Transcription into Chinese characters

Transcription
Front cover of Names of the World's Peoples: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Names in Roman-Chinese, the official transcription guide of mainland China.
Traditional Chinese	音譯
Simplified Chinese	音译
Literal meaning	sound translation transcribe
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin yīnyì
Transcription
Traditional Chinese	譯名
Simplified Chinese	译名
Literal meaning	translated name
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin yìmíng

Transcription into Chinese characters is the use of traditional or simplified Chinese characters to phonetically transcribe the sound of terms and names of foreign words to the Chinese language. Transcription is distinct from translation into Chinese whereby the meaning of a foreign word is communicated in Chinese. Since English classes are now standard in most secondary schools, it is increasingly common to see foreign names and terms left in their original form in Chinese texts.^{[citation needed]} However, for mass media and marketing within China and for non-European languages, particularly those of the Chinese minorities, transcription into characters remains very common.

Except for a handful of traditional exceptions, most modern transcription in mainland China uses the standardized Mandarin pronunciations exclusively.