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I'm trying to say "I went to Indonesia to give a talk at a conference." My best attempt thus far is:

我去了Indonesia参加会议做报告
wǒ qùle Indonesia cānjiā huìyì zuò bàogào

It's a fairly literal translation from English ("I go[past tense] Indonesia attend conference give talk"). (I'm happy to say "Indonesia" in English, as the Chinese 印度尼西亚 sounds basically the same.)

I think it's okay to say this, but I'm not sure if I should use 报告 (bàogào) or 演讲 (yǎnjiǎng) (or even 讲演 (jiǎngyǎn)) which all basically mean "talk".

Question: When should one use 报告 or 演讲 when saying "to give a talk"?

I found some snippets online:

谢谢你们听我的演讲,英语怎么说? (ref.)
Xièxiè nǐmen tīng wǒ de yǎnjiǎng, yīngyǔ zěnme shuō?

Which I think translates to "Thank you[plural] for listening to my talk; how do I say this in English?"

谁上个星期听我的报告? (ref.)
Shéi shàng gè xīngqí tīng wǒ de bàogào?

Which I think translates to "Who listened to my talk last week?"

This suggests that both can be used in certain circumstances.

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2 Answers 2

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报告 means "report"

演讲 means "speech"

It all depends on the content of your speech.

  • If you are reading a report to inform people about some facts, you should use 发表报告 (give a report)

  • If you are invited to educate people in the conference about some facts, then you can use 发表演讲 (give a speech/lecture)

  • If you are expressing your opinions in the conference, then you should say 发表言论 (give my opinions/ comments)

  • In any case, 报告, 演讲 and 言论 are all spoken words, so all can be referred to "talk" in English " e.g. "who listened to my talk in the conference?"

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  • We use 报告 when we are making a report about our paper submitted to a research conference.
    – fefe
    Sep 15, 2017 at 5:49
  • 报告 put focus to data / statistics / facts, but 演讲 put focus to your opnions. Sep 15, 2017 at 8:13
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  1. "I went to Indonesia to give a talk at a conference." 我去Indonesia在一个会议上做了演讲。

  2. 报告 is like the word 'report' in English, while 讲演 is more like 'talk' in English.

  3. Your translation for "谢谢你们听我的演讲,英语怎么说?" is fine.

  4. The sentence "谁上个星期听我的报告?" has an issue. It should be 谁上个星期听我的报告?. 了 here connotes the 'completion' and can not be omitted. Otherwise, it sounds like the speaker is asking "who would go for my talk?", but it actually had been finished last week. It doesn't make sense. It would make sense if put "谁个星期听我的报告?", which asking who will go for it next week.

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