# 项目



## yuechu

Oh, those are great! Thanks for the translations, T.D! 
I was just looking up the word  项目 in the dictionary. Does it mean "event"?

Moderator Note: Thread has been branched from here.


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## T.D

yuechu said:


> I was just looking up the word  项目 in the dictionary. Does it mean "event"?


It basically means project， e.g.  工程项目  engineering project 
event is usually translated as 活动 or 事件。  e.g.  促销活动  promotional event  历史事件  historical event
A 项目 is typically designed, planned (and desired, we don't call bad things such as terrorism attacks as 项目), compared to a 事件 which can take place spontaneously.


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## yuechu

Thanks for the extra info, T.D! 
In this case, "French Immersion" started as a small project in the 60s, I believe, and now is used nation-wide. Would 项目 still be appropriate for such a big program? (Does it matter how big the program is for it to be considered a 项目？）


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## T.D

yuechu said:


> Thanks for the extra info, T.D!
> In this case, "French Immersion" started as a small project in the 60s, I believe, and now is used nation-wide. Would 项目 still be appropriate for such a big program? (Does it matter how big the program is for it to be considered a 项目？）


The scale and timespan of a program doesn't really matter. But strictly speaking, when talking about super big 项目， we tend to use 工程. e.g. 长江三峡水利枢纽工程 （note that while officially this is named as 工程, it is still OK to call it a 项目）


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## T.D

The differences are very much conventional and habitual. When used to call a project/program, you can consider them interchangeable in most cases.


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## SuperXW

yuechu said:


> "French Immersion" started as a small project in the 60s, I believe, and now is used nation-wide. Would 项目 still be appropriate for such a big program? (Does it matter how big the program is for it to be considered a 项目？）





T.D said:


> The scale and timespan of a program doesn't really matter. But strictly speaking, when talking about super big 项目， we tend to use 工程. e.g. 长江三峡水利枢纽工程 （note that while officially this is named as 工程, it is still OK to call it a 项目）


Good answer! HOWEVER, is "French Immersion Program" (from the original thread) really a "project" like those 工程 we've listed?
Or does it refer to a type of 课程 like we've talked about in the "program" thread?


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## T.D

SuperXW said:


> Good answer! HOWEVER, is "French Immersion Program" really a "project" like those 工程 we've listed?
> Or it refers to the category of 课程 we've talked about in the "program" thread?


I believe the 'program' here is either 课程 or 项目. Calling it a 工程 makes it sound particularly long-lasting and large in scale, such as in 985工程.


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## T.D

Out of instinct, calling something a 工程 strikes me as there will be some construction work involved. 

So speaking for myself, if the French Immersion program involves something like building new classrooms or expanding the space of colleges, I can happily accept it being called a 工程.  On the other hand, if the program is just expanding enrollments or recruiting more teachers, that's just not enough to make it a 工程.

Fun fact: I randomly asked several of my friends about how they feel about 工程 and 项目, some believe it is multiple 项目 that make up a 工程, while some think it is a serial of 工程 that make a 项目.


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## yuechu

SuperXW said:


> Good answer! HOWEVER, is "French Immersion Program" (from the original thread) really a "project" like those 工程 we've listed?
> Or does it refer to a type of 课程 like we've talked about in the "program" thread?


I think it's more like a 课程, but it starts in primary school and goes until the end of high school. (课程 could work here too, right?)


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## T.D

yuechu said:


> I think it's more like a 课程, but it starts in primary school and goes until the end of high school. (课程 could work here too, right?)


If this is what you are referring to French immersion - Wikipedia, I would say 项目 works better.


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## SuperXW

T.D said:


> If this is what you are referring to French immersion - Wikipedia, I would say 项目 works better.


Since it's not a "organized plan", I'd rather call it 课程 or 法语沉浸教学/法语沉浸教学模式.
It depends on the context.


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## SimonTsai

SimonTsai said:


> '項目' is a word that is used here too, but we use it differently from people in the mainland.


Here in Taiwan, '項目' is used exclusively to refer to an item in a list:

本測驗共計六小時，含聽力、閱讀、寫作以及口語表達這四個【項目】。
這位先生，不好意思，這不是我們的業務【項目】。建議您到五樓，稅務通常都在那裏辦理。



SuperXW said:


> 基于题主对此 program 的描述，以及对 program 一词的讨论，我还是觉得这个是一种延续性的 “课程”，不是个 “项目” 或 “计划”。


The English word '_programme_' is ambiguous. I think of it in this case as either a group of related projects aimed at improving national French proficiency, or a series of modules that go throughout primary and secondary education.


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