Reverse culture shock in vietnamese students returning from american education

In spite of the importance of film translation in delivering the movie‟s contents to audience whose source language proficiency is limited, translation of films in general and comedy fil

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

Supervisor: Tong Thi My Lien, MA

Year of enrollment: QH2010

HANOI, 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

KHÓ KHĂN SINH VIÊN NĂM TƯ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN GẶP PHẢI TRONG QUÁ TRÌNH DỊCH ANH-VIỆT PHỤ ĐỀ

PHIM HÀI MỸ

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.s Tống Thị Mỹ Liên

HÀ NỘI, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby state that I: Pham Lan Phuong, QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating

to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the librabry should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Hanoi, 2014

Pham Lan Phuong

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitudes to my supervisor, Ms Tong Thi My Lien, a lecturer of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, for her precious guidance and valuable advice throughout the process of conducting this paper

Also, my grateful appreciation goes to participants from class E20 and E21 Without them, this study cannot be accomplished

Finally, my special thanks are extended to my classmates, especially Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Vu Hong Nhung, Hoang Thi Thu Yen and Bui Thu Huong, for their supports and encouragements

ii

ABSTRACT

Films, especially comedy films have long been a popular and important means

of entertainment In spite of the importance of film translation in delivering the movie‟s contents to audience whose source language proficiency is limited, translation

of films in general and comedy films in particular have not received appropriate attention Thus, this study was conducted to discover the common difficulties encountered by K44 Translating and Interpreting students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU while translating American comedy films as well as propose suggestions to better the translation outcome In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, the researcher purposively selected ten K44 Translating and Interpreting students to participate in the study, and journal and interview methods were deployed to gather data for the paper

On the whole, collected data set indicated that factors triggering difficulties in translating American comedy films can be classified into three major categories: translating style, text analysis and linguistic factors (including slang, profanity, wordplay, etc.) In addition, the common suggestions proposed by the participants are undergoing serious pre-translating process, adopting appropriate working style and searching the Internet

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives 2

1.3 Scope of the research 2

1.4 Significance of the research 3

1.5 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Translation 4

2.1.1 Definitions of translation 4

2.1.2 Translation methods 5

2.1.3 Translation procedures 8

2.2 Films 12

2.2.1 Development of film and comedy film 12

2.2.2 Language used in films 13

2.2.2.1 Spoken language 13

2.2.2.2 Slang 13

2.2.2.3 Metaphor 14

2.3 Translation of films 15

2.3.1 Types of film translation 15

2.3.2 Film translation process 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Participants 16

3.2 Data collection instruments 17

3.2.1 Journals 17

3.2.2 Interviews 18

3.3 Data collection procedure 18

3.4 Data analysis procedure 19

iv

3.4.1 Journal data analysis 19

3.4.2 Interview data analysis 20

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS 21

4.1 Research question 1: Difficulties encountered by the participants in translating comedy films .21

4.1.1 Subjective difficulties 21

4.1.1.1 Ways of translating 21

1 Translating the script without watching the film 21

4.1.1.2 Target language expression 26

4.1.1.3 Text comprehension 27

4.1.2 Objective difficulties 28

4.1.2.1 New words 28

4.1.2.2 Slang 29

4.1.2.3 Metaphor 29

4.1.2.4 Wordplay 30

4.1.2.5 Profanity 31

4.1.2.6 Cultural knowledge 32

4.2 Research question 2: Solutions to the problems and suggestions proposed by the participants .33

4.2.1 Pre-translating process 33

4.2.2 While-translating process 33

4.2.3 After-translating process 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 35

5.1 Major findings 35

5.2 Limitations of the research and suggestions for further study 35

REFERENCES 37

APPENDIX A 39

APPENDIX B 59

APPENDIX C 66

APPENDIX D 70

APPENDIX E 71

APPENDIX F 72

v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Participants‟ background information 17 Table 2: Coding of difficulties in translating process 20

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

GAP: Grade Point Average

FELTE: Faculty of English Teacher Education

ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies

VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter states the problems of the research, aims and objectives, scope of the study, significance of the paper and finally organization of the thesis Also, in this chapter, research questions are identified

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

Thanks to the rapid development of technology, people all around the world now can easily access various sources of information and entertainment Utilizing the advancement in technology, films, especially American films, have become worldwide popular form of entertainment As American films have held a dominant position in the film industry, the demand for American film translation is soaring all over the world

Of all the genres, comedy film is probably the most favorable one since it is enjoyable and suitable for all age groups, ranging from children to middle-aged people Furthermore, a study executed by a group of researchers from the University of Maryland in the United States in 2006 cited that watching comedy films is beneficial for the heart as it boosts the flow of blood Thus, comedy film is not only a popular form of entertainment but also a fine tonic for human health

Although film translation is important since it helps the audience, whose source language proficiency is limited, catchs the contents of the film, there has not been much research on this In fact, film translation has been newly and generally studied as

a branch of multimedia translation in some foreign countries Also, in Vietnam, there has hardly any research in this field In addition, most of the studies found in this field are on the translation of film titles or film scripts in general, for instance Chang‟s (2012) or Andersen‟s (2010), rather than on a specific movie genre

All the reasons above urged the researcher to conduct a study titled “Difficulties encountered by fourth-year students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU in translating American comedy filmscripts into Vietnamese”

2

1.2 Aims and objectives

The purpose of this thesis was to provide translators in general and translating students in particular an overview of translation process of American comedy filmscripts As accentuated in the research title, the paper firstly concentrated on exploring the characteristics of comedy filmscript that might become obstacles in the process of translating American comedy movies Secondly, this thesis was hoped to propose some suggestions that could better support the translation process of comedy movies and the quality of the outcomes as well

To achieve the aforementioned aims, the following questions were addressed:

Question 1: What are the difficulties encountered by K44 translating & interpreting students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU in translating American comedy films?

Question 2: What are the suggestions perceived by those students as solutions to the difficulties?

1.3 Scope of the research

In this study, the researcher chose to investigate only English – Vietnamese translation of comedy films as the reverse way of translation is not practical The reason is that the number of Vietnamese comedy films is outnumbered by American ones, and demand for translation of Vietnamese comedy films is particularly rare Additionally, only comedy films whose English is the original source language are chosen as a means to gather data since the involvement of a third language, for example French – English – Vietnamese or Chinese – English – Vietnamese, may not ensure the credibility and quality of translation outcome Finally, the researcher decided to employ comedy movies from America instead of another country because the United States has the largest film industry with abundant products; hence, the materials for the study would be rich

3

1.4 Significance of the research

As stated previously, there has been not much research on the English –

Vietnamese translation of films in general and none on comedy films in particular Therefore, the study is expected to serve as a reference source on the field of film translation Secondly, this paper is hoped to be beneficial translators in general and translating students in particular when translating films, especially comedy films In details, this research would give the readers an awareness of the factors that might impact the process and quality of comedy filmscript's translation Additionally, translating students and other translators could utilize suggestions proposed by the attended participants to deal with their own situation in translating movies filmscripts

1.5 Organization of the study

The research contains five major sections:

Chapter 1 – Introduction: This part presents rationale, aims of the study, scope of the

research, significance and organization of the paper

Chapter 2 – Literature Review: This section provides definition of key terms and

related areas of the research

Chapter 3 – Methodology: This chapter describes the choice of participants, research

instruments and procedures of data collection and data analysis

Chapter 4 – Result and Discussion: This chapter shows and discusses the results

achieved from data collection and data analysis

Chapter 5 – Conclusion: This final part summarizes main findings of the paper and

gives suggestions for the further studies

Besides, the appendices with interview transcripts, sample journals, employed comedy filmscripts and related data can be found after the major parts

4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of translation as well as background definition of other related key terms Also, characteristics of film and film translation would be discussed in order to offer a theoretical ground for data collection process

2.1 Translation

2.1.1 Definitions of translation

The very first act of translation can be traced back to as further as 3000BC, in the region of the First Cataract, Elephantine where the archaeologists excavated inscriptions in two languages Throughout the history of humanity, translation has constantly played a significant role in attaining communication among people of different languages and functioned as a means to facilitate culture exchange Due to its increasing importance, especially in the context of globalization nowadays, translation has been widely and greatly examined by numerous scholars and professional translators

According to Munday (2001), the concept of translation itself may refer to either the product, which is the translated text, or the act of translating one text to the target language Cartford (1965), however, defines translation as “the replacement of a text in one language (SL) by an equivalent text in another language (TL)” Sharing the same thoughts, Nida and Taber (2004) in The Theory and Practice of Translation address translation as “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message”, also adds “first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” In a similar vein, Bell (1991) views “translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalent” Last but not least, Newmark (1988) coins translation as the act of rendering the meaning of a written text into another language in the way the author intended the text

5

Though differently expressed, the term translation can be generally defined as the process of reproducing a written text of source language to target language in a way that preserves either the contents or the style of the original

2.1.2 Translation methods

Translation method is the overall strategy that a translator applies to the whole text and it can be exploited differently depending on the purposes of translating At the early beginning, translation method includes only two main types: literal (word-for-word) and free (sense-for-sense) translation However, throughout the time, various types of translation method have been proposed by professional translators and experts

in the field

According to Newmark (1988), translation method can be categorized into eight main types: word-for-word, literal, faithful, semantic, communicative, idiomatic, free and adaptation translation Each of the aforementioned translation methods could be utilized separately or simultaneously to produce a target language text that satisfies specific requirement like the readership or the purpose of usage as informative or expressive text

Word-for-word translation

Word-for-word translation aims to maintain the original structure of the source language text Words are translated individually by the most common understanding and out of context This method is used to get the general contents of challenging text

TT: Anh ta là một kẻ nói dối lớn

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

Faithful translation

The translator uses this method in order to be faithful to the intentions of source language writer Words are put in the context to translate but the translated text does not sound natural Also, this method is deployed to translate literary or authoritative texts

E.g.:

ST: He is as fast as a kangaroo

TT: Anh ấy nhanh như một con kanguru

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

Semantic translation

Semantic translation produces a more natural text than faithful translation does Using this method, the translator will translate culture words into neutral equivalent in the target language and focus more on the semantic meaning of the source language text This method is often applied for expressive texts like literature text

E.g.:

SL: Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting

body of water, a peaceful oasis away from all the hustle and bustle

of the city

TL: Nằm ngay giữa trái tim Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước

đẹp mê hồn, một ốc đảoyên bình tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn

của thành phố

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

7

Communicative translation

Communicative translation is considered freer than semantic translation It is employed with attempts to convey the message of the source text To put it another way, the translator will concentrate more on making the target text acceptable and comprehensible to the readers This method is used for the translation of informative texts

Adaptation translation

Among the eight translation method, adaptation is the freest one and is mainly used for translation of play or poetry In the application of this method, source language culture words are converted to equivalent target language culture words; hence, it is also considered a kind of rewriting the text

E.g.:

8

Vì Sao?

Bữa trước, riêng hai dưới nắng đào,

Nhìn tôi cô muốn hỏi "vì sao ?"

Khi tôi đến kiếm trên môi đẹp

Một thoáng cười yêu thỏa khát khao

Vì sao giáp mặt buổi đầu tiên,

Tôi đã đày thân giữa xứ phiền,

Không thể vô tình qua trước cửa,

Biết rằng gặp gỡ đã vô duyên?

Xuân Diệu

Why?

The other day, we met in bright sunshine Looking at me, you wanted to ask "Why?" When I came there to see on your lips fine

A hint of smile that so much pleased my eye

Why was it that even on the first day

I was so soon banished to great sadness Hardly had I stepped in across the way Than I knew right then that we'd be loveless

Translated by Thomas D Le

2.1.3 Translation procedures

Translation procedures are utilized in order to make a successful transmission of meaning of source language and they are applied in sentence level or smaller units of language There are various translation procedures; however, in this paper, the research will only present nine common procedures proposed by Newmark (1988)

Transference (loan word or transcription)

Transference is a translation procedure in which a source language word is not translated but put into the target language text This technique is applied variously, for instance with personal name, geographical names, titles, etc

Garage = Gara

Through translation (calque or loan translation)

Adopting this procedures, name of organizations or well-known terms are translated literally

E.g.:

SL: Help will come

TL: Sẽ có người tới giúp

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

Modulation

This procedure means a variation in the message when it is translated to the target language due to the change in viewpoint or perspective This procedure can be classified into eight types:

10

- One part for another

E.g.:

House magazine = Tạp chí của hãng

Pie chart = Biểu đồ tròn

- Part for the whole

E.g.:

SL: The cathedral‟s ceiling draws the eyes as soon as ones enter

TL: Trần của thánh đường thu hút khách tham quan ngay khi họ

bước vào

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

- Active for passive

E.g.:

SL: Internet connection was interrupt by the storm

TL: Trận bão làm gián đoạn đường truyền mạng

- Positive for double negative

E.g.:

SL: Flawless

TT: Hoàn hảo

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

- Concrete for abstract

E.g.:

Bear market = Thị trường xuống giá

Bed and breakfast = Bán và mua lại ngay

- Reversal of terms

E.g.:

SL: This cage cannot hold an animal of this size

TL: Một con vật cỡ này không thể vừa cái lồng này được

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

11

- Change of symbols

E.g.:

Eat like a bird = Ăn như mèo

(Le and Nguyen, 2008)

- Time for space

E.g.:

SL: At secondary school I was very shy

TL: Khi tôi học cấp ba, tôi rất hay xấu hổ

Cultural equivalent

Due to the differences among cultures, a source language cultural word is translated by an equivalent target language cultural word

E.g.:

SL: I‟d like to buy two gallons of milk

TL: Tôi muốn mua 9 lít sữa

12

Couplet procedure is the combination of two translation procedures with an aim

to translate one matter

E.g.:

Amazon = Trang bán hàng trực tuyến Amazon Samura = Võ sĩ Samurai Nhật Bản

2.2 Films

2.2.1 Development of film and comedy film

The German-born film theorist Arnheim (2006) believes that film, similarly to novels or paintings, is a form of art, and it should not utterly demonstrate or reduplicate real life Meanwhile, the French film critic Bazin (2004) views film as a tool to objectively depict reality Regardless of the level of reality reflected in film, film can

be generally defined as a form of entertainment which tells a story through a sequence

of images of moving objects captured by a camera

Throughout the history, film industry has been developed and diversified both in terms of form (silent and noir movies to sound-added and colored ones) and genre (including action, horror, sci-fi, romantic, etc.) Among film genres, comedy films are likely to be the most favorable and enjoyable ones, which became popular during the era of silent movies (roughly 1895-1930) At that time, most comedy films were in form of animated movies, such as Mickey Mouse or were featured with comic actors like Charlie Chaplin Towards the period of 1930s-1950s, advancement in technology allowed to add sound effects into movies, opening a whole new era for the development of comedy movies To the present day, comedy has constantly held a significant position in the film industry In general, comedy film can be defined as a genre of film which is produced with the purposes to entertain the audience through amusing characters and life-exaggerated situations

13

2.2.2 Language used in films

In addition to fundamental elements like the plot or the acting of actors, language also greatly affects the success of a film Here, language used in film can be interpreted as both verbal and non-verbal language Notwithstanding, as this paper is aimed at identifying the difficulties in the process of translating American comedy film scripts, the researcher would only discuss the usage of verbal language in films

As film is a reflection of reality, the language used in film should resemble the language in real life Additionally, “language in film is primarily face-to-face communication” and “films are commonly directed to linguistically non-specialized audiences” (Baumgarten, 2003) Thus, language in film, or film dialogue, must sound logically and reasonably regarding to the social as well as cultural settings of film

2.2.2.1 Spoken language

Apparently, spoken language is mostly employed in film since film is a reflection of life Unlike written language, spoken language is usually produced spontaneously; hence, the speakers often do not pay much attention to the grammar Add to this, there often exist a large number of ellipses and repetitions Therefore, film translators should examine the script carefully in order to make proper addition or omission in their translation

We’re the Millers (2013)

- Receptionist: I'll tell him you're here Can I get you something?

Coffee Tea Fresca

2.2.2.2 Slang

14

Though slang has been discussed frequently, there is no comprehensive and satisfactory definition for this term In Oxford dictionary, slang is defined as “a type of language consisting of words and phrase that are regarded as very informal, are common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people.” Additionally, Eble (1996) states that slang is “an ever changing set of colloquial words and phrases that the speakers use to establish or reinforce social identity or cohesiveness within a group or with a trend or fashion in society at larger.”

In sum, slang can be generally defined as the use of language among a community and

it might not be easily understood by the outsiders Thus, the translation of English slang might be an obstacle for the translators

2.2.2.3 Metaphor

Another important linguistic feature of film dialogue is metaphor Nguyen Hoa (2004) defines metaphor as “the transference of meaning (name) from one object to another based on similarity between these two objects”, or put it another way, “we can call one object by the name of another because we compare these objects and find some common features between them.” In his work, Understanding English Semantics, Nguyen Hoa (2004) listed three categories of metaphor as below:

- Living metaphor: In living metaphor, word has unusual meaning and

“metaphor is felt as such.” (Nguyen Hoa, 2004, p.109)

E.g.:

Beauty is a flower which wrinkles will devour

- Faded metaphor: “This type of metaphor "lost its freshness because of long use

and became habitual” (Nguyen Hoa, 2004, p.109)

E.g.:

To fall in love Golden youth

- Dead metaphor: “Dead metaphor are words which have lost their direct

meaning and are used only figuratively” (Nguyen Hoa, 2004, p.109)

15

E.g.:

I'm open to this problem

2.3 Translation of films

2.3.1 Types of film translation

There are two major ways of rendering film scripts from one language to

another, which are subtitling and dubbing, and each of those interferes with the original

script at a different extend Karamitroglou (2000) states that dubbing is the attempt to

cover the spoken source text with a target text and the voiceover sound must timely fit

the movement of the actor in the films In other words, dubbing is aimed at making the

audiences feel as if they are listening to the actor speaking their language (TL) In

contrast, subtitling means displaying the translation of the filmscript (or caption) on the

screen for the audiences to get the content of the dialogue

2.3.2 Film translation process

Like any other translation work, film translation does not only involve

converting the messages of source language script into the target language ones but

also concerns other features of the target text namely aesthetic feature, style, etc

Especially in the process of translating comedy films, the translators are required to

reproduce the messages of the actor faithfully and correctly in target language and at

the same time convey, or preserve amusing elements

Film translation process can be generally conducted as follows:

Analyzing film script

Translating film script Editing

Subtitling/

Dubbing

of much convenience for the researcher to conduct the research

Ten students were selected to participate in the first stage of research regarding their achievements in translation practice subject The number of participants from each class, which were six E20 students and four E21 students, was determined by calculating the ratio of students between those classes After identifying the total participants from each class, the researcher had managed to retrieve the participants‟

GPAs (Table 1)and listed them into two scales of score, which were high scored group

(G1, equivalent to GPA of 8.0 to 8.9) and medium scored group (G2, equivalent to GPA of 7.0 to 7.9) By calculating, E20 had the equal number of 14 students in each group while in E21, 16 students had G1-score and 5 students had G2-score Thus, for the G1-score group, 3 participants from each class were selected and for the G2-score group, 3 E20 students and 1 E21 student were chosen to participate in the research

Translation

1 ENG 3102

Translation

2 ENG 3004

Advanced Translation ENG 3006

In the second stage, 4 out of 10 participants were selected for interviews basing

on the data collected from the first stage

3.2 Data collection instruments

In terms of data collection instrument, the researcher utilized multiple-case study method approach to triangulate the data To be specific, journals and interviews were employed to collect data

3.2.1 Journals

The participants were contacted via phone and received task instructions via email In this stage, they were asked to translate extracts of five comedy film scripts

18

(each extract per week) and keep journals of their translation process The participants could choose either English or Vietnamese for their journals at their convenience In

order to better support the participants, a guideline (Appendix B) was included in which

the researcher pointed out what the participants were required to do and instructions on how to fulfill the requirements This method was applied since it “allows the researcher

to capture the particulars of experience in a way that is not possible using other methods” (Bolger, Davis and Rafaeli, 2003), which in this case was participants‟ translation process

3.2.2 Interviews

In the second stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the attendance of 4 out of 10 participants The researcher conducted informal interviews in Vietnamese in order to create a comfortable atmosphere and flexible interaction Both cameras (with the agreement of the attendants) and note-taking were used to record data

3.3 Data collection procedure

The process of collecting data followed 4 main steps

Step 1: Filmscripts preparation

Extracts from five comedy films, including Date Night (2010), Bridesmaids (2011), The Internship (2013), Grown Ups 2 (2013), We’re the Millers (2013) (which can be found in Appendix A) were employed to collect data Those extracts were

selected according to the linguistic features of comedy films and the length of each extract ranged from 600 to 800 words This range of length was appropriately long enough for the participants to translate without feeling reluctant, which might affect the translation‟s quality

Step 2: Participant selection

The records of K44 Translating and Interpreting students‟ GPAs in translation practice courses since the second year were retrieved from emails Then GPAs were classified to calculate the number of participants participating in the research

19

Step 3: Journal stage

The participants were provided with extracts of filmscript and the researcher contacted the participants via email messages to keep track of the translation progress and collect translation work weekly After five weeks, all the translations were analyzed carefully to point out the common difficulties encountered by the participants during the translation process Data indicating participants‟ solutions was also noted and categorized in terms of causes

Step 4: Interview stage

At this stage, 4 out of 10 participants were invited to attend informal interviews During the interviews, the researcher focused on some factors that caused problems, clarifying unclear points in the journals and suggestions for better translation Once this stage was done, recordings of interviews were processed and synthesized

3.4 Data analysis procedure

As aforementioned, the total collected data of this research consisted of 50 journals, interviews‟ recordings, notes and email messages Hence, with the huge data needed to be processed, coding was the first and foremost step in data analysis phase

In order to offer consistency and convenience, the coding system of the research

followed the format participant – source of data – number of journal for journals and participant – source of data – line of reference for interviews Specifically, the

numbering of participants was based on their alphabetically ordered name, and number

of journal was coded according to the participants‟ numbers For instance, P1.J.5 indicated participant 1, journal, and entry from week 5; or P4.I.5 indicated participant

4, interview, and interviewee‟s turn 5 (sample journal could be found in Appendix B and transcription of interviews were presented in Appendix C)

3.4.1 Journal data analysis

As the participants could use either English or Vietnamese in their journals (see 3.2.1), the number of Vietnamese journals was relatively large Therefore, Vietnamese

20

journals were firstly analyzed to get the key points After that, identified main points were translated into English and categorized accordingly to those gained from English journals

In general, data that pointed out the difficulties encountered by the participants were classified into two main categories, which were objective difficulties (O) and subjective ones (S) Types of difficulty were coded as the table below:

Table 2: Coding of difficulties during translation process

Data indicating participants‟ solutions to the problems were noted and categorized according to each difficulty

3.4.2 Interview data analysis

First, videotapes were transcribed into written forms to avoid missing information Next, transcriptions of videotapes and notes taken during interviews were analyzed to identify main contents After that, it was coded regarding to the coding table from journal stage Solutions and suggestions for each problem were also noted

21

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

The previous chapter has provided descriptions of participant selection, research instrument, data collection steps and data analysis In this chapter, data set will be

analyzed to answer the research questions (see 1.2)

4.1 Research question 1: Difficulties encountered by the participants in translating comedy films

4.1.1 Subjective difficulties

4.1.1.1 Ways of translating

In general, data collected from journals and interviews indicated that difficulties encountered by the participants while dealing with the scripts differed among working options In order to fully investigate the impact of each translating style on participants‟ translation process, all the translating options were noted in the guidelines Also, links for watching the movie online were attached, noticing that English subtitle was available Therefore, the participants could choose to adopt a convenient way of translating among four following options:

1 Translating the script without watching the film

2 Translating the script then watching the film to recheck

3 Watching the film then translating the script

4 Watching and translating at the same time

As recorded in the journals, there existed a variation in applied translating option among the participants and in a film extract All the proposed options were selected and surprisingly some participants simultaneously deployed two options for the same extract

Option 1: Translating the scripts without watching the film

According to the journals, this option was said to cause the participants several troubles In spite of being provided with movie‟s summary and brief description of previous scenes, participants employing this option encountered difficulties in selecting

22

appropriate translation of personal pronouns for the characters One illustration as below:

Grown Ups 2 (2013)

Kiethie: He‟s too chicken to ask her out, Dad, „cause she‟s the hottest girl in

school, and Greg is fugly

Participant P2 noted in her journal that she wavered whether the personal

pronoun “he” should be translated as “anh ấy or “em ấy/ nó” since without watching

the movie, she did not know who the older brother was Additionally, working with the script only may lead to incorrect translation of personal pronouns, for instance:

We’re the Millers (2013)

Kenny So now you're gonna become an even

bigger drug dealer?

Vậy từ giờ anh sẽ thành tên buôn lậu ma

Kenny You're probably gonna get searched at

the border No offense, you look like a

total drug dealer

Anh sẽ bị tóm ở cửa khẩu Không có ý gì

xúc phạm đâu nhưng nhìn anh giống y

tên buôn ma tuý

Applying option 1 meant that everything in the movie, including setting, characters' emotional status, etc was depicted basing on the script solely In the above

dialogue, participant p4 probably based on the word “dude”, which was commonly

understood as a form of address for friend, to surmise that David and Kenny were

friends and translated the personal pronoun “you” as “anh” However, in the movie,

the character David was much older than Kenny Consequently, the correct translation

of pronouns “you” should be “chú” instead

23

Another problem caused by this option was that the participants sometimes had incorrect understanding of what the character actually means Illustration from

participant‟s journal as follows:

We’re the Millers (2013)

David Easy Easy Ohhf!

Ok I‟m gonna hang out here if that‟s

We’re the Millers (2013)

David Whoa, Brad, what the fuck is this?

Look man, I was gonna call you back

Do not kill me I got robbed, okay I

swear

Ồ Brad, chuyện quái gì vậy? Trông nè, tối sắp sửa gọi cho anh Đừng giết tôi Tôi bị cướp Tôi thề đấy

What are you …? What? Oh, the

plastic?

Này, này, này

Cái gì thế? Cái …? Cái thẻ?

24

In the movie, David was standing in a nylon sheet, thus “the plastic” should be translated as “tấm nilong” However, participant P4 did not watch the movie For this reason, she mistranslated the word “plastic”

In summary, it was the nature of this working option that hindered the participants from producing correct translation Without visual depictions of the movie's contents, the participants had to use the filmscript to picture the movie's setting, characters and happenings As a consequence, mistranslation was likely to occur

Option 2: Translating the script then watching the film to recheck

As noted in the journals, participants choosing this option faced the same difficulties as those who adopted option 1 Although the aforementioned problems can

be solved later by watching the movie to double check the translation, one problem was raised by rechecking step According to the journals, three out of five participants utilizing option 2 reported that the process of checking translation against the movie was confusing This problem was explainable since the process of double checking required the participants looking at both the translation and English subtitle Additionally, the participants had to open several working applications and switch between the tabs As a result, some parts of the movie may be missed and the participants would have to rewind the unchecked parts In short, the major difficulty posed by this working method was confusion in double checking section

Option 3: Watching the film then translate the script

Regarding to the journals and interviews, the major difficulty caused by this

translating option was that the participants forgot several details of movie

25

Whose move?

Two out of three participants adopting this option said that they did not remember the scene in which the above dialogue took place; hence, they got confused

with the utterance “whose move?” Only after watching the movie over again and

realizing that the kids were playing puzzle when Phil uttered that question, did the participant understand that phrase‟s implication

Nonetheless, data from journal and interview also indicated that this option helped the participants fully understand the movie‟s context and relationship among characters in order to choose appropriate language style Additionally, the chance of mistranslation like two last examples in option 1 was lowered Overall, it appears that option 3 is less troublesome comparing to the previous options

Option 4: Watching and translating at the same time

Considering the data from journal, this working option was said to cost the participants a lot of time since they had to break the movie into smaller parts to watch

and translate Also, in the interview (Appendix C, Answers for question 1 and 2),

participant P6 said:

Option 4 is my most favorite translating style Nonetheless, I could not gain an

overview of the whole movie context and the later, unprocessed movie scenes

were unknown If later revealed scene affecting the content of the previous

scenes, the translator would have to edit the previous scenes‟ translation

Similarly to option 3, data from interviews and journals showed that this option provided the participants with a view on the movie scenes, which facilitated them in ensuring the translation‟s quality Besides, watching and translating simultaneously helped avoid missing information as well as mistranslation

Option 5: Combination of option 3 and 4

According to the data set gained from journals, during five weeks of journals stage, this working option was employed eighteen times and all the participants chose

to utilized option 3 first Also reported in interviews and journals, the reason for

26

application of a second option was that the first selected option remained several

problems as aforementioned (Interview, Appendix C; Journal, Appendix B) Therefore,

option 4 was utilized to solve ambiguous parts which were left unprocessed when applying option 3 Though this option took much time, it was reported to help

minimize the chance of incorrect translation (Interview, Appendix C, Answer for question 2)

4.1.1.2 Target language expression

Regarding to the data set gained from journals, some of the participants reported that they had difficulties with target language expressions To put it another way, the participants noted that they comprehended the utterances produced by the characters but could not translate it naturally In total, there were two target language expression difficulties as follows:

Grown Ups 2 (2013)

Greg That‟s the stupidest thing I ever heard

And Keithie‟s right …

I‟m too chicken to even talk to her

Đó là điều ngớ ngẩn nhất con từng nghe, và Kiethie đã đúng Con quá gà

để bắt chuyện với cô ấy

Lenny Hey, you‟re a Feder Federsain‟t afraid

of women, buddy That‟s not the way

I‟m raising you

Này, con là con trai nhà Feder, nhà

Feder không sợ phụ nữ, anh bạn ạ Đó

không phải cách bố dạy con

For this dialog, participant P5 said her translation of “buddy” as “anh bạn”

sounded quite distant, considering the relationship between Lenny and Greg was father-son

Date night (2010)

- Phil: I‟m gonna give you $5 even though I know it‟s a scam

And I only have a 20, so I‟m gonna give that to you even though it

should be a five Scam

- Claire: They had no idea who they were dealing with

27

When translating the above dialogue, participant P3 reflected:

I understand the meaning of those sentences but I could not come up with the

equivalent translation for the word “scam” right away I did look it up in the

dictionary but its meaning, which is “đồ bất lương” does not sound natural in

this situation It was like my mind suddenly went blank

We’re the Millers (2013)

David Hi You ordered two black guys

Oh Okay This guy

No, David Clark here to see Mr

Gurdlinger, please?

Xin chào Cô “gọi” hai người mặc áo

đen này

À Đây, người này

Không, xin báo rằng David Clark đến gặp ngài Gurdlinger

In the journal (see Appendix B), participant P8 reported that she had difficulty in conveying the word “order” She wrote:

I knew that the word “order” here should be understood as the act of requesting

something to be supplied/ served However, considering the context in which

the character David was kidnapped and escorted to Brad‟s place by two black

guys, the word “order” was humorously used by David Therefore, its

translation should convey the humor intended by the character

Notwithstanding, I did not know how to express it properly according to the

character‟s intention, I chose to literally translate it as “gọi”

4.1.1.3 Text comprehension

In this study, text comprehension refers to the understanding of characters‟ implications by putting their lines in the context and examining adjacent scenes According to the data set from journals, two text comprehension difficulties were noted

as below:

We’re the Millers (2013)

28

Dialogue 1:

- David: Come on, man We go back

- Brad: Here is the thing We do go back But it‟s not college anymore We‟re

not selling lids out of my dorm room And you owe me $43,000

Dialogue 2:

- David: You‟re gonna give me 100 grand to move a smidge across the border

- Brad: Smidge and a half It‟s nothing

- David: Dude, I got rolled by the fucking cast of Annie I come walking in here

and you ask me to be an international drug dealer

In the first dialogue, seven out of ten participants literally translated “lids” as

“nắp chai” while it should be translated as “tép lẻ” since David and Brad were drug

dealers and they were talking about drug smuggling For the second dialogue, only one out of ten participants could relate to the previous scenes in which David was

kidnapped by two black guys and translated “the fucking cast of Annie” as “hai tên côn đồ” The other nine participants mistranslated David‟s line as “Anh bạn, tôi đã bị Annie ám rồi” or “Này, tôi vừa bị Annie quay mòng mòng đấy”, etc In all, text

comprehension difficulties may arise if the translators do not carefully analyze the text and examining difficult-to-understand expressions under the movie context

4.1.2 Objective difficulties

4.1.2.1 New words

Apparently, new word is inevitable in translating filmscripts It was noted in the

journals that some new words like “scam” or “parkway” could be easily understood

by consulting dictionaries Meanwhile, some other words like “panache” or “league”

were difficult to comprehend when looking only at their meanings in the dictionary Illustration as follow:

Date Night (2010)

Phil No No Trust me Take a left at the next

thing

Không Tin anh đi Rẽ trái phía trước

29

I'm all over this Captain Phil Foster's

shortcut

I am going to get us there quickly,

efficiently and with great panache

Anh thuộc long đường ở đây rồi Thẳng tiến nào thuyền trưởng Phil

Anh sẽ đưa em đến nơi thật nhanh và an

toàn

In the above dialogue, the word “panache” was noted in the journals as difficult

to understand by three participants Participant P1 said that the meanings given in the

dictionary (see Appendix D) did not sound reasonably when putting in the dialogue

Therefore, she adopted adaption method for this part and translated it as above

Also, participant P9 reported in the interview that some words contained several

meanings (league); thus, she had trouble in choosing suitable shade of meaning; or some words did not have equivalence in Vietnamese, for instance “salsa” (Appendix

C, answer to question 3) In all, new word was not considered troublesome since it could be resolved by referring to different sources (List of new words noted by participants can be found in Appendix D)

4.1.2.2 Slang

Data from interviews and journals showed that slang caused the participants

several problems In terms of frequently used slangs like “cuz” or “ain’t” in the

example below, most of the participants claimed that they had no trouble in

understanding and translating those slang However, uncommon slangs like “fugly” (fucking ugly or fat and ugly) or “flibbertigibbet” (flighty, whimsical young woman or

overly talkative person) were considered confusing and difficult to convey

The Internship (2013)

- Club: And I‟m going to say something harsh now

- Billy: Now you‟re going to say something harsh?

- Club: Strap it in, boys, cuz it ain’t pretty out there

(List of slangs noted by the participants can be found in Appendix E)

4.1.2.3 Metaphor

30

Realization and proper translation of metaphor are essential in order to ensure the translation‟s naturalness as well as to facilitate the audience in understanding the character‟s implication lying behind the application of metaphor There was only one metaphor in the total number of five comedy filmscripts; however, not all the participants noticed the existence of metaphor while translating the following film extract:

We’re the Millers (2013)

- Brad: I have a smidge of very choice mari-ju-ana down in Mexico and I

need it here by Sunday night

My regular courier is out because he got gunned down

That's where you come in You could be my mule

I need someone I can trust Go to Mexico, bring it back by Sunday night, not only will I forgive your debt I will pay you a standard courier fee of $100,000

Data from journals showed that only four out of ten participants realized the

metaphor used by Brad and rendered it as “người vận chuyển” whereas the other six translated the word “mule” by its literal meaning as “con la” In short, metaphor can

become an obstacle hindering the participants from achieving translation success

4.1.2.4 Wordplay

Regarding definiton provided by Oxford dictionary, wordplay is a literary technique in which linguistic features are deployed to produce amusing effects Due to the differences between source language and target one, it is not easy to understand the use of wordplay and rendering it in a way that preserves its humorous values Among five filmscripts, there was only one usage of wordplay as follow:

We’re the Millers (2013)

- David: Who the fuck is Pablo Chacon?

- Brad: I am You don't get respect from Mexicans when your name is Brad

Gurdlinger, right?

31

I mean, that's white in any language See? Big Bad Brad thought of

everything

When translating this dialogue, only four out of ten participants noticed the

wordplay “Big Bad Brad” and noted it as “hard to transfer” in their journal‟s

reflection Among four of them, only one participant delivered a translation that

follows the wordplay structure of BBB as “Brad Bự Bựa” For the other nine participants, six of them managed to translated the phrase as “Brad Bựa Đểu” or

“Brad Xấu Xa” (adaption method) and the other two chose keep the phrase

untranslated (transference procedure)

4.1.2.5 Profanity

According to Oxford Dictionary, profanity is defined as the language of vulgar words or swearing expressions and it is regarded strongly rude and offensive Additionally, this subset of language is often used to show the speaker‟s intense emotions and attitudes towards something Considering the differences in culture between the East and the West, a problem arose in which whether profanity

expressions like “fuck off” or “jerk each other off” should be faithfully translated in

order to preserve the characters‟ emotional status or should it be softening to suit Vietnamese culture

According to the data set gained from both journals and interviews, all of the participants agreed that translation of obscene utterances should be softened in order to

be appropriate in the culture of Vietnam Notwithstanding, another opinion was

proposed by participant P8 (Interview, Appendix C) in which the obscene level of

profanity translation could be varied depending on each specific group of audience This proposal can be understood as the translation of profanity expression could differ between two audience groups, which are movie goers and online viewers For the first group, the target audience is general and the movies will be censored by government agency (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism); thus, the language should be less informal If the target audience belongs to the second group, the translator could adopt