how to translate "childcare" into Chinese?

[tooironic]

I've always found "childcare" very difficult to translate accurately and understandably into Chinese.

I'm talking about the practice of parents placing their children in the care of a professional person or centre when they aren't available to look after them.

I've seen the following translations:

- 幼托

- 托儿

- 育儿

- 孩子照看

- 照顾孩子

- 儿童看护

- 儿童保育

- 儿童照管

- 儿童保健

And I still have no idea which one even comes close, or if there are any other choices available. Please help! Thanks.

Edit: As far as I know, "childcare course" and "childcare centre" can be comfortably translated as 托儿课程 and 托儿所 respectively.

[Bates]

照顾孩子 育儿 are more precise

[Kenny同志]

In my opinion, 幼托 and 托兒 would be two of the terms that come closest. By definition, here 托 means to place sb/sth in care of someone.

Another term you could consider is 幼兒托管.

[semantic nuance]

Could you give us the context? It really depends on the context.

[skylee]

SN, while you are here you might also wish to take a look at the OP's thread about the pronunciation of 邋遢 in Taiwan.

[semantic nuance]

Skylee, I have answered but I am not sure if would be of help or not.

[Meng Lelan]

In my opinion, 幼托 and 托兒 would be two of the terms that come closest.

I'm sure you are right about that....I don't know why but my Chinese friends here in the States never use the Chinese word for childcare or daycare when talking in Chinese about this topic, they use the English word daycare instead.

[lingo-ling]

Yes, in Taiwan a daycare center is a 托兒所.

[tooironic]

@Meng Lelan Probably because, apparently, no such concept exists in their home country, so it's easier just to use the English word rather than rack their brains to think of a Chinese equivalent. This is a pretty common thing; sometimes Chinese people do it even for very simple words like "surprising" or "offer".

[Kenny同志]

Probably because, apparently, no such concept exists in their home country, so it's easier just to use the English word rather than rack their brains to think of a Chinese equivalent.

This is not true for the word childcare. As a matter of fact, the childcare industry has been around here for quite a few years, probably more than a decade, but I am not sure.

This is a pretty common thing; sometimes Chinese people do it even for very simple words like "surprising" or "offer".

This either means their Chinese sucks or that they hold the idea that they are talking posh in that way.

[skylee]

This either means their Chinese sucks or that they hold the idea that they are talking posh in that way.

I disagree. That could just be habits.

[semantic nuance]

childcare center could be 幼兒園, 托兒所, or 托嬰中心, 托育中心。

Here in Taiwan, the department of child care in the university, college, or vocational high school is called 幼兒保育系 (科), shortened as 幼保系 (幼保科).

[roddy]

It's sometimes worth looking at Hong Kong government sites for things like this - a quick site:gov.hk search will easily turn up pages that have already been translated, and a lot of services, institutions, whatever, that aren't on the mainland may well be present in Hong Kong eg

(b) of the respective service quotas of child care centres, kindergarten-cum-child care centres, residential child care centres, special child care centres, mutual help child care centres and Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project (NSCCP) in various districts in the past three years, broken down by the 18 districts in Hong Kong;

（二）以全港18区划分，过去3个年度各区的日间幼儿中心、幼稚园暨幼儿中心、留宿幼儿中心、特殊幼儿中心、互助幼儿中心及邻里支援幼儿照顾计划的服务名额分别为何；

Which I don't think gives you exactly what you want, but is on the right path.