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新年快乐，大家！

I'm a long-time user of Stack Overflow for coding problems, but a noob on Chinese SE.

I was trying to say recently "I think Disney has a big influence on people's expectations of love".

My answer

I translated to "我觉得迪士尼对人的爱情要求的影响很大"

Doubts

Firstly I wasn't sure if simply saying 人 is appropriate to mean people in general. I was thinking about saying 老百姓 but I wasn't sure if this is a bit of a derogatory term.

Also I think maybe I could have used a better term than 要求 to mean expectations...possibly 希望，期望，期待 ? These three seem interchangeable in my inexperience...are there any differences in usage?

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4 Answers 4

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Yes, 人 would be sufficient to indicate "people in general" in this sentence. 老百姓, though not necessarily derogatory, gives the reader an impression that you're implying there exists some other non-general population group that are not affected/affected differently by Disney.

Next, 期待 and and 期望 are both fine for 愛情, but I would say the former is better, because all results from google gives 對愛情的期待 even when I searched 對愛情的期望. 要求 sounds too aggressive in my opinion, and we generally do not use 希望 for non-humans.

Generally we say "Noun 對 Noun 的期待/期望/要求", so the object should be 人對愛情的期待. However, this causes two 對's to appear, which sounds odd. So my advice would be to replace 人 with 人們, and replace the second 對 with 對於 to ease the effect of multiple 對's.

Finally the 的 before 影響 is optional, and since we already have a 的 in the object, we should omit the second.

The final sentence would be 我觉得迪士尼对人们对于爱情的期望影响很大

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I think Disney has a big influence on people's expectations of love.
我认为迪士尼对人们对于爱的期望产生了很大的影响。

(Yeah, you gotta be a goofy princess or prince and live in a fairy castle!)

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  • Vote for this. I think love here is 爱, not just 爱情。爱情 is too narrow, and Disney movies is about a generic love.
    – sylvia
    Jan 3, 2020 at 5:53
  • @sylvia could you explain this reasoning a little more?
    – Chris A
    Jan 3, 2020 at 8:57
  • @ChrisA 爱情 only refers to romantic love between lovers. However, disney movies are more than that
    – sylvia
    Jan 3, 2020 at 14:54
  • @sylvia What other kind of love do you see in Disney movies? I was more referring to the whole "Prince and Princess" and "live happily ever after" type thing, which, unless I've misinterpreted your explanation, seems to fit correctly into the description of 爱情
    – Chris A
    Jan 3, 2020 at 15:14
  • @ChrisA oh I didn't know you were referring to romantic love from the English sentence I read. Maybe because my impression on Disney movies are more than that.. Hmm, what I can think of: The Lion King doesn't fit into romantic love, but family love.
    – sylvia
    Jan 3, 2020 at 15:23
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Pure Chinese prefers 动宾句, and tends to use less prepositions. So instead of 对......影响很大, it's better to say:

  • 我认为迪士尼极大影响了人们对于爱情的期待。
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Quote:- "I think Disney has a big influence on people's expectations of love"

I am of the humble opinion that the English sentence itself requires improvement.

It should be "I think Disney's depiction / portrayal of love has a big influence on people's expectations"

Because it is not Disney itself, but its depiction / portrayal of love that has a big influence.

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2
  • Also Disney's dead, so we should say "Walt Disney movies"? I think every English speakers understands the sentence already and you're not answering the question.
    – Pierre Arlaud
    Jan 3, 2020 at 8:57
  • @Pierre Arlaud, yes, this should have been in the Comment section and not in the Answer section. I apologize for the oversight.
    – Wayne Cheah
    Jan 3, 2020 at 13:37

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