Today, translating English terms is critical to the process of custom operations in development society. Furthermore, it aids management agencies at all levels in formulating short and longterm future development directions. In addition, translating Engli

Today, translating English terms is critical to the process of custom operations in development society. Furthermore, it aids management agencies at all levels in formulating short and longterm future development directions. In addition, translating English terms in custom operations are necessary legal basis for foreigners, to contribute to investment and development of those areas. As a result, translating English terms becomes a crucial task for supporting and guiding foreign units. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to discover specific terms that officers usually apply, problems they encounter while translating, as well as possible solutions in enhancing the quality of the translation terms. The study collected data on 50 participants who currently working in custom operations field about types of documents that they usually work on, specific terms, problems and solutions. The results show that the officers have to work with multiple types of documents, as evidenced by the quantitative data. Moreover, they have to translate some documents to guide foreigners and they also have to deal with some problems at least one time. This study also suggests some possible solutions that every officers can apply to improve the quality of the translation documents.

APPLYING THE TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH TERMS IN

ABSTRACT

Today, translating English terms is critical to the process of customoperations in development society Furthermore, it aids management agencies atall levels in formulating short- and long-term future development directions Inaddition, translating English terms in custom operations are necessary legalbasis for foreigners, to contribute to investment and development of those areas

As a result, translating English terms becomes a crucial task for supporting andguiding foreign units Therefore, the purpose of this study was to discoverspecific terms that officers usually apply, problems they encounter whiletranslating, as well as possible solutions in enhancing the quality of thetranslation terms The study collected data on 50 participants who currentlyworking in custom operations field about types of documents that they usuallywork on, specific terms, problems and solutions The results show that theofficers have to work with multiple types of documents, as evidenced by thequantitative data Moreover, they have to translate some documents to guideforeigners and they also have to deal with some problems at least one time Thisstudy also suggests some possible solutions that every officers can apply toimprove the quality of the translation documents

Keywords: custom operations , translation, specific terms.

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and some suggestions for further researches.

1.1 Background to the study

In the context that Vietnam is in the process of deep andcomprehensive integration with the world economy, participation in freetrade agreements (FTAs) is increasingly having significant impacts oninternational trade activities, requires Vietnam to quickly promote reform,development, and modernization of trade management mechanisms andpolicies in general, and state management policies on customs, in particular,

to adapt to the new situation, in order to while creating maximum tradefacilitation for international trade activities, while observing and complyingwith the provisions of law and ensuring security and national economicinterests

After 75 years of construction and growth (from September 10, 1945),the role of the Customs sector has been increasingly affirmed, especially inthe current international economic integration conditions Customs has thetask of being the frontline unit of the border, facilitating and implementing

customs control over foreign economic activities, import and export,investment, tourism, and integration with the region and the world,contributing to the country's socio-economic development.

On the other hand, the customs authority plays a very important role inthe state management of goods import and export activities in order toprotect national security, facilitate trade and collect export and import tax asprescribed by law In the context that Vietnam has a long border withChina, Laos, and Cambodia with many official border gates and trails andopenings in complex natural terrain conditions, cross-border trade relationsare increasingly developing, and cross-border smuggling activities and tradefrauds are becoming more and more complicated, affecting domesticproduction and losing budget revenue This practice requires that the statemanagement of customs should be strengthened, ensuring its effectivenessand efficiency Therefore, the title "Role of Vietnam Customs in cross-border trade management" has practical significance, determining the role

of Vietnam Customs, and improving the efficiency of border trademanagement world, including taking into account coordination measuresbetween Customs and ministries, and branches

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With such importance, today's foreign trade activities mostly have touse foreign languages, documents, contracts, import and export activities,and communication all using English to work and exchange goods.Especially for customs operations, the use of English translation terms isalso very necessary, it shows professionalism and science for the Customsoperation, so to grasp this situation, the writer decided to conduct the topic

“Applying the translation of English terms in Customs operations” to do

the graduation thesis

1.2 Aims of the Study

The primary aim of the thesis is to research the situation of usingEnglish translation terms in customs activities such as immigrationprocedures, import-export goods, risk management, anti-smuggling controland post-clearance inspection through customs regimes, contracts,documents to see the advantages and disadvantages and thereby improve theapplication of English translation terms in Customs operations

1.3 Research Questions

The study focuses on the following two questions:

(1) What are the types of documents do the officers usually work on?

(2) What specific terms are related to that types of documents?

(3) What suggestions is suitable for improving the quality of the translation documents of customs operations?

1.4 Significance of the Study

Translation is the process of exchanging a language to another, usuallypopular ones (in this case, it is English) in order to help readers easilyunderstand about something The process of translating documents requireperformer must have necessary knowledge about thecontent so that they can

select suitable words to use Therefore, improving essential knowledge for this field will be helpful so that we can choose words and apply them in a

smooth and fluent way

1.5 Thesis Outline

The structure of the thesis consists of 6 chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction, this chapter will show the background, aims,research questions, and significance of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review, this chapter will indicate the theoreticalFramework and previous studies that are linked to the topic

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Chapter 3: Methodology, this chapter will write about the researchcontext, research tools, methods, and data processing of the study.

Chapter 4: Findings/results, this chapter focuses on analyzing thecollected data as a basis for discussing the research problem

Chapter 5: Discussion, this chapter will discuss the research problemand compare the research results with previous research

Chapter 6: Conclusion, summarize research problems, suggestions, andrecommendations for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents a literature review of the research's prominentthemes This theoretical overview contains the definitions, advantages anddisadvantages related to custom operations, and some general solutions inorder to improve the ability to translate any custom operations

2.1 Theoretical Framework

2.1.1 The definition of translation

Translation has been various defined The following definitions havebeen selected because they are really typical in some senses; and they canpartly raise the issues, which we are going to pursue in detail later

According to Advanced Oxford Dictionary, translation is the process ofchanging something that is written or spoken into another language.Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (sourcelanguage) by equivalent textual material in another language (targetlanguage) (Catford, 1965)

Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and thesubsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation"that communicates the same message in another language The text to betranslated is called the "source text" and the language that it is to be

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translated into is called the "target language"; the final product is sometimescalled the "target text" (Wikipedia)

Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation ofwritten source language text into an optimally equivalent target languagetext, and which requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmaticunderstanding and analytical processing of the source language (Wilss,1982)

Translation is the expression in another language (target language) ofwhat has been expressed in one language (source language), preservingsemantic and stylistic equivalences (Bell.R., 1991)

These concepts support the idea that translation is a complex process Irequire theoretical knowledge as well as practical experiences The formsare referred to as the surface structure of a language It is a structural part of

a language, which is actually seen in print or heard speech In translation,the form of the receptor or target language replaces the form of the sourcelanguage But how is this change accomplished? What determines thechoice of form in the translation?

According Russian author in “Russian Encyclopedia” (1976:473-474)

“terminology is a word or a combination of words that denotes the conceptprecisely and its relationship with other concept in specific area.Terminology is a specialized and restricted expression on things,phenomenon, characteristic, and the relationships in specific profession”.Many Vietnamese linguistics such as Do Huu Chau (1998), Luu VanLang (1979), also provided definitions of terminology Do Huu chau claims:

“terms are specialist words used within a scientific field, a profession or anytechnological field” Yet, the newest and most informative definition wasthe one by Nguyen Thien Giap (1985:308-309) He claimed thatterminology, which is understood as a specific linguistic unit of a language,consist of word and fixed phrase that provides precise definition on

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objective that belong to a particular scientific area In “the conference onBuilding Terminology System” held by the State Community of Science(1969, Ha Noi) general criteria of terminology were discussed theconcluded that the following qualities should be in terminology: (1)accurateness, (2) systematize, (3) internationalism.

2.2.2 The characteristics of terms

There is distinction between technical and descriptive terms Theoriginal source language writer may use a descriptive term for a technicalobject for three reasons:

The objective is new and not yet has a name The descriptive term isbeing used as a familiar alternative, to avoid repetition

The descriptive term is being used to make a contrast with another one.Normally, you should translate technical and descriptive terms by theircounterparts and, in particular, resist the temptation of translating adescriptive by a technical term for showing off your knowledge, there bysacrificing the linguistic force of the SL descriptive term However, if the

SL descriptive term is being used either because of the SL writer’signorance or negligence, or because the appropriate technical term does notexist in the SL, and in particular if an object strange to the SL but not to the

TL culture is being referred to, then you are justified in translating adescriptive by a technical term.

Terminology makes up perhaps 5-10 % of a text The rest is “language”usually a natural style of language; and there you normally find anauthoritative text aspires to such a style; if it does not, you gently convert it

to natural and elegant language-the write will be grateful to you

2.2.3 Terms of Customs

According to structure, Customs Terms consist of following types:Single terms are those that consist of just one word, example: Export,Customer, Import, etc…

Compound terms are terms consisting of two or more words, most ofthem are compound nouns

Phrases: Most of them are noun phrases: Commission based agent,Exclusive distributor, Export-import procedures, etc…

Abbreviations: OEM: original equipment manufacturer, VAT: valueadded tax, GST: goods and service tax, etc…

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2.3 Overview of Customs operations

These activities are aimed at protecting, restoring and promoting thedevelopment of domestic goods, increasing the competitive potential ofdomestically produced goods, promoting exports, and contributing toprotection of domestic goods national interests and sovereignty, economicsecurity and social safety

Customs is a sector responsible for inspecting and supervising goodsand means of transport, preventing and combating smuggling and illegalcross-border trafficking of goods Organizing the implementation of taxlaws on exported and imported goods, proposing policies and measures for

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%BFng%20Anh%20l%C3%A0%20Customs%20v%C3%A0%20%C4%91%E1%BB%8Bnh%20ngh%C4%A9a

State management over customs for export, import, exit, entry and transitactivities and tax policy on imported and exported goods.

2.3.2 The popular construction of terms and strategies applied for

translating Custom terms

a) Single terms

Due to limited time and knowledge, this reseach only focus on somepopular single terms, most of them are formed by the help of suffixes Noun–forming suffixes: “ance”, “ion”, “er”, “y” …

Auction: a sale in which things are sold to the

person who offers the mostmoney

Đấu giá

Consumption: the amount of something that

someone uses, eats, or drinks

Tiêu thụ

Remittance: the act of sending payment to

someone

Chuyển tiền

Advance: to pay someone some money before

the regular time

Tiền trả trước thời hạn

Customer: a person who buys goods or a service Khách hàng

Supplier: a company that sells something Nhà cung cấp

Delivery: the act of taking goods, letters,

parcels, etc to people'shouses or places of work

Giao hàng

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b) Compound terms

In Customs operations as well as many other fields, most of terms arecompound terms which are formed by joining two or more words together.Most of them are compound nouns, compound adjectives Noun + Noun:

c) Phrases

2.3.3 Custom documents

Customs documents are the necessary customs declaration papers,dossiers and documents to be submitted to the customs authority inaccordance with the Customs Law

Customs documents to prepare

If you are in need of customs procedures to export and import goodsbut still do not know what documents to prepare, then you need to preparesome of the following documents:

Foreign trade contracts

A foreign trade contract is a written agreement between a buyer and aseller in two different countries, with information on both sides and theterms of the contract Important contract terms include:

 Description of goods

 Product quality

 Quantity and weight of goods

 Unit price with commercial conditions

 Delivery time and place

 Payment method and term

In addition, in the contract, there should be a number of additionalprovisions to ensure that the requirements of the parties are met, such as:Packaging and labeling of goods

 Goods warranty

 Complain

 Majeure

 Arbitration

 Some other terms

Each contract will have different specific content and change to suit theactual situation However, despite many differences, in general, foreigntrade contracts still have to mention some important information above

Commercial Invoice

Commercial invoice is a document issued by the exporter of goods,with the purpose of collecting money from the buyer in batches and theinformation signed on the contract The main function of this type ofdocument is for payment, so you need to clarify the invoice number anddate, unit price, unit of sale, signatures of both buyer and seller

Packing slips

A packing slip is a document showing how shipments arepacked Accordingly, the supplier needs to specify how the goods arepacked, how much weight, how many bales That means, when looking atthe packing slip, you understand how the shipment was packed any Thiswill help the buyer to calculate”

 What means of transport and how many places to load and unload?

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 Can use workers to load or unload or use specialized vehicles such asforklifts, cranes

 What means of transport do you use to transport the goods, how manysizes…

In addition, for many people who are not used to reading documents, it

is easy to get confused between commercial invoice and packing slip Insome cases, these two types of documents are quite similar and containmuch of the same information However, you need to keep in mind that theyhave different functions and need their own specific data

Accordingly, the commercial invoice, the documents will be in favor ofpayment, and the packing slip should show how the goods are packed, howmany packages, weight and volume

Bill of lading

This type of document represents ownership of the goods Bill oflading is issued by the carrier of the goods to the consignor, and thenreturned to the consignee Depending on the form of payment, you need tosubmit a copy or an original For example, for the form of L/C payment,only a copy is needed, while for TT or DP, the original must be submitted

Customs declaration

A customs declaration is a document that declares import and exportgoods to a customs office for the purpose of making goods eligible forexport or import into a country In the past, declarants often had to write byhand according to a pre-printed form, but now, most of the Sub-Departments have switched to declaring and submitting declarations in theform of electronic customs by software

Other documents

Some other customs documents may or may not be available depending

on different cases May be mentioned as:

 Proforma invoice: A document confirming the shipment and theamount the buyer needs to pay

 Letter of Credit: A letter written by a bank at the request of the buyer,

in which it is committed to pay the seller within a certain time, if theseller presents all valid documents

 Insurance documents include insurance policy, insurancecertificate Depending on the delivery conditions, the purchase ofinsurance will be undertaken by the seller or the buyer

 Certificate of Origin: Is a document proving the origin and origin ofgoods produced in which region, territory or country This isextremely important for shippers because they enjoy special taxincentives or tax breaks

 There are also a number of other documents such as qualitycertificates, inspection certificates, hygiene certificates, etc

Prepare a set of goods documents

Before going through customs procedures for export or import, youneed to prepare the customs documents as given in the abovecontent Accordingly, you need to print the application forms, fill in all theinformation and carefully check the font, the form of the text for thedocument to be valid with the law

If you do not submit in person, you can send the necessary documentsand documents to the receiving place by online form To be able to submitonline, your application needs to register and purchase a digital signature atdigital signature providers Besides, in order not to have to go throughcumbersome procedures when buying digital signatures, you can usecustoms clearance services or import and export packages from companies

Install customs declaration software VNACCS

In this step, you need to install VNACCS customs declaration software

to make it easier to do customs procedures You can install the software at

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famous Vietnamese companies such as FPS FPT Information System Co.,Ltd, Thai Son Technology Development Co., Ltd

Register for specialized examination (if any)

If your goods do not require specialized inspection, you can skip thisstep In case of having to check, you need to make a registration dossierwith the inspection agency according to regulations Some common types ofinspection such as quality inspection, health, culture, animal and plantquarantine, food safety inspection, etc

Declare and transmit customs declarations

After the carrier's arrival notice is sent, you can make a declarationusing the customs software you have installed, entering the shipment'sinformation and data into the declaration After submitting, your declarationwill be automatically divided into 3 streams by the system:

 Green stream: The system has cleared customs, you only need to paytaxes and go to the customs supervision to complete customsprocedures

 Golden stream: Customs will check with a paper dossier

 Red stream: The customs side will check the paper documents, then

do the physical inspection After the results are available, you printthe declaration and continue to the next step

Get a delivery order

A delivery order is a document that the shipping company provides tokeep the goods and deliver the goods to the consignee This type ofdocument is extremely important because it is used to do procedures at theport when checking goods, transferring goods and taking specializedinspection samples

Prepare a set of customs documents

When preparing a customs dossier, you need to pay attention to which

 Green channel declaration: With green channel, you only need to printthe declaration on the software, bring it to the customs for supervisionand complete the procedures As a precaution, you should bring fulldocuments as required by the golden channel declaration because it islikely that the customs will ask more.

 Golden stream declaration: In case of being returned the gold flowresult, you need to prepare documents such as the company'sintroduction letter, customs declaration are the types of customsdocuments mentioned above

 Red channel declaration: You prepare the same documents as in theyellow channel, then the customs will inspect the goods At this time,you need more documents to check goods, introduction, deliveryorder (still due) After fully preparing, you bring it down to thecustoms branch to do customs procedures at the port

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Quantitative research is defined as a systematic investigation ofphenomena by gathering quantifiable data and performing statistical,mathematical, or computational techniques Quantitative research collectsinformation from existing and potential customers using sampling methodsand sending out online surveys, online polls, questionnaires, etc., the results

of which can be depicted in the form of numerical After carefulunderstanding of these numbers to predict the future of a product or serviceand make changes accordingly

Earl Robert Babbie (2010) and John Ward Creswell (2013) said thatquantitative research methods use to emphasize objective measurements andthe statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected throughpolls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing

statistical data using computational techniques Quantitative researchfocuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups ofpeople or to explain a particular phenomenon.

In this research, quantitative method will be applied which means thatparticipants will answer some questions shown in a questionnaire Thequestionnaire then will be sent to people currently or used to work incustoms operations The result for these questions will be collected andanalyzed together with writer’s experience

3.2 Population and Sampling

This study was conducted on the basis of selection and survey ofindividuals working in the field of custom operations Each of them willreceive the questionnaire from the researcher and they will answer based ontheir experience and thought about the necessity of translating English terms

in custom operations To be more precise, 50 officers will answer thissurvey, especially some people who have been working for a long time such

as 3 years and more

This survey will aim to evaluate personal ability of English incustom operations and how they use their understandings and useful tools totranslate any documents Moreover, choosing people with long experience

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to join in this study will help to obtain more objective assessments sincethey have many opportunities to cooperate with foreigers Meanwhile,newcomers in this field are also answered this because their opinions will bemore different than others in terms of custom operations and from which

translation for customs operations Furthermore, various results from manypeople can help us to recommend some possible solutions based on theirabilities That is the reason why these groups of people will becomeparticipants for this survey

3.3 Research Instruments

This study was conducted on the basis of selection and survey ofindividuals working in the field of custom operations Each of them willreceive the questionnaire from the researcher and they will answer based ontheir experience and thought about the necessity of translating English terms

in customs operations

For the first part, it is named “General Questions” and it contains fourquestions, numbered 1 through 4 It was made to ask some personalquestions regarding their employment Question 1 related to officer’s years

of experience Question 2 is about types of documents participants usually

work Question 3 refers to personal experience in translating an Englishterms The goal of this question is to divide individuals into two groups,with part 2 being answered using personal experience or personal opinions.The second section is used to investigate further information abouttranslating documents of customs operations Its goal is to gatherinformation regarding the difficulties encountered when translating anydocuments, as well as potential solutions for improving the translationquality From question 5 through question 8, there are a total of sixquestions in this section Question 5 is used to determine the sorts of papersthat participants are normally in charge of translating into English, as well

as the amount of time it takes them to do so Question 6 refers to specificterms that they usually choose to apply for the documents Question 7 isused to see if those officers have gotten any feedback on the translationmaterials The two last questions in the section relate to the difficulties theyoften deal with when translating the documents and possible solutions theyhave tried

In other words, the questionnaire is designed to assess participants'experience in translating English terms, as well as their difficultiesand solutions, when working with them Quantitative data analysis was

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employed in the study to acquire insight into both the challenges andsolutions of document translation Questionnaires were used in this studybecause they are a rapid technique to gather information from a largenumber of people in a short amount of time.

This is extremely important when working on customs operations withmultiple answers from the questions and the data is asked to be analyzed assoon as possible

This study was no exception, and questionnaires were a swift andefficient option for the researcher to approach a large number of people in ashort amount of time

3.4 Data Collection Procedures

In this study, the researcher decides to organize this process into threestages including:

Stage 1: Brainstorm and design the questionnaire

The core objective of this study was to evaluate the participants’abilities of translating and how they search for terms related to Englishterms in custom operations Moreover, the questionnaire was provided theresearcher with information about difficulties people often face in

translating the terms Through the questionnaire, the researcher synthesizesand analyzes the questionnaire to proceed to stage 2.

Stage 2: Send and guide to conduct survey

An online questionnaire was sent to 50 officers After a period of timefor them to completely fill in the questionnaire, the results were collectedand aggregated then moved forward to stage 3

Stage 3: Analyze the result

The writer used online tools to collect the data of the survey Thesedata were displayed in charts and percentages

3.5 Data Analysis Methods

The study used the method of evaluation and analysis of researchresults, the data was processed in numerical form by Excel software andthen compared the data, evaluated through the percentage difference

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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS/RESULTS

The survey was carried out using Google Forms with the involvement

of 50 participants All of them are officers currently working in customsoperation In this survey, the writer looks into the ability to translate acustom operation’s documents as well as types of documents thatparticipants usually work on and the difficulties that they often deal with intranslating them

The writer prepared a questionnaire including two parts Part one issome general questions to collect participant’s personal data and commoninformation Meanwhile, part two is in charge of asking about the problemsand solutions to improve the quality of the translation documents Theseanswers then will be analyzed and transformed into numbers andpercentages

Figure 1 Participants’ years of experience

As previously stated, the purpose of this questionnaire was to collectinformation from 50 participants working in customs operations,particularly those with more than three years of experience As aconsequence, the outcome in Figure 1 corresponds to the originalexpectation In 50 participants, the total percentage of people who have

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