea.

[imron]

You should probably go with 副会长, as it is not a 委员会 but a 学会.

[Lu]

Taiwanese are very big on business cards. I don't think a uni student really needs them, but I guess if you're going to meet large amounts of people who do have business cards, they come in handy. If you're just going on holiday or to study Chinese, you can do without business cards and just jot name and email on a piece of paper when someone wants to know.

[Brianlee0311]

Hey, 副委員長 is a formal title and 副會長 is more common in this market, especially in school.

Email, address, tel are common-use in Taiwan. You don't need to put everything in Chinese.

I guess you plan to have a lot of social activities and need business card with you. I remembered I also have business card when I was in college because it not only represent you, but also your organization.

[Brianlee0311]

Hey, let just let you know you can consider card scanner to organize your contacts if you collect a lot of cards. Allow me introduce our Taiwanese brand bizcard scanner, WorldCard, to you. It is well-known in Taiwan and can recognize, 19 language, especially good at Chinese(simplified/ traditional) and English. So your business cards can be easy to manage.

http://worldcard.penpowerinc.com/