I'd like to learn to read math articles in Japanese or Chinese, but I am not interested in learning these languages from usual textbooks. Exist suitable texts, specialized for the needs for reading mathematics? What do you suggest?
I look for something similar to "Russian for the mathematician", which was very usefull when I was interested in some russian articles. In the language books I know, most of the vocabulary is irrelevant for reading mathematics, but needed terminology is missing. A collection of mathematical vocabulary and training texts with translation would be usefull. I know good books, e.g. Bowring "An introduction to modern Japanese" or Lewin "Textlehrbuch der japanischen Sprache" and could read articles about history or humanities after having read them, but not mathematics (resulting in forgetting the language by lack of training).
Edit: F. Orgogozo's dictionary. (BTW, giving the direct link did not work, app. jap./chin. characters not accepted within a url by the MO-software)
Edit: Zagier's dictionary.
Best Answer
Here are a few for chinese:
Commercial Press Staff. English-Chinese Dictionary of Mathematical Terms. New York: French & European Publications, Incorporated, 1980.
De Francis, John F. Chinese-English Glossary of the Mathematical Sciences. Reprint. Ann Arbor, MI: Books on Demand.
Dictionary of Mathematics. New York: French & European Publications, Incorporated, 1974.
He Xiuhuang. A Glossary of Logical Terms. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1982.
Science Press Staff. English - Chinese Mathematical Dictionary. Second Edition. New York: French & European Publications, Incorporated, 1989.
Science Press Staff. Chinese-English Mathematical Dictionary. New York: French & European Publications, Incorporated, 1990.
Science Press Staff. New Russian - Chinese Dictionary of Mathematical Terms. New York: French & European Publications, Incorporated, 1988.
Silverman, Alan S. Handbook of Chinese for Mathematicians. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies, 1970.
Source: here
I have never read any of these books, and I honestly doubt it that they have all the mathematical terms (especially in higher more sophisticated fields). Don't expect to be able to write "diffeomorphism between manifolds" in chinese or japanese immediately. I suggest you take a look at these references in your public library and get one that helps you the most. To be honest, I am also interested I have several chinese papers I really want to read. I would first try anything with the latest jedict/edict/cedict, and then try something else like the above references.