Jenni Lukac (X) Apr 6, 2012:

Have a good weekend!

Shirley Fan (asker) Apr 6, 2012:

ok,I got it. I misunderstood that pani means doctor too.Now I understand! Thank you!

Jenni Lukac (X) Apr 5, 2012:

Hi Shirley. "physician doctor" would be a redundancy in English, but I don't know if we be considered a redundancy in Chinese. "Pani" is a word of respect for an adult woman and "doctor" is a word of respect for a learned person (in this case learned in medicine). Are there similar words in Chinese?

Shirley Fan (asker) Apr 5, 2012:

In this way,maybe I could translate it into "physician doctor"?In Chinese we can call a doctor both “大夫"or “医生".Maybe I can call it "医生大夫"?

Jenni Lukac (X) Apr 3, 2012:

It's a tricky question, but I think the gesture of respect adds a special flavor of humanity to the story.

Darius Saczuk Apr 3, 2012:

Yup, "Madam Doctor" might do the trick.

Jenni Lukac (X) Apr 3, 2012:

I think this adds a "voice" to the story. I don't know how old this girl is, that she was obviously amused at being called both "Pani" and "Doctor." Perhaps you could say "Madam Doctor." This is a difficult call. I think that the time she is writing about is the 1940s. People were much more formal then and "Ms" hadn't been invented. In the 1940s, people would have made a stricter distinction between Miss and Mrs in English, but you're doing a translation in the year 2012. (I'm assuming you're translating.) That means that you will either choose to make everything sound the way people spoke in the 1940s, or try to give the narrative a slightly more modern voice. As "Miss" is now considered somewhat derogatory and condescending to many women, using an equivalent of "Madam" might be a way a solution as it is a bit archaic and a bit exotic to a young reader these days but it doesn't carry any negative connotations.

Darius Saczuk Apr 3, 2012:

It does not sound "kosher".

Shirley Fan (asker) Apr 1, 2012:

This doctor is a girl~can I translate it into a "woman doctor" or a "miss doctor"?

Darius Saczuk Mar 31, 2012:

OK, Jenni. ;-)

Jenni Lukac (X) Mar 31, 2012:

Dariusz, why don't you offer this as an answer so Shirley can give you the points for this answer?

Darius Saczuk Mar 31, 2012:

Pani = Madam/Mrs./Miss/.