Hanyu Jiacheng dialog question - 外贸代表团

[Erbse]

The following dialog can be found in Hanyu Jiaocheng 第一册下

Lesson 18， page 29， Dialog 2： 外贸代表团明天去上海参观

珍妮： 玛丽， 我明天去上海。

玛丽： 你去上海旅行吗？

珍妮： 不，明天一个外贸代表团去上海参观，我去给他们当翻译。

the rest of the dialog doesn't give insight to my question.

My question is, where is the 外贸代表团 from? Is it from another country visiting Shanghai, or is it a delegation coming from another Chinese city (maybe Beijing)? I'd ask my Chinese teacher, but won't see her for the next 2 weeks

[HashiriKata]

I can only guess that the delegation is probably from abroad but to think further I'll need to ask:

Why is the question ("where thedelegation is from") so important? Would it help to understand the text?

[Erbse]

I'm curious. Maybe 外贸代表团 implies either foreign or national. I often ask questions if something is not explained really.

Apart from that, I completely understand the text.

[roddy]

If it was from another Chinese city it wouldn't be 外. You could perhaps come up with some convoluted explanation about it being a Chinese delegation passing through Shanghai on its way overseas or something, but you'd be thinking about it too much. It's only 第一册下, they're not likely to be trying to trick you yet.

[zhxlier]

It's from a foreign country. Otherwise why a Chinese group visiting Shanghai would need translators?

[abcdefg]

My question is, where is the 外贸代表团 from? Is it from another country visiting Shanghai, or is it a delegation coming from another Chinese city (maybe Beijing)?

I used this book in class last year and just now looked at my copy of it again here at home. In the dialogue you mentioned, the foreign trade delegation is indeed foreign (from another country) and Jenny is going to interpret for them in Shanghai.

If you are trying to use your winter break to get ahead in that book on your own, the most productive thing might be to just learn the new vocabulary of a few chapters. It's hard to go wrong or get off track with that. Then when you reconnect with your teacher in a couple weeks, let her work through the dialogues, notes, and grammar with you.

Edited December 29, 2009 at 07:41 PM by abcdefg

[Erbse]

It's from a foreign country. Otherwise why a Chinese group visiting Shanghai would need translators?

Maybe the a Chinese foreign trade delegation is meeting with a US foreign trade delegation? I understand this is constructed... however I just thought there was a clear hint of what origin this particular delegation was.

Thanx for all comments, I'm just going on with the material and forget about the dialog for now.