How to express "I'm reading about (something)" in oral speech/informal contexts?

Question

Good day to you all!

I wanted to express the sentence: "I'm reading about the Malaysian language." I realized I didn't actually know how to express this, so I looked it up on a translator, and what I got back was "我在阅读有关马来西亚语言的信息。"

This sentence seems kinda formal and not very conversational to me. Of course, I could definitely be wrong, but that's just the feeling I get based on the fact that it's kinda wordy and uses “阅读” and “有关.”

So, is the result I got from the translator fine for casual, oral speech, or am I right in thinking this is not how we would express this in an informal conversation? If my hunch is correct, how would we simplify this and make it more casual while keeping the same meaning and idea?

Thanks to you all on this forum. You all do great work!

CLARIFICATION EDIT: In the context here (me reading about Malaysian language) I specifically was not reading a book, but just reading up on the language in general from various (mostly online) sources. So I should have made this question more clear by stating that the context is regarding one reading up on information about something, not necessarily from a book or from one particular source. Thanks so much to user Xuehong Zhang's great answer for making me realize this needed clarification!

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 20 '21 at 08:04

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“I’m reading about Malaysian language.” In Chinese, I’d say something like this: 我在看一点有关马来语的书。

answered Sep 20 '21 at 08:04

Xuehong Zhang

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Yeah, that definitely sounds more natural to my ears, but what if you're not reading a book? Like in my case, I wasn't reading a book about Malaysian language, just various information on it from different sources - none of which were from an actual book (have I outed myself as a millennial by saying this? lol). – AndrewO Sep 20 '21 at 09:06
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In that case, I’ll change it into: 我在看一点有关马来语的东西。or 我在看一点有关马来语的资料。 – Xuehong Zhang Sep 20 '21 at 14:56
Awesome! Thank you! – AndrewO Sep 21 '21 at 02:06
is 关系 and 关 used interchangeably or is the former more formal – 小奥利奥 Sep 21 '21 at 05:00
@小奥利奥 “有关” is a word in Chinese that basically means "regarding" or "about." – AndrewO Sep 22 '21 at 07:35
@AndrewO so is 关系 – 小奥利奥 Sep 23 '21 at 13:44

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '21 at 00:12

I'm reading about the Malaysian language.

Like you said, “我在阅读有关马来西亚语言的信息。” sounds formal and not conversational.

I think a better way to express it would be

我在看马来西亚语方面的东西。

“方面” can be used to express "about", "concerning", etc.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '21 at 02:04

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我在读亚瑟王的传奇故事。
I'm reading about the legend of King Arthur.

我在阅读有关埃及古老金字塔的文章。
I'm reading about the ancient pyramids of Egypt.

(Not really, I'm too busy trying to get my PHP to work!!)

answered Sep 21 '21 at 02:04

Pedroski

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Awesome! I guess if you're getting from information from one specific source (a story, an article, etc.) you should point it out specifically. Thanks for the answer! – AndrewO Sep 21 '21 at 02:10

How to express "I'm reading about (something)" in oral speech/informal contexts?

3 Answers3