DavidW.Ferguson,BorninScotland,DavidgraduatedinlawfromEdinburghUniversity.Hefirstworkedworldwideasamanagementconsultant,andlaterranamediacompanyworkingwithhigh-profilenameslikeManchesterUnitedTV.
DavidcametoBeijingin2008,whereheworksasajournalist,editorandwriter.HecoveredtheWenchuanearthquakeinMay2008andhaseditedanumberofhighprofilepublications,includingtheEnglishversionsofVolumesIandIIofTheGovernanceofChinabypresidentXiJinping,andmanyotherhighprofilebooksanddocumentssuchasgovernmentWhitePapers.HeisapanelmemberfortheChinaAssociationofTranslatorsinternationaltranslationworkshop,andpresentsregularseminarsandtrainingsessionsonEnglishtranslationandediting,andrelatedsubjects.
HehaswrittensixbooksoncontemporaryChina,aswellasillustratedfictionforyoungchildren.HeistheauthorEnglish,ChinglishandWronglish,anEnglishteachingguideforstudents,translators,andotherChineseworkingwithEnglishinaprofessionalcapacity.Book1waspublishedin2018,withBook2tofollowinearly2019.
LectureModules:Chinese-EnglishTranslation–LanguageIssues
Summary:ThismoduledealswithcommonmistakesthatChineseoftenmakewhenwritinginortranslatingintoEnglish,involvingspecificwordsandexpressions.ItreflectsthecontentofEnglishChinglishandWronglishBook1.
Content:ThemodulefirstexploressomeofthehistoricalandculturalreasonswhyEnglishisadifficultlanguageforChinesetoworkin,andwhytherearemanyspecificerrorsthatarerepeatedthroughoutChineseEnglish,notonlyatthelevelofschoolandundergraduateuniversitystudents,butevenbyhighly-qualifiedandexperiencedtranslators.Usingspecificreal-lifeexamples,themodulethenpresentsaseriesofindividualwordsandexpressionsthatareregularlymisused,andexplainshowtoidentify,understandandcorrectthesemistakes.