DECLARATION
I certify this report of the Study Project entitled: “The difficulties and some solutions to Vietnamese-English translation” to total fulfillment of the requirement for the report of graduation practice.
Son La, April 2011
Nguyễn Thị Thiện
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisors, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuy and Mrs. Nguyen Mai Huong, lecturers of the Foreign Languages Department of Son La College. This report could have probably not completed without their patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement.
I also would like to show my profound gratitude to all the lecturers in the Foreign Languages Department in Son La College for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over the past three years.
My special thanks go as well as to the Foreign Languages Department of Son La College for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement this report.
I also would like to delicate my special thanks to my classmates in English course 45, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuable suggestions.
Especially, I am obliged to my friends who looked closely at the final providing me their translation exercises and assignments to use as version of the report for English style and grammar, correcting both and offering suggestions for improvement.
Finally, I can not fully express my gratitude to all people whose direct and indirect support me to accomplish my report in time. My report still has many shortcomings.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PageDeclaration / 1
Acknowledgement / 2
Table of contents / 3
Part I: Introduction / 4
1. Rationale / 4
2. Aims and objectives / 4
3. Methods / 5
4. Structure / 5
Part II: The contents / 6
Chapter 1: The literature of Vietnamese-English translation / 6
1. What is Vietnamese-English translation / 6
2. History of translation / 6
3. Why is it necessary to translate / 7
4. The dynamics of translation / 7
Chapter 2: The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation / 9
1. The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation / 9
2. The difficulties from difference of language / 9
3. The difficulties from difference of culture between countries / 11
4. The difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level / 13
5. The difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions / 18
Chapter 3: The suggested solutions to improve Vietnamese-English translation / 20
1. The solution to difference of language / 20
2. The solution to difference of culture between countries / 21
3. How to deal with non-equivalence at word level / 21
4. How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions / 24
Part III: Conclusion / 26
References / 28
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
When practicing translation at College, students often have lot of difficulties, such as, how to remember what has been said, how to express an idea clearly and quickly in the target language, how to deal with non equivalence at word level, how to deal with newspaper headlines, etc. In order to find some causes of the difficulties to translation, especially, to Vietnamese-English translation and give some solutions to improve Vietnamese-English translation “The difficulties and some solutions to Vietnamese-English translation” is produced.
It is important for prospective translators to understand the process of translation, to identify the problems in doing translation and then to efficiency and feasible solutions these issues are also the main content of this written.
2. Aims and objectives
Understanding about the difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation from that we can know how to use translation techniques and skills. Moreover, we can more understand about cultural concerns in translation, know the way to solve problem situations, how to use specialized terminology in some field, such as, political-social, literary-art, scientific-technical.
Moreover, the report concentrates on analyzing in details the Vietnamese-English translation. It touches upon translations of this kind by English students as well as translator for Vietnamese magazines, newspapers and publishers. This is due to the fact that not only translations by students but worryingly, those by some contemporary professional translators in Vietnam can be dubbed difficulties. This is a flow we need to eliminate or at least reduce to the minimum level with a view to purifying out mother tongue and providing readers with the best possible sources of knowledge and enjoyment. This is important to the development of Vietnamese culture and the society in the future.
The primary aim of the report is to share with English students, who would be translators, an overview of the frequently seen types of difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation. So that they are fully aware and able to avoid them. The report also aim at finding some possible strategies to improve the difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation. Nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work can consider it a useful reference helping improve their translating skills.
3. Methods
Sampling
The process of collecting samples consists of two main step. First, through classroom lectures and translation activities and self-study. In both Vietnamese-English were taken to enable comparison between translation texts and the original later. Second, the content of the sign were transcribed saved in the format of printable word documents.
Data analysis process
Obviously, translation can be understood either as a process, i.e. the activity of translating, or as a product, i.e. the text that has been translated. It should be note that translation activity is hardly of just applying different, translation methods to convey the message of the source text. Linguistic knowledge, particularly, grammar, is also crucial to quality of a translation. Accordingly, in order to have comprehensive analysis. The English version of each document was examined from two different perspectives as a product of translation activity and as an independent text.
4. Structure
As can be seen from the content page, I divided my report in to 3 parts:
The first part is introduction, this part focus on rationale, aims and objective, methods and structure of this report.
The second part is the main contents of the report including:
Chapter 1: The literature of Vietnamese-English translation (focus on the definition of Vietnamese-English translation, history of translation, the dynamics of translation).
Chapter 2: The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation (in this chapter, I will show some difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation, such as, the difficulties from difference of language, the difficulties from difference of culture between countries, the difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level, the difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions).
Chapter 3 suggests some solutions to improve Vietnamese-English translation.
The third part is conclusion (brief overview and summary of the report, final comments).
PART II: CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1:
THE LITERATURE OF VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION
1. What is Vietnamese-English translation?
Vietnamese-English translation is rendering a Vietnamese written text into English in the way that the author intended the text.
Translators are concerned with the written word. They render written texts from Vietnamese into English. Translators are required to undertake assignments, which range from simple items, such as, birth certificates and driving licenses to more complex written material, such as, articles in specialized professional journals, economical article, legal documents.
2. History of translation
According to "Interpreting and translation course book" (1997) of Bui Tien Bao, Dang Xuan Khu. Translation have always been done by somebody for somebody. The first trace of translation dates from 3000 BC, during the Egyptian Old Kingdom, the area of the first Cataract, Elephantine, where inscriptions in two languages have been found. It is became a significant factor in the West in 300 BC Luther's Bible translation in 1522 laid the foundations of modern German. In the 19th century translation was mainly in a one-way means of communication between prominent men of letters and to a lesser degree, philosophers and scientists and their educated readers abroad. Whilst trade was conducted in the language of the dominant nation, and diplomacy, previously in Latin, was in French.
The 20th century have been called the "age of translation" to which one may add "and interpreting". International agreements between states, public and private organizations are now translated for all interested parties, whether or not the signatories understand each other's language. The setting up of a new international body, the constitution of an independent state, the formation enhanced importance. The exponential increase in technology (parents, specifications, documentation), the attempt to bring it to developing countries, the simultaneous publication of the same book in various languages, the increase in world communication, has correspondingly increased requirements. That the very survival of such bodies as the United Nation is crucially dependent on interpreting and translation can be taken as a good example of the importance of translation and interpreting.
3. Why is it necessary to translate?
Even with the most up-to-date and sophisticated communication system, we can never know how many languages man uses today in the world, let alone how many languages man has used during the course of his development. Some sources say there are some two or three thousand language being used in the word, but some other say the number may be as large as eight thousand. What a habit man has, that of speaking different tongues. And thus he offers himself difficulties and obstacles.
Since communication within only one speech community is not enough, certainly there has a great number of time arisen a situation in which some individuals are unable to understand the words or expressions of some others this phenomenon creates a barrier to understanding whenever man tries to communicate across a great distance of space or across a great interval of time. Some things have to be done to overcome this restriction. One way to cope with the restriction is for individuals to know the foreign language. But this is not the final solution because apparently no individual in the world can an know all the language in use. The best polyglot so far knows only about twenty five languages, and still people want to read what other people write and what other people say. Translation may be considered as the most universally accepted solution for surmounting the obstacle. And thus there is a need for professional translators.
4. The dynamics of translation (Peter New mark)
There are some participants/ actors in the translation process:
L1 C1 L1 C1 L1 C1 L2 C2Author è Reader èTranslator è Reader
L2 C2
Translation Initiator
Translation Commissioner
9. The truth ( the facts of the matter )
1. SL writer 5. TL readership
2. SL norms 6. TL norms
TEXT
3. SL culture 7. TL culture
4. SL setting 8. TL setting
and tradition and tradition
10. Translator
A text is pulled in ten different directions, as follows:
1. The individual style or idiolect of the source language(SL) author. when should it be preserved, normalized?
2. The conventional grammatical and lexical usage for this type of text, depending on the topic and situation.
3. Content items referring specifically to the SL, or the third language (i.e. not source language or target language (TL) cultures.
4. The typical format of a text in a book, periodical, newspaper etc, as in influenced by tradition at the time.
5. The expectations of the putative readership, bearing in mind their estimated knowledge of the topic and the style of language they use, expressed in terms of the largest common factor, since one should not translate down (or up ) to the readership.
6,7,8. As for 2,3 and 4 respectively, but related to the TL.
9. What is being described or reported, ascertained or verified (the referential truth). Where possible independently of the SL text and the expectations of the readership.
10. The views and perfidies of the translator, which may be personal and subjective, or may be social and cultural, involving the translator’s “group loyalty factor”, which may reflect the national, political, ethnic, religious, social class, sex etc, assumptions of the translator.
CHAPTER 2:
THE DIFFICULTIES TO VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION
1. The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation
The classification of the difficulty in translation have great significance in term of methodology, while also creating awareness to the general freedom to bring forward, build a strategy and tactics to help translation work and training translate better.
The difficulties are divided into 2 major types. They are : Common difficulties and their own difficulties. Common difficulties occur in the full process of translation with any languages and in all types of translation. Their own difficulties are limited by a certain aspect of the translation, such as: For each type of translation, each type of writing (political- social, literary- art, scientific- technical,…), each language-specific (Vietnamese- English,…), as well as individual, functional units degrees in difference of language. For example : Translate nouns, verb, conjunctions, prepositions, subject, simple sentences complex sentences,…
Base on the origins, causes, I divided common difficulties into 4 types: The difficulties from difference of language, the difficulties from difference of culture between countries, the difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level, the difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions.
2. The difficulties from difference of language
This is the most seen difficulty and the most direct impact to the process of translation. For example: "Mẹ tôi 42 tuổi. Bà làm việc ở trên cánh đồng". We translate "she", what is "she"? It is not simple because to show the third person in singular and belong to female, in Vietnamese language has many words to choice, such as," nó, y, mụ ta, bà ấy, cô ấy,etc". In the above situation, we can choice the word "bà ấy". When translate we have to choice the word which suit with the context and meaning, that is reflect reality in the text.