description in chinese papers

[John Noyes]

Actually, the problem is pretty bad for even educated Chinese. I had
recently had a book on Chinese parasitic wasps which had hosts and host
food plants which were of interest to me. I asked a Chinese entomologist
(taxonomist) colleague if he could translate these into English but he said
it would take him days because the names were compound and not simple. It
would take him time to decide how to split them up so that he could look
them up in a biological dictionary.

John

At 07:29 AM 2/13/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>At 09:20 AM 2/13/01 +1100, you wrote:
>
>>The biggest problem of Chinese language is that ordinary layman a Chinese
>>person is not able to read entomological texts.
>>I have try my friend who was born in China, he is Chinese and who is
>>teacher of english in Australia, and even he was not able to translate 3
lines
>>description.
>
>I suspect the same is true for English or any language: the technical terms
>used in any specialized endeavor, such as entomology, are just not in the
>untrained layman's vocabulary.  He will recognize it as his own language,
>but will not fathom the meaning.  Much the same as Lewis Carroll's
>"Jabberwocky" ["'Twas brillig and the slithety toves did gyre and gimble in
>the wabe ..."]: it sure LOOKS and SOUNDS like English, but what in the
>world is he SAYING???
>
>
>Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.
>
>Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
>Department of Biology and Microbiology
>University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
>Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA
>
>e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
>phone:      920-424-1002
>fax:           920-424-1101
>
>Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
>biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
>                                                 -- Anonymous
>
>

John S. Noyes, Entomology Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell
Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 5BD, UK

Tel. +44 (0)207-942-5594  Fax: +44 (0)207-942-5229

INTERNET: jsn at NHM.ac.uk

Interactive catalogue and biological database of World Chalcidoidea:

http://www.springer-ny.com/detail.tpl?cart=97108527710714749&ISBN=354014675X
or search for Noyes at:
http://www.springer-ny.com/

Encyrtidae of Costa Rica:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/science/intro/entom/project2/index.html

Course on taxonomy and biology of parasitic Hymenoptera:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/hymcours