The difficulties and somesolutions to Vietnamese-English translation

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 Vietnam

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

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 ForeignLanguages Department of Son La College This report could have probably notcompleted without their patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision andencouragement

I also would like to show my profound gratitude to all the lecturers in theForeign Languages Department in Son La College for tirelessly devoting time andefforts 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 Englishcourse 45, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuablesuggestions

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 forEnglish style and grammar, correcting both and offering suggestions for improvement Finally, I can not fully express my gratitude to all people whose direct andindirect support me to accomplish my report in time My report still has manyshortcomings

Chapter 1: The literature of Vietnamese-English translation 6

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

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

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 oftranslation, to identify the problems in doing translation and then to efficiency andfeasible solutions these issues are also the main content of this written

2 Aims and objectives

Understanding about the difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation fromthat we can know how to use translation techniques and skills Moreover, we can moreunderstand about cultural concerns in translation, know the way to solve problemsituations, 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 English translation It touches upon translations of this kind by English students aswell as translator for Vietnamese magazines, newspapers and publishers This is due tothe fact that not only translations by students but worryingly, those by somecontemporary professional translators in Vietnam can be dubbed difficulties This is aflow we need to eliminate or at least reduce to the minimum level with a view topurifying out mother tongue and providing readers with the best possible sources ofknowledge and enjoyment This is important to the development of Vietnamese cultureand the society in the future

Vietnamese-The primary aim of the report is to share with English students, who would betranslators, 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 reportalso aim at finding some possible strategies to improve the difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation Nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work canconsider it a useful reference helping improve their translating skills

3 Methods

Sampling

The process of collecting samples consists of two main step First, throughclassroom 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 printableword documents.

Data analysis process

Obviously, translation can be understood either as a process, i.e the activity oftranslating, or as a product, i.e the text that has been translated It should be note thattranslation activity is hardly of just applying different, translation methods to conveythe message of the source text Linguistic knowledge, particularly, grammar, is alsocrucial to quality of a translation Accordingly, in order to have comprehensiveanalysis The English version of each document was examined from two differentperspectives 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 thedefinition of Vietnamese-English translation, history of translation, the dynamics oftranslation)

Chapter 2: The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation (in this chapter, Iwill show some difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation, such as, the difficultiesfrom difference of language, the difficulties from difference of culture betweencountries, the difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level, the difficultieswhen 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, finalcomments)

PART II: CONTENTSCHAPTER 1:

THE LITERATURE OF VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION

1 What is Vietnamese-English translation?

Vietnamese-English translation is rendering a Vietnamese written text intoEnglish in the way that the author intended the text.

Translators are concerned with the written word They render written textsfrom Vietnamese into English Translators are required to undertake assignments,which range from simple items, such as, birth certificates and driving licenses to morecomplex 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 havebeen found It is became a significant factor in the West in 300 BC Luther's Bibletranslation in 1522 laid the foundations of modern German In the 19th centurytranslation 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 readersabroad Whilst trade was conducted in the language of the dominant nation, anddiplomacy, previously in Latin, was in French

The 20th century have been called the "age of translation" to which one mayadd "and interpreting" International agreements between states, public and privateorganizations are now translated for all interested parties, whether or not thesignatories understand each other's language The setting up of a new internationalbody, the constitution of an independent state, the formation enhanced importance Theexponential increase in technology (parents, specifications, documentation), theattempt to bring it to developing countries, the simultaneous publication of the samebook in various languages, the increase in world communication, has correspondinglyincreased requirements That the very survival of such bodies as the United Nation iscrucially dependent on interpreting and translation can be taken as a good example ofthe importance of translation and interpreting

3 Why is it necessary to translate?

Even with the most up-to-date and sophisticated communication system, wecan 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 thereare some two or three thousand language being used in the word, but some other saythe number may be as large as eight thousand What a habit man has, that of speakingdifferent 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 individualsare unable to understand the words or expressions of some others this phenomenoncreates a barrier to understanding whenever man tries to communicate across a greatdistance of space or across a great interval of time Some things have to be done toovercome this restriction One way to cope with the restriction is for individuals toknow the foreign language But this is not the final solution because apparently noindividual in the world can an know all the language in use The best polyglot so farknows only about twenty five languages, and still people want to read what otherpeople write and what other people say Translation may be considered as the mostuniversally accepted solution for surmounting the obstacle And thus there is a need forprofessional 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 C2 Author  Reader Translator  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

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 bringforward, build a strategy and tactics to help translation work and training translatebetter

The difficulties are divided into 2 major types They are : Common difficultiesand their own difficulties Common difficulties occur in the full process of translationwith 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 ofwriting (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: Thedifficulties from difference of language, the difficulties from difference of culturebetween countries, the difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level, thedifficulties 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 oftranslation 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 andbelong 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" Whentranslate we have to choice the word which suit with the context and meaning, that isreflect reality in the text

When translate the alteration in Vietnamese in to English is so difficult toensure equivalence of form and increasingly did not reflect the nuances of meaning.Because of English have very few alteration and type of the alteration In theVietnamese-English dictionary (Le Kha Ke-the chief author, Education PublishingHouse in 1991) translate:

HéoHéo hon

Héo hắtHeo héoLạnh

Cold

Lạnh lungLạnh lẽo

Table 1: The difference about nuance of expression.

Recently, Vietnamese language continue to appear many new words withgeneral meaning, for example: Fuel, water magnet,…In order to call the name(identify) of things make a basic meaning (physical demonstration meaning) of word,Vietnamese people base on the shape and outside features For example: Vietnamesepeople call "bulb" is the "trunk" or "root" which develop and contain nutrients, such

as, water caltrop, kohlrabi,…), (sweet potato, ginger,…)

Cõng To carry on the back

Table 2: Motion verb of Vietnamese language

3 The difficulties from difference of culture between countries

3.1 Culture aspects

Translation is not simple a linguistic transformations of texts, but it is also arendering of cultural concepts from one language to another Asian culture in generaland Vietnamese culture in particular have few thing in common with Western andAmerican culture Unless a translator is capable of breaking through "decayedbarriers" of his own culture and opening his mind to new and sometimes alienconcepts, his translation can not be considered successful and natural Difficultiesoccur when you have to translate foreign nations like much up day, new year'sresolution, fair go, and wife swapping because they are typical of the culture inEnglish-speaking countries but not in Vietnam However, most alien concepts can berendered with some translation technique

Under the cultural perspective, translators are supposed to be the messengerswhose task is to convey a message from one language to another in anything but analien way that may cause confusion or feeling of foreignness to target languagereaders This is definitely not a simple task because culture is a nation too broad andsophisticated to be fully grasped Raymond William (1983), once said, "Culture is one

of the two or three most complicated words in the English language" as quotedNguyen Ngoc Tuan (2004) This causes various disagreements among scholars onwhat to be called unacceptable translation in culture terms

In fact, the cause of the difficulties from difference of culture between countriesare originated by inadequate cultural background This includes competent knowledge

on most all aspects, such as, religions, traditional customs, social norm, and historicalawakeners This kind of combined knowledge can be gained along with the process oflearning translation Nevertheless, only a few learners are aware of this As a result, incolleges teaching English and translation in Vietnam today, students know just a littleabout the English-speaking countries' cultures Available courses are inadequate either.This is also the main cause of the so-called "disaster of the translation art" Recently,the Vietnamese version of the Da Vinci Code have been repeatedly condemned on allkinds of media In my opinion, this is not a sole failure of Vietnam translated literaturebut it is one manifestation of the inadequate culture background among translatorsnowadays

It is noteworthy that "cultural untranslatability" is like to happen due to so manydifferences between Western and Oriental culture, in general, and Vietnamese andEnglish culture, in particular In addition, geographical features, history, anddevelopment level of two nations contain many distinctive points generating certainconcepts that can not be translated in a way that Vietnamese people can easycomprehend Culture is something which can not be conveyed through words Allthese lead to the loss of meaning in translation process

When comparing Vietnamese and English, it is quite easy to figure out manycultural terms that are absent in the other The culture difference between Western andOriental society and among nations as the root of linguistic untranslatability Tropicalmonsoon climate, complex geographical position, and long traditional water riceagriculture are the elements creating in Vietnamese culture There for, word related to

rice processing (gieo mạ, làm cỏ, gầu giai, gầu sòng, bón thúc, bón lót đòng, xay, giã,giần, sàng, thúng, mủng, nong, nia, sọt gạo tẻ, nếp cẩm, tám xoan, tấm, cám, trấu;bánh đa, bánh đúc, bánh chưng, bánh dầy, bánh giò, bánh khúc, bánh cốm,…);marriage procedure (dạm ngõ, ăn hỏi, thách cưới, nộp cheo,…), beliefs and religions(đình, chùa, miếu, am, phủ, điện thờ, bàn thờ, ngai, bài vị, mẫu thoải, chúa thượngngàn,…) are very popular to Vietnamese but quite exotic to foreigners.

Another typical cultural difference between Vietnamese and English isindividualism In some cultures, individualism is seen as a blessing and source of well-being; In others, it is seen as alienating In publication of Hosted exhibits

"Individualism Index Values( I.I.V) for 50 countries and three regions, but due to thelimited space, this paper will extract a part of it

3.2 Ways of thinking

Type of difficulties generated from differences in methods of thinking of eachcountries, in which the most prominent method is isolate the realistic of each languagecommunity With Vietnamese, and several other languages, expression are usedequally For examples: In Vietnamese "bicycle" is called "xe đạp", it is known asfunctionality of things, meanwhile in English call a "bicycle" "two circle" means it iscalled by the shape of the thing

Thus, language is the most effective and tool to indicate the method of thinking

of each languages So, how Vietnamese people think? Through the expression ofVietnamese language we may find the main point

Thinking of Vietnamese people preferred specific style, icons Get the specificicons to indicate a general rule declared abstract This can be clearly since in the field

of new word construction In Vietnamese have two types of compound words Theyare coordinated compound word, principal and accessory compound word Bothcomposed of sub-type which have a switch call trope compound word, they havegeneral and abstract meaning For example, country, line, open-hearted, to heal,tension, embellish, bold,…Vietnamese adjectives create several nuances level ofdetail, subtlety of color or character

However, when we need to indicate general meaning, Vietnamese language arerarely or never found in other languages For example, Vietnamese have a general blueand share of color (xanh thẳm, xanh rợn, xanh biếc, xanh lá mạ, xanh cổ vịt, xanh lam,xanh da trời, xanh lá cây,…) Meanwhile, most of Indo-European language are onlytwo-three green, such as, in English: Green, blue

I can add a character feature of thinking method of Vietnamese people, it is thethinking suitable with objective reality exists This is shown clearly in combine wordorder into combination of words phrases and sentences For example: The order ofterm subject predicative and other ingredients, subject usually stand before andpredicative (especially verb predicative) stand back and then is complement Inessential terms, adjective of Vietnamese always go after noun to add meaningfulrelationship between the object and its properties The order of objective phrase inEuropean is contrary to the Vietnamese language

4 The difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level

4.1 Introduction

Interlingua translation have never been an easy task Much ink has flown ondiscussing the term equivalence in translation It has sometimes been said that theoverriding purpose of any translation should be to achieve equivalent effect, i.e toproduce the same effect on the relationship of the translation as was obtained on therelationship of the original Will (1982) acknowledges the concept of translationequivalence as the "essential issue not only in translation theory, over the last 2000years, but also in modern translation studies" He even emphasizes that, there is hardlyany other concept in translation theory which has produced as many contraditictorystatements and has set off as many attempts at an adequate, comprehensive definition

as the concept of translation equivalence

4.2 The problem of non-equivalence

The problem of non-equivalence have been drawing the attention of manyresearchers Jacobson claims that "there is ordinarily no full equivalence between codeunits" Jacobson also explains the difference between structures, terminology, grammarand lexical forms of languages are the main reasons of non-equivalence Jacobsonstates that "equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and thepivotal concern of linguistic" In his theory, the general principle of cross-language

difference and the concept "semantic field" has been established.

Catford (1996) found that there are two factors which affected the equivalence

i.e linguistic and cultural factors, leading to two kind of equivalent i.e linguistic and

cultural equivalents This finding of Caford is very significant because it consists ofboth important approaches toward equivalence, namely, linguistic and culturalapproaches On the contrary, there were some arguments against Catford theory Snell-Hornby (1988) claims that textual equivalence introduced by Catford is "circular" andhis examples are "isolated and even absurdly simplistic" Furthermore, she criticizesequivalence in translation is an illusion because there are many aspects, includingtextual, cultural and situational ones, get involved in the equivalent degree of thetranslation That is not only functional but situation factor need to be taken intoconsideration during the process of translation

Equivalent effect, as judged by New mark, is "the desirable result, rather thanthe aim of any translation" Accordingly, the equivalent effect is the result which alltranslators long to achieve Further, New mark (1988) argues that the text may reach a

"broad equivalent effect" only if it is "universal" that means cross culture sharecommon ideas

4.3 Non-equivalence at word level

Among many approaches introduced above, Mona Baker was the mostoutstanding theorist dramatically focusing on equivalence at word level since, as beingclaimed by her, word is the basic unit to be considered in meaning of translation text.Her analysis on word level is particularly clear, easy to comprehend

It is undeniable that Mona Baker's theory on non-equivalence at word level isuniversally supported by a great number of famous linguistic scholars and researches.Firstly, Haliday (1985) strongly stresses the importance of seeking for equivalence at