OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
Rationale of the study
The economy is one of the vital pillars proving a country’s position in the international arena Therefore, every country, including Vietnam, considers it top priority to develop the economy Thanks to the open- door policy and the international economic integration, Vietnam has become a developing country with the triumphs in various fields, specifically in the field of economy The faster the economy grows, the faster the trade between Vietnam and other countries develops. The faster the trade develops, the more frequently CCs, an indispensable trade tool, are employed The CCs not only represent a line of defence that companies utilize to safeguard their interests and businesses, but they also form a mutually beneficial and win- win situation
Honestly, in the modern life now, the importance of English cannot deny and ignore because of its popularity Especially, for a developing country like Vietnam,English is taught very early as well as many young people are aware of its importance for some reasons such as finding good jobs, communicating with the outside world, approaching the scientific resources they are interested in In the corporate environment, the most common and important language is English High quality job requires the ability to understand and communicate in English. Companies, therefore, can easily expand their operations to other countries and these companies often employ English- language graduates with basic academic results as required
Furthermore, the world has been fragmented into195 countries Each country has their own official language which can be seen as an invisible barrier in policies, diplomacy, culture, international relations as well as business and trade This barrier has given birth to translation in order to foster mutual understanding which is a matter of the utmost importance in business and trade cooperation particularly. Thus, translation of business and trade documents, especially the CCs, plays a crucial role in the global trade environment Moreover, the quality of CCs translation has direct effects on success or failure of business cooperation Hence, it is particularly essential to make certain of good translation quality of CCs. However, translating this type of contract, specifically from English into Vietnamese, is not a simple task as the result of grammar, the big volume of terminologies and difficulties in finding equivalents of new complicated terminologies
HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd was established on 22 May
2014 to provide the market of translation products with high quality, good price.
From that, the company can meet the needs of customers about types of certificates, documents which need translating and notarizing The company contains Board of Director, Translating and Interpreting Department, Accounting Department and Customer Service Department In Translating and Interpreting Department, there are nearly 30 translation staff of the company who possess the bachelor or higher degree majoring in languages with advanced capabilities and many years of practical experience Translators understand that English is the most effective international communicative language and is also the official language in a large number of countries Most of international events and global organizations are using English as the default language of communication
Moreover, thanks to the process of opening and international integration of Vietnam, more and more contracts are signed Business contracts not well understood by both parties are likely to cause misunderstandings and unfortunate damages for business and cooperation It is the reason why translation plays the very important role in connecting mutual partners, of course, we cannot deny the importance of Translation Companies Translation is essential to learn, but it does not mean it is simple for learners because it requires the process of learning and accumulating specialized knowledge and translation experience
Recognizing that matter and the importance of good translation, in connection with the fact learned from translating at Translating and Interpreting Department of
HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd, the researcher has carried out the study “ Difficulties in translating English Commercial Contracts into Vietnamese atTranslating and Interpreting Department of HT International Services and TradingCo., Ltd” with the hope of helping translators in the company and students who have orientation to become future translators in business and trade field to enhance their translation skill.
Previous study
According to Stepanova V.V and Kiseleva L.A (2014), there are 3 types of lexical, grammatical and syntactical difficulties Lexical challenges are associated with archaic diction, translation of purely technical terms, pronominals adverbs, excessive redundancy, formal words and phrases and so on First, in lexical difficulties, the old- fashioned legal formulae comprise words hereof/ thereof, herein/ therein, hereafter, hereunder and related adverbs Nextly, they are dounlets and triplets, synonyms and quasi- synonyms, binomials and word strings in legal discourse Most frequent examples are: by and between, for and on behalf of, make and enter into, null and void and the same refers to triplets such as dispute, controversy or claim; full, true and correct; cancel, annul and set aside, etc.
Second, grammatical difficulties comprise nominalisations, unfamiliar pronouns/ pro- forms, modal and phrasal verbs, abundant passive forms and many others The use of pro- forms belonging to different parts of speech (for example, the same, the said, the aforementioned, the foregoing, etc.) is one of the hallmarks of legal- lese.
They are frequently used to refer to different parts of the documents thus suggesting economical way of laying down the text Final, syntactical difficulties are associated with complexity of syntax, conditional and hypothetical formulations, different types of negation mixed with other kinds of logical links within the text, repetition and abundant descriptive phrases, etc
In Vietnam, according to the study of Nguyen Phuoc Vinh Co at Da Nang University, the author also gives some difficulties similar to Stepanova V.V and Kiseleva L.A but they are clearer Archaic adverbs and preposition phrases; binomials and trinomials; noun ending in suffixes –er (or) and –ee; common words with specialized meanings and terminologies are mentioned in the study Moreover, the author also comes up with some techniques/ methods to translate legal English in Commercial Contract (CC) such as change of object into subject, adverb into subject and passive into active
In this study, the researcher will seek difficulties faced by translators atTranslating and Interpreting Department of HT International Services and Trading
Co., Ltd in translating English Commercial Contracts (CCs) into Vietnamese during their translating process and raise some solutions with the aim of improving their translating skill as well as the quality of translations.
Aim of the study
The study is conducted with a view to identifying difficulties of translators atTranslating and Interpreting Department when dealing with English CCs and then suggesting some possible solutions to overcome them From that, their translating skill and the quality of translations is also expected to be improved Moreover, the study provides more knowledge relevant to translation in order to help translators deeply understand about translation job.
Research subject
The study will concentrate on finding out difficulties in translating EnglishCCs into Vietnamese faced by translators at Translating and InterpretingDepartment of HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd.
Scope of the study
Due to the limitation of the time and space, the study will focus on difficulties in translating English CCs into Vietnamese with participation of translators working at Translating and Interpreting Department in HT International Services andTrading Co., Ltd.
Research methodology
The main data collection instrument is a questionnaire It is a carefully designed questionnaire for translators about difficulties in translating English CCs into Vietnamese they encounter Specifically, the questionnaire consists of 12 questions as follows:
1 How long have you learned English?
3 How many years of experience in translating do you obtain?
4 How long have you been working in HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd?
5 Have you attended Translation Course?
6 How much time do you spend in learning to translate at home?
7 Do you often translate English Commercial Contracts?
8 How do you evaluate your translating skill?
9 Which difficulties do you face in translating process?
10 Apart from difficulties mentioned above, do you face other difficulties in translating English Commercial Contracts? List them below.
11 In your opinion, which factor affects commercial contract translation?
12 In your opinion, what is the cause of difficulties in translating English CCs?
The questionnaire is carried out seriously for 30 to 40 minutes without any discussion, they are completely personal opinions of each translator With the participation of nearly 30 translators at Translating and Interpreting Department of
HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd, the study collects a variety of answers and it is easy to identify difficulties Moreover, in period of implementation, the researcher always tries to explain more about any question of translators and supports them as well as possible.
Organization of the study
Apart from the introduction, conclusion, references and appendix, the study contains four main sections, in which the third is the most important section naturally
Chapter 1: Overview of the study
This chapter provides general information about the study like rationale, aims, scope and methodology of the study
This chapter provides theoretical background information on translation, contract, commercial contract (CC) and difficulties in translating English CCs. Chapter 3: Research findings
This chapter analyses the result from the questionnaire and identifies some causes of those difficulties.
This chapter gives some solutions to overcome difficulties in order to improve translators’ skills and the translation quality of English CCs translated at HTCompany as well as comes up with some suggestions for the further study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Translation
Translation has prevailed in every corner of our life for centuries It plays a role of a significant link between involving parties in numerous fields, including literature, entertainment, science, education, culture, religion, politics, diplomacy, international relations, economy, etc Thanks to its popularity and necessity, translation has become a main character in various studies It has touched a lot of scholars and each of them proposed his/her own concepts of translation on the basis of individual viewpoints
In essence, Nida and Taber (1969) define translation as the reproduction of an SL message into its closest natural equivalent in the receptor language This equivalency is prioritized based on meaning and, subsequently, on style By adhering to this principle, translators aim to convey the intended message authentically while respecting the stylistic nuances of both languages.
Wilss (1982) considers translation as “the procedure which leads from a written SL text to an optimally equivalent target language (TL) text, and which requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original text”.
Newmark (1988) asserts “translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that author intended the text”.
According to Bell (1991), “translation is the transformation of a text originally in one language into an equivalent in the content of the message and the formal features and the role of the original”.
House (1997) defines translation as “the replacement of a text in the SL by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the TL”
For Hubert (1998), “translation is to be understood as the process whereby a message expressed in a specific source language is linguistically transformed in order to be understood by readers of the target language”.
It is detected that the above definitions by different scholars in different times consist of the two substantial aspects: the qualities of the ST covering semantic, syntactic, pragmatic and stylistic issues and the equivalence in the translation
The world is flooded with studies on translation by various scholars Each scholar approachs translation in different aspects leading to the existence of numerous translation methods.
Jakobson (1959) suggests three methods of translation including intralingual translation, interlingual translation and intersemiotic translation The three methods are all “interpretation of verbal signs”, their distinguishing characteristic is expressing means While intralingual translation and interlingual translation are conveyed by “signs of the same language” and those of “some other language” in respectively, intersemiotic translation bases on “signs of nonverbal sign systems”. Larson (1984) has studied two primary translation methods based on both form and meaning of a text, namely form- based translation and meaning- based translation Whereas form- based translation concentrates on keeping up the form of the SL, meaning- form translation give attention to using the natural forms in TL but maintaining the meaning of SL.
Vinay and Darbelnet's (1965) direct translation method entails adhering to the grammatical and idiomatic conventions of the TL while maintaining the SL text's meaning Conversely, oblique translation employs replacement of one word class with another, preserving the message's essence.
In the scope of this study, the researcher only looks at 8 main translation methods according to Peter Newmark in this famous book “A textbook of translation” published in 1988.
Newmark states that word- for- word translation is as “interlinear translation” with “the TL immediately below the SL words” It means that “the SL word- order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context” and “cultural words are translated literally” This method is utilized “either to understand the mechanics of the SL or to construe a difficult text as a pre- translation process” in order to gain sense of meaning.
She is deaf to all his advice.
(Cô ta điếc với tất cả những lời khuyên của anh ta).
According to Newmark’s study, literal translation is a type of translation in which “the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalent”, but “the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context”. Along with word- for- word translation, Newmark also considers this method as “a pre- tanslation process” which “indicates the problems to be solved”.
The then government was still young and weak.
(Chính phủ lúc bấy giờ vẫn còn trẻ và yếu).
A faithful translation endeavors to “reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures” The method
“transfers cultural words” and “preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical
“abnormality” (deviation from SL norms) in the translation” Newmark continues pointing out “it attempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text- realization of the SL writer”.
He is as fast as a kanguru.
(Anh ấy nhanh như một con kanguru).
Semantic translation is more flexible than faithful translation: “The distinction between faithful and semantic translation is that the first is uncompromising and dogmatic, while the second is more flexible, admits the creative exception to 100% fidelity and allows for the translator’s intuitive empathy with the original” In addition, this method is different from faithful translation “only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value” In order to make it clear, Newmark explains “that is, the beautiful and natural sounds of the SL text, compromising on
“meaning” where appropriate so that no assonance, word- play or repetition jars in the finished version” Semantic translation may translate “less important cultural words by culturally neutral third or functional terms but not by cultural equivalents” and make “other small concessions to the readership”.
Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body of water, a peaceful oasis away from all the hustle of the city”.
(Nằm ngay giữa trái tim Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp mê hồn, một ốc đảo yên bình tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố)
Idiomatic translation is a meaning- based translation which “reprocedures the
“message” of the original by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original”.
It is raining cats and dogs.
Free translation reproduces “the matter without the manner” or “the content without the form of the original” This method is often “prodix and pretentious” and
“not translation at all” Therefore, Newmark calls it “intralingual translation”.
(Công việc là công việc, tình cảm là tình cảm, không thể lẫn lộn được).
Communicative translation is more freedom than semantic translation. According to Newmark, communicative translation is a method which “attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership”, so that the reader can easily understand and absorb the TL.
Newmark asserts “adaptation is the “freest” form of translation” which is used mainly for “plays, comedies and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to the TL culture and the text rewritten” The method is definitely a kind of rewriting the text in translation.
Melody Angel 27 September 2004 (from “The Grant Piano”)
Cảm xúc nào tôi đang mượn
Có những lúc trong tôi là hạnh phúc
But it’s hard to hear
Có những lúc sầu muộn lại đong đầy Trái tim tôi tâm sự với tôi đây:
Tôi thấy xấu, buồn đau và khổ ải! Đang trên cao cảm thấy lòng thoải mái Bỗng ngờ đâu phút chốc lại vơi đầy
Sợ hãi nào tôi đang giữ trong tay
Nó giẫy giụa, quấy rầy cho tôi khổ Tôi đang hát một bài ca nào đó Lời nhạc này – cảm giác của ngày mai
Contract
The word “contract” springs from a Latin word “contractus” which means consent, agreement or to enter into an agreement with a particular subject Just like translation, the concept of the contract can be expressed in many ways based on the individual viewpoint
As stated on Wikipedia website, the free encyclopaedia, a contract represents
“a voluntary arrangement between two or more parties that is enforceable by law as a binding legal agreement” and “a branch of the law of obligations in jurisdictions of the civil law tradition”.
Besides, the online legal dictionary defines the term “contract” as “any legally binding agreement voluntarily entered into by two or more parties that places an obligation on each party to do or not do something for one or more of the other parties and that give each party the right to demand the performance of whatever is promised to them by the other parties”
According to International Accounting Standards (IAS) 32.13, a contract refers to “an agreement between two or more parties that has clear economic consequences that the parties have little, if any, discretion to avoid, usually because the agreement is enforceable at law”.
Generally, a contract refers to a binding agreement and has to state the rights and responsibilities of parties in accordance with the law.
can be categorized into various types based on their purpose and the classifications used The primary division of contracts includes four broad categories: bilateral, unilateral, express, and implied Bilateral contracts require a promise for a promise, involving an exchange of promises Unilateral contracts involve a promise in exchange for an act, where performance is required to accept the offer Express contracts are explicitly stated agreements, either verbally or in writing, while implied contracts are inferred from the conduct and actions of the parties.
Classification criteria Types of contract
The method of formation of the contract
3 Quasi or constructive contract The execution of the contract 1 Executed contract
3 Partly executed and partly executory contract The parties of the contract 1 Bilateral contract
3 Multilateral contract The method of legality of the contract 1 Valid contract
Table 2.1 Types of contract (according to Assignment Point (2016))
With the business community focus on world trade, Commercial Contracts (CCs) are more and more employed as an integral part of any cooperation In terms of business, a Commercial Contract (CC) refers to a line of defence to safeguard involving parties’ interests and businesses In linguistic terms, according to Business Dictionary, a CC is “a voluntary, deliberate and legally binding agreement between two or more competent parties which mostly relates to a commercial issue”; whereas Cambridge Dictionary briefly defines a CC as “a legal agreement between businesses” Specifically, a CC could be an agreement between two or more businesses to work together on a new project.
CCs are legal documents essential for international transactions Therefore, CCs contain a lot of specific characteristics in order to be valid The first is subject of CCs CCs are primarily signed by and between businessmen or entrepreneurs.Some CCs require either all engaging parties or at least one party is businessman or entrepreneur The subject of CCs can be organizations or individuals relating to commercial activities The second is the contract form CCs are prepared on the basis of agreement between relevant parties with the form in writing, telex, fax and other forms under provisions of the law The contract object is considered as the third characteristic The object is current and prospective commodities in terms of real estate, movable assets, tangible assets, intangible assets, property rights which legally circulate in commerce The last is profit target.
In CCs, there must be a clear exposition of the parties’ interests as well as obvious expression of rights and obligations in order to ensure mutual benifits and win- win cooperation
A commercial contract usually consists of 2 main parts: representations and terms and conditions.
The representation in a CC has to state some fundamental parts, including name of the contract; contract number; place and signing date of contract (place and signing date of contract can be usually written at the top of the contract; in many cases, they are written at the end of the contract); the legal basic of contract (it can be the agreement of government, the protocol or the voluntary of two parties); name, address, some information relating to business of each party, definition of terms.
The remaining part is terms and conditions They are indispensable sections in a contract Normally, terms and conditions in CCs contain 4 sections as follows.
The first is commercial terms Commercial terms state name, characteristic, appearance of product in terms of commodity, quality, quantity and packing The second is financial terms which consist of price and payment i.e payment currency, time of payment and method of payment The third is delivery terms, including time of delivery, place of delivery, method of delivery and notice of delivery The last is legal terms that formed by warranty, force majeure and arbitration Besides, there are some important terms such as penalty, termination, claim, etc In accordance with the specific contract, there are difference terms and conditions.
At the end of a contract, there are signatures and seals of the engaging parties Here is a sample of Purchase and Sale contract from Hong Linh TranslationCompany Limited for more understanding.
- Pursuant to the Commercial Law with the effect from 1 st January 2006
- Pursuant to the Civil Code with the effect from 1 st January 2006
Today, dated , at , we are:
PARTY A: Address: Tax code: Account No.: Represented by: Position: PARTY B: Address: Tax code: Account No.: Represented by:
Position: After discussion, Party A agrees to buy and Party B agrees to sell garment product with the terms and conditions as follows:
ARTICLE 1: NAME OF GOODS – QUANTITY – PRICE
- Party A shall design the product sample and send it to Party B Party B shall offer the fabrics as required by Party A and Party A shall sign the fabric sample to be used to make the product for Party B as a basis for production according to the sample of Party A.
- Party B shall be fully responsible for the specification and quality of goods – based on the sample mentioned above Party A shall have the right to notify Party B in writing of the quantity of products which fail to meet quality requirements (if any, such as patchy color, lack of fiber, dirty cloth, etc.) and the two parties shall discuss to find the most appropriate and effective solution (such as repair, exchange, return, etc.).
ARTICLE 2: TIME – LOCATION – METHOD OF DELIVERY
- Time of delivery: Party B shall deliver goods to Party A within 30 days from the date on which the parties sign the reference sample (packaged products).
- Place and method of delivery: Party B shall deliver goods to Party A at HoChi Minh Port according to FOB conditions.
- Shipping documents required for each shipment
+ Packing list: 01 original and 02 copies
Payment shall be made by bank transfer in 02 installments:
+ 1 st installment: Party A shall pay 50% of the total contract value to Party B after the contract is signed.
+ 2 nd installment: Party A shall pay the remaining 50% of the total contract value to Party B just before delivery.
ARTICLE 4: GENERAL TERMS AND CONDTIONS
- Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this contract shall be settled by the parties in a spirit of cooperation within 01 month from the date on which the dispute arises After that, if no agreement can be reached by the parties, either party shall have the right to refer the dispute to the the competent People’s Court in accordance with the provisions of law for settlement The decision of the court shall be final and binding on the parties.
- This contract is made in 02 original copies Each party keeps 01 copy with equal legality for implementation.
- The contract, after the implementation of the two parties, if there are no complaints or disputes, shall be deemed liquidated.
Difficulties in translating
Translating consists of a lot more than simply taking a text written in a language and converting the text to a completely different language In order for it to make sense and flow in a clear and accurately conveyed legal language, the translator must command a deep knowledge of the legal systems referred.
It is simply not enough to be simply proficient in two languages to do specialized translations in the legal field Specialized legal knowledge is an absolute requirement and involves years of study
Numerous skills are at play when translators are translating and legal documents, in particular, demand a lot from translator Serious challenges are often faced by translators when assigned a legal project With such texts, there is simply no room for error: the smallest of errors can have very serious consequences and can be very expensive for the client.
According to SMARTLING (2014), some of the most common difficulties of translation as follows.
Every language sits inside a defined structure with its own agreed upon rules. The complexity and singularity of this framework directly correlates to the difficulty of translation
In English, sentences typically follow a subject-verb-object structure, as seen in "she eats pizza." However, this order varies across languages, requiring translators to adapt the sentence structure to convey the intended meaning effectively in the target language Translators must consider adding, removing, or rearranging words to maintain the coherence and clarity of the message By understanding the sentence structure conventions of both languages, translators can accurately convey the intended meaning while adhering to SEO rules.
Idiomatic expressions explain something by way of unique examples or figures of speech And most importantly, the meaning of these peculiar phrases cannot be predicted by the literal definitions of the words it contains.
Many linguistic professionals insist that idioms are the most difficult items to translate In fact, idioms are routinely cited as a problem machine translation engines will never fully solve
The grass are always green on the other side of the fence – Đứng núi này trông núi nọ.
Compound words are formed by combining two or more words together, but the overall meaning of the compound word may not reflect the meaning of its component words It is usually best to think of them in terms of three separate groups.
The first group of compound words mean exactly what they say, for instance,
“seashore”, “airport”, “crosswalk” The second group of compound words mean only half of what they say – at least in a literal sense While a “bookworm” may enjoy burrowing into a good story, these avid readers do not suddenly become an invertebrate species in the process
The third group of compound words have meanings that have nothing to do with the meanings of the individual words involved For instance, the English
“deadline” refers to the final acceptable time to receive or deliver something It has nothing to do with death or a line And a “butterfly” is neither a fly nor butter
A language may not have an exact match for a certain action or object that exists in another language In American English, for instance, some homeowners have what they describe as a “guest room” It is simply a space where their invited guests can sleep for the night
Sometimes a verb and a preposition will take on a separate, specific meaning when used together Two- word verbs are common in informal English, for examples, “look up”, “close up”, “bring up”, “break down”, “break in”, etc In many cases, it is not necessary to translate the preposition separately
The same word may mean multiple things depending on where it is place how it is used in a sentence This phenomenon typically follows one of two patterns For example, “Scale the fish before weighing it on the scale”, which look and sound alike but are defined differently.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
To gather crucial insights, the study employed a Google questionnaire survey targeting certified translators The questionnaire comprised 12 questions meticulously designed to explore the CC translation process and associated challenges encountered by professionals at HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd.
27 useful answers are collected to serve the performance of this study by dealing with the following questions
Questions: “What is your major?” and “How many years of experience in translating do you obtain?”
Through the survey, 88,9% (24/27) of participants learned in an English Faculty and 3 left participants are from other majors but they consider translation as a main job It can be realized that a majority of translators have good background knowledge and were trained during many years at universities/ colleges before working for the company It is also their advantage in comparision with other translators not learning in a English Faculty In particular, most of them have obtained experience in translating, but not many translators have a long experience, mainly under 1 year (64,3%) Simply, many fresh translators are always welcomed by the HT Company A few of them are students fresh from university and their experience from 1 to 3 years makes up 28,6% and more 3 year- experience is left (7,1)%
It can be seen clearly in the chart below
Figure 3.1 Experience in translating of translators at HT Company
Questions: “Have you attended Translation Course?” and “How long have you been working in HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd?”
Among 27 participants, there are 15 translators (53,6%) who used to attend some Translation Courses It means that they always cultivate their full knowledge before starting translation job Notedly, through this questionnaire, it is identified that most of translators have contributed to the company nearly 1 year (82,1%) Of course, this is not related to their translating capability because any translators also want to change the working environment, new opportunities and new colleagues after devoting to any company for a long time Additionally, translators working from 1 to 3 years and more 3 years account for 12,3%, 5,6% respectively
This table shows working time of translators in the company.
Figure 3.2 Working time of translators in the company
Question: “Do you often translated English Commercial Contracts?” and
“How do you evaluate your translating skill?”
The result is described in the following chart
Figure 3.3 Frequency of translating English CCs at Translating and
It is very clear that 12/27 (42,9%) participants are rare to translate English CCs Besides, 17,9% (6/27) of translators often work with English CCs It is easy to understand that 6 translators good at translating some commercial contracts are always assigned to handle this type of document There are always translators specializing in any field with big knowledge which help them solve the document easily and this advantage will completely be made use of in order to get high effectiveness and quality in the company Finally, 17,9% left is sometimes The fact that translators all will also have to deal with CCs during their working process, but they can support each other if it is really necessary
It is not difficult to realize that 20/27 (74,07%) participants appreciate their translating skill This figure shows their confidence in translation field and it sounds very good Moreover, 17,9% of translators have good translating skill and 2 left people are at the normal level
The following table demonstrates for the above information.
Level Number of participants Percentage
Figure 3.4 Self- evaluation about translating skill of translators at Translating and Interpreting Department
Question: “Which difficulties do you face in the translating process?”
In this study, it is easy for the researcher to find out some problems faced by translators in HT Company The result is obviously displayed in the chart below.
Figure 3.5 Some difficulties faced by translators in HT Company
It is certain that terminologies often challenge translators the most, it means there are 18 participants agree on this and it is sometimes to some other people. Terminologies between the source and target languages often vary widely, this is the standard difficulty faced by translators When translating, translators must constantly compare the two systems of the two languages they are tackling Some highly technical terminologies often appearing in English CCs at HT Company are listed in the following table.
Custom invoice Hóa đơn hải quan
Purchase order Đơn đặt hàng
Transferable document Chứng từ chuyển nhượng
Table 3.6 Some nouns belonging to the highly technical terminology
Besides, 15 participants sometimes have difficulties in binomials and trinomials; nouns ending in suffixes –er (or) and –ee; and common words with specialized meanings Concerning binomials, for instance, “true and correct”, “null and void” and trinomials “give, devise and bequeath” are also the vocabulary feature in CCs They often challenge translators because of its popularity in English CCs but it is difficult to find out in English dictionary.
This agreement was declared as null and void.
(Thỏa thuận này đã được tuyên bố vô hiệu).
With regard to common word with specialized meanings, the most popular words in CCs are “consideration” (sự suy xét) and the modal auxiliry verbs “shall”.The word “consideration” is used in CCs with meaning “tiền/ điều khoản bồi hoàn” and “shall” is used like a specialized word Except from common meaning to indicate the future, for example, “I shall be in touch with you again shortly” (Tôi sẽ particular, archaic adverbs and prepositional phrases are sometimes displayed to 15 translators, they are usually used in CCs such as “hereinafter”, “forthwith”,
“hereby” and prepositional phrases such as “subject to”, “pursuant to”, etc There are some following examples:
The Richman Air Travel Company, hereinafter “The Company”
In this event, the contract shall be terminated forthwith
Translator hereby declares and warrants the Translation is an original work translated by translator.
Legal documents often employ archaic adverbs and prepositional phrases These grammatical elements are recurrent in commercial contracts, particularly at company headquarters The table below presents examples of such adverbs and phrases.
Sau đây Thereafter Sau đó
Hereby Bằng cách này Thereby Bằng cách đó
Hereunder Dưới đây Therein Trong đó
Hereof Về điều này Thereof Về điều đó
Herein Trong đây Thereto Theo đó
Hereto Theo điều này Therewith Với điều đó herewith Kèm sau đây
Vừa đề cập Notwithstanding Cho dù/ bất kể The foregoing Vừa đề cập Forthwith Ngay lập tức
Table 3.7 Archaic adverbs frequently appearing in CCs
Archaic adverbs mostly consist of an adverb “here” or “there” or sometimes
“where” attaching with one preposition as a suffix These adverbs are not useful in modern English but widespread in legal texts and the CCs in particular, which makes it more difficult for translators to deal with the originals.
In some contracts, translators sometimes have the difficulty in preposition phrases as well The following table shows common preposition phrases in each CC translated at HT Company
In accordance with Phù hợp với
In compliance with Phù hợp với
In pursuance with Phù hợp với
In consideration with Xét đến
In witness whereof/ thereof Chứng nhận dưới đây
Table 3.8 Common preposition phrases in HT’s CCs
Question: “In your opinion, which factor affects commercial contract translation?
As a result, specialized knowledge accounts for 71,4% (20/27) when it is decided to be the most important factor having an influence on the quality of English CC translation Honestly, it is a big difficulty for translators if they do not understand specialized knowledge about the content they want to convert and the fact that this is the most popular case It will be very terrible if the translator is only interested in literature but is required to translate CCs It is really hard for the translator to convert full content of the original
Furthermore, vocabulary and culture make up 17,9% and 10,7% respectively. Translators need various and rich vocabulary in both the source language and target language to serve the translation job well because in English, one word can consist of many different meanings not completely related to each other Therefore, it is very important and necessary to grasp all the meanings of a word, which help you become proficient in language as well as improve the translating skill Last but not least, it is culture, one of the important factors sometimes causing some difficulties for translators at HT Company Translators have to cope with the strange culture requiring its message to be conveyed in a familiar way The culture expresses its characteristics in a “cultural constraint”: culturally specific words, idioms and expressions, whose origins and uses are tied to the culture They are being addressed in a unique and origin way Therefore, the translator is based on the culture to provide an intercultural translation, in which the success of translation depends on translator’s knowledge about the culture s/he is handling
Look at the following chart for more clarity.
Figure 3.9 Some factors affecting the quality of English CC translation
Question: “Apart from difficulties mentioned above, do you face other difficulties in translating English Commercial Contracts? List them below”
In this question, many personal opinions are collected apart from difficulties mentioned by the researcher The fact that there are some coincident problems and acronym only is the added difficulty after the researcher summarizes In any contract, there are some acronyms requiring the translator’s knowledge; for instance, in the English CCs provided by HT Company, a lot of highly technical terminologies are abbreviated They are mainly common terminologies in the field of law, economy and other fields related to content of the CCs These acronyms appear at least one time in the overall of the original contracts.
CIF Tiền hàng, bảo hiểm, cước phí
ETA Dự kiến tàu đến
FOB Giao hàng lên tàu
GFA Tổng diện tích sàn xây dựng
IP Tài sản trí tuệ
MPL Giấy phép công cộng Mozilla
RMA Bảo hành đổi trả sản phẩm
Question: “In your opinion, what is the cause of difficulties in translating English Commercial Contract?”
Many participants say that they do not spend much time at home in broadening specialized knowledge and practising translating skills It is clearly demonstrated in the survey through the chart as follows.
Figure 3.11 Self- studying time of translators at Translating and Interpreting
It is easy to see that the number of translators spending their free time in self- studying at home are not considerable Maybe, the amount of large work at the office makes them only want to take a rest as soon as they come back home The amazing result is that 82,8% of translators spend less than 2 hours practising more and the number of translators spending 2 – 4 hours makes up 13,8% This is the biggest reason making translators encounter many difficulties in translating English CCs
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Some solutions to overcome difficulties with the aim of improving the
Based on the findings and the fact learned at the company, the researcher suggests some solutions to overcome language difficulties, culture and specialized knowledge as follows.
Firstly, language difficulties such as archaic adverbs and preposition phrases; binomials and trinomials; nouns ending in suffixes –er (or) and –ee; common words with specialized meanings and terminologies need considering as top priority It is very necessary for translators to spend much more time in seeking and translating English CCs at home The more English CCs translators handle, the more valuable notes they get The frequency of facing archaic adverbs or binomials as well as common words with specialized meanings is increasing, at that time translators have much time to find out how to deal with or they can take note to get some suggestions from long experienced translators.Besides, the translators should also read the translations of CC in Vietnamese as many as possible because these translations give them not only a large volume of terminologies, archaic adverbs and preposition phrases but also the method to deal with them In other words, the translators should learn from actual CC translation experiences that the previous translators went through Moreover,
“practice makes perfect”, it is the reason why the translators should practise translating the CCs frequently From that, they can possess experiences to skilfully solve issues incurring in the translation process of CCs.
To overcome cultural barriers in translation, Gtelocalize (2017) emphasizes the importance of cultural intelligence Translators should continuously develop this skill by immersing themselves in at least two cultures They must be empathetic towards their audience and understand the nuances of the target language, which often lie beyond dictionaries To bridge this gap, translators should carefully observe native speakers' usage of jargon, colloquialisms, and technical terms They can gather these insights through social media, television, reading, and intercultural interactions.
Lastly, it is necessary for HT’s translators to expand and deepen specialized knowledge and experience in the fields concerned The translators should carefully study on CCs to be aware of their specific features in terms of terminology, grammar, structure and style The CCs at HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd embrace a large number of terminologies in the field of law and economy; thus, the translators ought to continuously update these kinds of knowledge. Acquiring legal and economic knowledge requires the translators to read and study relevant documents to the fields Along with specialized books and dictionaries, they can read news on online newspapers such as The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Jounal, etc Simultaneously, knowledge belonging to other fields such as banking, shipping also needs improving.
Furthermore, translators should be more active to enroll some translation courses Obviously the courses will create a good environment for them to learn many things from excellent translators such as practical experience, tips, special terminologies, etc
4.1.2 Some solutions to HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd
Except for the factors presented above, HT Company also needs to make some changes so as to improve translation quality of CCs Instead of assigning work vaguely, the company should separate the translators into different groups based on their speciality and allot them suitable duties The CCs needs to be assigned to the group of translators whose expertise is in economic (and legal) fields so that their knowledge and skill can be utilized effectively As a result, CC translation quality can be considerably enhanced Moreover, the company should try to organize weekly meetings for translators at the same department to exchange difficulties and support each other as soon as possible
Identifying difficulties in translating English CCs into Vietnamese atTranslating and Interpreting Department of HT International Services and TradingCo., Ltd, the researcher would like to make the recommendation on how to overcome difficulties with the view to advancing the translating skill of translators,then the translation quality is enhanced It is not only useful for translators at HTCompany in private but also other Translation Companies in general.
Some suggestions for the further research
Although CC and CC translation are interesting topics, numerous issues are not studied owing to the limit of time and scope of the study Therefore, the researcher would like to suggest further researches on the following topics.
The first topic focuses on syntactic difficulty in the English CCs at HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd In the process of analyzing English CCs translated at the company, it is easy to witness the appearance of long sentences with complex grammar Besides, the authors of these contracts also make use of numerous sentences without subject, “if” clause, etc For example, “products that are delivered in advance of schedule are delivered at the sole risk of the Supplier and may, at the Buyer’s option, be returned at the Supplier’s expense for proper delivery and/or the Buyer may withhold payment therefore until the date that the Products are actually scheduled for delivery”, “If requested by the Buyer, the Supplier shall update the Buyer with the status of each delivery promptly” The syntactic features have become an integral part in the English CCs Therefore, studying on syntax may benefit not only the translators but also people whose work is to draft the CCs.
The next topic is to study on common words and phrases in English CCs In most of English CCs, some words or phrases are often repeated in each contract As usual, it takes translators much time to look up in dictionary or ask someone. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct the study on this topic in order to summarize all words and phrases Translators are easy to grasp knowledge in the short time and bring accuracy for translation As a result, in the future, the researcher would like to deeply investigate the topic so as to bring convenience to translators working with CCs.
The last topic looks at errors in translating process of English CCs at HT Company In CCs translated at Translating and Interpreting Department, some errors could come from syntax, lexis, etc The problems make the translating process more complex and lead to errors in some cases Consequently, studying on the topic can assist the translator to be aware of the translation errors of English CCs in order to avoid mistranslation and omission.
The aforementioned are some stimulating and practical topics that the researcher would like to investigate in the future
The study embraces three main parts: literature review, research findings and recommendation Literature review provides theoretical background information on translation theory, contract and CC as well as difficulties in translating English commercial contracts into Vietnamese Research findings presents the research on some problems and difficulties of translators at Interpreting and TranslatingDepartment in HT when translating English CCs into Vietnamese In this part, the researcher achieves valuable findings Besides, recommendation gives some solutions to improve the translation quality of English CCs translated at HTInternational Services and Trading Company Limited and suggestions for the further study.
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Principles and Procedures Involved in Bible Translating
Nida, E A & Taber, C R (1995) The Theory and Practice of Translation Bell, R T (1991) Translation and Translating
Koller, W (1979) Equivalence in Translation Theory
The following closed and open questions are designed to identify difficulties of translators at Translating and Interpreting Department of HT International Services and Trading Co., Ltd in translating English Commercial Contracts into Vietnamese
1 How long have you learned English?
3 How many years of experience in translating do you obtain?
4 How long have you been working in HT International Services and Trading
5 Have you attended Translation Course?
6 How long do you spend in learning to translate at home?
7 How often do you translate English commercial contracts?
8 How do you evaluate your translating skill?
9.Which difficulties do you face in translating process?
Archaic adverbs and prepostition phrases
Nouns ending in suffixes –er (or) and –ee
Common words with specialized meanings
10 Apart from difficulties mentioned above, do you face other difficulties in translating English Commercial Contracts? List them below