"Cooper, thank you so much. You have no idea how much that meant to Jolee. She listened to that photo album over and over, even sneaking into the bathroom when everybody was asleep just to listen. That little album is worth more than the $250 package we had sent to her, which ended up having a few dollars worth of treats and which seemed to be delievered right before we arrived. All the other parents wished they had the same for their newly adopted Chinese children. People really would pay for you to do this."
And that is where it began. I had never thought of doing this for anybody else. I never thought living in China and speaking Mandarin Chinese could be that meaningful to so many people, especially those precious children making such a hard adjustment. I really must give credit to my sister-in-law, who came up with the idea in the first place. I cannot take much credit.
Though my family had a handy little photo album that could record messages to each photo, I did not know that when my sister-in-law initially mentioned the idea. I immediately tried to think through the easiest way to record Chinese messages to go along with a photo album, and came up with the basic solution (described here), to which any number of creative or technological variations could be made.
Anybody wanting just such an album only needs to send me digital copies of the photos and the basic photo captions to be translated into Chinese (Mandarin). I then narrate the photos in simple, easy-to-understand Chinese and record it to an MP3 file. I send you the MP3, you put it on an MP3 player, print out your photos, and place them in any photo album.
All you need besides a photo album a way to play the MP3. You can put it on your existing MP3 player, but with other songs and the potential difficulty selecting the right track, it could become confusing. It is up to you, but I would suggest a cheap player, dedicated for this use only, one your adopted child can keep and listen to over and over. You can find bottom end players for $20 or $30.
If you are interested, here are a few directions to make this photo album the best it can be.
- arrange the photos in the order you want, and let me know that order
- I will direct the listener when to turn the page
- Include photos important to your family: family, friends, your house, their room, swimming pool, church, pets, playgrounds, hobbies, family activities, or whatever else
- idea: you could include the photo of the adopted child
- this was the last photo in my neice's album
- the message can be a powerful reminder of how important they are to you
- keep the message or caption for each photo very short
- about 2 sentences
- about 10 seconds
- clearly write out family relations
- Chinese is much more clear about family relations than English
- clear translation will greatly help your child
- here are examples using "Jolee" as the name of your adopted child
- example: sister (Jolee's older sister)
- example: aunt (Jolee's mother's older sister)
- clarify all relations from the perspective of the adopted child, as Jolee above
- tell me age and education (what you know) of the adopted child
- send digital photos only — scan prints if necessary
And be warned: I will most likely take some liberties in narrating your script. Direct translation is usually confusing. I will specifically target the vocabulary and usage at a child's understanding. Additionally, if you are not a native English speaker, but can get a basic script to me in even broken English, I can still do this for you.
This translation service is US$50 payable via the trusted online payment service PayPal using credit card or, in some countries, direct bank payment. The $50 includes up to 16 photo narrations; each additional photo is $5 (example: 18 photos would cost $60). If interested, just write me:
