Translation: "I am looking for somebody to practice with."

[yakeyglee]

I came to a little roadblock in my translation abilities earlier today when I tried to write something along the lines of "I am looking for somebody to practice (say, Chinese) with."  What would be the most natural way to phrase this?  My best guess is below, but I'm pretty sure it's not correct--it just sounds awkward to me.

 

我找到一個跟誰能練習的人。

 

Any input?

 

Trevor

[skylee]

Consider -

 

我想/在找一個跟我練習中文的人。

[陳德聰]

I'm not sure if skylee left out a character by accident...

I would say "我在找一个[能／可以]跟我练习中文的人"

[skylee]

Not by accident. You can put 能 or 可以 there, but it is not a must.

[陳德聰]

I went and asked a couple friends nearby and we came up with 4 different preferences:

1. 我在找一个人跟我练习中文
2. 我在找一个跟我练习中文的人
3. 我在找一个能跟我练习中文的人
4. 我在找一个愿意跟我练习中文的人

Curiously, each of us seemed to have connotation-based feelings about the options other than our own which influenced our decision for most "natural" sounding. I guess that makes sense.

To me, without 能 it almost sounds like the person is already practicing with you and you've just misplaced them. But one of my friends also picked that one as most natural too, so I'm pretty curious now about finding similar sentences.

Edited November 25, 2013 at 07:36 AM by 陳德聰

[skylee]

Didn't you have precis tests? - convey the same meaning with fewer words, good fun.  You can drop 一, too. (PS - but if you drop 一, it would sound better to use 想 instead of 在.)

[Lu]

 

To me, without 能 it almost sounds like the person is already practicing with you and you've just misplaced them.

I think that would be 我找跟我联系中文的那个人。 Of course, you could in turn shorten that to 我找跟我联系中文的人, but the most natural interpretation of that sentence would be that you hope to find someone, anyone, who will practice with you and not that you know someone already but have misplaced them. 我在找一个跟我练习中文的人 could of course also have a 'misplaced' meaning, but in this case it would be about having lost one of the several people you're practicing with.

 

Starts reminding me of the opening sentence of The Fat Years: 一个月不见了。 Making any reader wonder who or what hadn't been seen for a month, turns out it was the month itself that was lost.

[roddy]

It's also helpful for learners if you look at what they come up with and then explain if and how it can be improved upon...

 

我找到一個跟誰能練習的人。 - to 找到 means to have found, in the same way if you 看到 something you've seen it. So you can drop the 到 here, as you're in the process of finding. 

跟誰 - where's the 誰 coming from? I suspect you're translating the 'who' of 'someone who can', but the Chinese doesn't need it, plus you've said 'with who'. What you actually want here is with me, 跟我。 

 

What you get then, 我找一個跟我能練習的人 can probably still be improved upon (I'd shift the 能 back), and we could argue all day about what's most 'natural' (are you talking to a friend about your quest? Writing a classified ad? Actually asking someone to be your language partner?), but it's perfectly decent attempt.  

[陳德聰]

@skylee there isn't going to be any precise test that will reveal what sounds natural, since this is based solely on each individual speaker's intuition. As you can see, that intuition varies across different native speakers of the same language.

[muirm]

What about 我在找一个中文练习伙伴? Gets rid of the slightly awkward 跟我...的人 clause.

[skylee]

Gets rid of the slightly awkward 跟我...的人 clause.

 

Why is it awkward?

[muirm]

I think sentences sound simpler (maybe awkward was a bad word choice) when you can avoid the adjectivy clauses and use a more descriptive noun directly. I prefer "I'm looking for a Chinese teacher" over "I'm looking for someone who can teach me Chinese".

[史奥丁]

我想跟一个人联系！是不是你！？