| ORTHOGRAPHY (WRITING SYSTEM) |
• Alphabetic spellings, e.g. Chinese
• One set of characters |
• Characters, e.g. 中文
• Character sets: traditional and simplified |
| TYPOGRAPHY |
• Boldface, underline, italics, ALL CAPS
• Spacing between words |
• Boldface, underline, rarely in italics
• Spacing between characters |
| SYMBOLS |
• X (marks a response)
• – (indicates the end of the question text will be continued in the response categories) (e.g., this house was –) |
• X (indicates negative response) and √ (indicates affirmative response)
• – (means “one” in Chinese) |
| LINGUISTIC FEATURES |
• In general no distinct dialects
• Auxiliary verbs (e.g., do, be, have)
• Tenses
• Plural forms (e.g., -s, -es) |
• Mandarin and Cantonese are major spoken dialects
• In general, auxiliary verbs, tenses, and plural forms are not directly applicable |
| SOCIOCULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS |
• Survey conventions are developed in English, such as the use of symbols.
• Use “you” to address everyone
• Generic terms possible |
• English language survey conventions do not always “translate”, e.g. the use of symbols.
• Term of address “you”: 您 (respectful) vs. 你 (peer-to-peer)
•
Context and specific terms needed |