Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58ANATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITYFACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESENGLISH FOR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT BUI THI CHINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES A
Superordinate concept expressed in English idioms
As the English idioms contain many general categories or meanings, Vietnamese also has many words that correspond vice versa Therefore, it takes translators more time to select among several different words in Vietnamese the most accurate one If translators fail to find a suitable specific Vietnamese word for a superordinate in English, the idiom’s meaning could be seriously misinterpreted.
Number of students encountering problems of general words in idiom translation
Every Jack hashis Jill Blood is thicker than water
Kick the bucket One swallow doesn't make a summer
See eye to eye Keep one's word Co
Figure 3.11: Number of students encountering problems of general words in idiom translation
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
This provided chart shows that transparent and semi-transparent idioms embrace the highest number of students encountering problems of general words in idiom translation Although almost all of the respondents could give a correct answer, they also added that idiom’s concept with a general word made them get confused.
Surprisingly, there are still 5 students that translated “see eye to eye” and “keep one’s word” idiom incorrectly Regarding the idiom “keep one’s word”, one of the students with incorrect answer translated it into “kiệm lời” instead of correct translation “giữ lời” Here does the problem caused by general words appear The word “keep” is a superordinate in English with diverse meanings such as “obey”,
“promise”, “retain”, “possess” and so on The respondents who had made inaccurate translation must consider “keep” as “save”, thereby misinterpreting its meaning.
Similarly, for the “see eye to eye” idiom, there are two students translated it into
“mặt đối mat” and “gặp mặt trực tiếp” This wrong translation is due to their failure in guessing the meaning of the word “see” which can be understood as “perceIve”,
“distinguish”, “get”, “comprehend” and so on In this idiom, the word “see” is not used with its literal meaning as “spot” but “comprehend” Therefore, the idiom
“see eye to eye” is equivalent to “tam dau y hop” in Vietnamese.
Another example is “kick the bucket” idiom Data in figure 3.8 shows that more than a half of respondents could not give a correct answer A student stated in the interview that “kick” means “da” in Vietnamese, and he thought the image of the
“bucket” was treated the same as “bat” Therefore, this idiom is translated into Vietnamese as “ăn chao da bát” A large number of students when being interviewed also admitted that they tend to select the most popular meaning of a superordinate, but there are cases where it does not match with the idiom’s concept.
Differences in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning
In the main, there are always differences in the way a word expresses its idiomatic meaning between different cultures A similar conceptual idea can be described by diverse images in two languages, 1.e a word in the source language may denote a different meaning in the target language This phenomenon leads to non- equivalence in idiom translation, which requires translators not only be bilingual but also bicultural during translation process.
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
Differences in the convention of word's idiomatic meaning
Every Jack has his Jill 21
Blood is thicker than water
One swallow doesn't make a summer 35
Figure 3.12: Differences in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning It can be clearly seen from the above chart that the problem caused by differences in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning is mostly found in “Work like a dog” and “One swallow doesn’t make a summer idiom” Although data in Figure 3.8 proves that up to 43 out of 60 students had a correct translation for “One swallow doesn’t make a summer”, they were still puzzled by usage of the word
“summer” in this idiom Additionally, students who participate in the interview also meet the same case:
Code 01: I’m not sure about the use of word “summer” in this idiom In Vietnamese, there is an expression that is similar in form and also contains the image of swallow, but “summer” is replaced by “spring” This difference puzzles me a lot because I’m not sure “swallow” denoted another idiomatic meaning in English.
Code 05: I think the translation of this idiom would be more straightforward if
“spring” is used rather than “summer” You know, swallow is always known as a symbol of spring, and I cannot see any connection between the image of “swallow” and that of “summer”.
The idiom “Work like a dog” created the same situation when more than two thirds of respondents encountered difficulties in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning There are 39 out of 60 participants who were able to translate this idiom correctly according to Figure 3.8 result Among them, 11 students translate by explanation while the 28 remaining respondents found an equivalent in
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
Vietnamese which is “làm việc như trâu như chó” (literally means extremely hard- working) Those who failed to produce an accurate translation specified the reason that they did not know the idiomatic meaning of the word “dog”, so they just simply applied word-for-word translation This is mainly because “buffalo” but
“dog” is the most frequently used word in Vietnamese culture as an image of hard work Similar to “One swallow doesn’t make a summer’, if “dog” is substituted by “buffalo”, the idiom will become much more straightforward to translate.
Moreover, in student’s correct translated versions, they added the image “buffalo” together with “dog” irrespective of non-equivalence in form between the source language and the target language In conclusion, translators should be sensitive to every single word used in idioms and flexibly deal with problems of non- equivalence in order to create the best translation outcome.
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
RECOMMENDATIONS TO DEAL WITH NON-
Using amore specific word along with examining the context
In some cases, using a more specific word to translate an English word into Vietnamese is necessary to avoid confusion or misunderstanding This is mainly because there are many Vietnamese words that can correspond to the general concept expressed by the English term, so students have to select the best suitable word among several different ones However, sometimes only the English word is not enough to identify the Vietnamese equivalent, and in these cases doing some research on the context is important to decide which Vietnamese word is to be used as well as to avoid choosing the unsuitable words which may cause misunderstanding about the idiom’s meaning.
For example, the English word for “see” can be translated by many different Vietnamese words such as “perceive”, “distinguish”, “get”, “comprehend” and so on Therefore, it could be understood why some students have a wrong translation for the idiom “see eye to eye” because they misinterpret the word “see” However, if this idiom is attached in a specific context such as “They have been working in a team for a long time so they see eyes to eyes on most issues”, it will not be confused anymore since students can rely on the context Therefore, it is advisable that students examine the context to omit unsuitable layers of meaning and infer the exact meaning of the idiom The situational context in both source language and target language also removes any ambiguity and helps students give direct interpretation, so it has an important part to play in translating any piece of discourse.
4.3 Recommendations to deal with differences in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning
4.3.1, Field testing of idioms: be in a real situation
Since there are always differences in the way a word expresses its idiomatic meaning among different cultures, students therefore can misinterpret the image
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A of a word and then lead to a wrong translation The possible way of dealing with the problem is conduct field testing before doing translation work, i.e students will try to use an idiom in a real situation This helps to elicit useful feedback on cultural appropriateness as well as deepen students’ understanding about its meaning.
Translators should not only translate literally but they also need to question other aspects, and real experience of using an idiom in a specific context will strengthen their comprehension Gaining a profound knowledge of idioms including meanings, contexts and hidden culture in the source language is essential for students to be able to find an equivalent in the target language Moreover, field testing enables students to be more aware of differences in culture between two languages and therefore avoid awkward translation Once students are able to realize and distinguish differences in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning, they can not only utilize an idiom with a suitable context in its source language but also in the target language.
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In the main, the research explores fourth-year Business English students’ perception towards non-equivalence in idiom translation and their main difficulties when dealing with this.
Data assembled from the research shows that almost all of the surveyed students are able to define idioms correctly and positively realize the problems caused by non-equivalence in idiom translation However, they are quite confused to come up with any technique to combat this problem In addition, their confidence in idiom translation is quite low and most of them agree that translation is a challenging task A very large number of students often use word-for-word and literal translation methods, followed by explaining and omission The respondents also experience three main obstacles resulting from the existence of non- equivalence, which are cultural-specific items, general words in the English idioms and differences in the convention of word’s idiomatic meaning To help students dealing with these problems, the researcher suggests some possible and applicable recommendations In terms of CSI, students are proposed to apply the translation method as cultural substitution and to be more active in communication with native English speakers For the difficulty caused by general words in the English idioms, it is advisable that using a more specific word along with examining the situational context be applied effectively To avoid inappropriate translation, students should put themselves in a real situation by doing field testing to receive useful feedback on cultural appropriateness as well as gaining a deep background knowledge about the idiom These above suggestions can help students overcome such challenges and enhance the quality of their translated version.
5.2 The limitation of the research
Although the research has identified some outstanding findings, some limitations are unavoidable Firstly, not all intake 58 students at Business English department are involved in the questionnaire survey, and the number of students who participated in the interview was modest Therefore, the coverage of this study is quite small-scale and limited Secondly, due to the effect of Coronavirus, the researcher was not able to conduct observation along with questionnaire and
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A interview to discover more convincing evidence Finally, there were not more recommendations that could help support students’ translation.
Further studies are expected to address some limitations of the research The scope should be broadened to a larger scale and the study should be open to conduct more detailed analysis on other documents containing the problem of non-equivalence in idiom translation In addition, the research would be far more improved if there are more recommendations to improve the quality of student’s translation.
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
1 Baker, M (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation London:
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Literary Fame London: Routledge 10 Lefevere A (1992b) Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook London:
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Guide to American English Idioms Washington, DC: Office of English Language Programs
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Hall InternationalNida, E A (1964) Towards a science of translation, with
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating Leiden: Brill.
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Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
Dear participants, lam an intake 58 student in Business English Department at National Economics
University Currently, I am working on a research on discovering the difficulties of non-equivalence faced by final BE students in English-Vietnamese idioms translation specifically and providing some recommendations.
This short questionnaire serves as a tool to support the research so your participation is greatly appreciated All your own information will be kept confidential and only used for the thesis purpose.
Please give marks from I to 5, write in the space provided, tick a box and/or the column of your choice in each of the following questions You are also free to write down your opinion if possible.
Thank you for your cooperation!
1 What do you think an “idiom” is?
L] A group of words that is closely associated.
1 A group of words whose meaning cannot be deducible from its separate words
LH A phrase with figurative meaning that is based on experience or common sense
2 How would you rate the level of difficulty in translating English idioms?
Very hard How would you rate your level of translating English idioms into Vietnamese?
Not so good Quite good Very good
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
4 Inarange from 1 to 5, Which translation methods do you often use to translate idioms into Vietnamese?
(1=Always 2= Often 3=Sometimes 4=Rarely 5=Never)
Word for word translation Translation by omission
Translation by compensation Translation by paraphrasing Translation by loan words
Translation by illustration Translation by a superordinate 3ƒ NPN? [ NI] NI] NI] & BR; BR) BR) BR] BR) BR] BYR Mn} Nn}? mi nt ay ai ni nm
Translation by cultural substitution —ơ| —ơ| | | | | | | 2 4 5 WW] GW} C2 | GW] GB] W] GW] BW] C5
5 Inarange from 1 to 5, what are difficulties you often encounter when translating
English idioms? (1=Always 2= Often 3=Sometimes 4=Rarely 5=Never) 1 | Non-equivalent translation in Vietnamese 1 2 |3 4 15 2 | Differences in culture 1 2 3 4 5 3 | Lack of exposure to idioms 1 2 3 4 5 4 | No knowledge of idioms’ correct meaning 1 2 l3 4 15 6 How often do you encounter non-equivalence in translating idioms?
7 How would you rate the influence of non-equivalence in English idioms translation?
Slightly influential Somewhat influential Very influential
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
8 Find Vietnamese equivalent for these following idioms, and then write down translation methods you use for each idiom.
Please write “No” if you are unable to find.
9 Regarding those idioms that you assure the translation is correct, what strategy do you use to achieve that?
I Already know the correct translation before ] Guess based on experience and knowledge related to idioms
8 Others Please SD€CIÍY QC HH SH nh nh enone ey 10 Biggest difficulty causes you unable to find Vietnamese equivalent idioms?
] The English idioms express culture-specific concepts ] The concept in the English idioms are general words ] The words in the English idioms are semantically complex
] Differences 1n context and frequency of use between English and Vietnamese
] The Vietnamese language lacks a superordinate (general words)
Bùi Thị Chỉnh — 11160710 — Business English 58A
O The use of loan words in English idioms
] Others Please Sp€CIY - c0 eee ences ng ng ng nh nh xa
11 What directions do you use to solve non-equivalence problems in translation?
(you can choose more than 1 answer) O Paraphrase main concept of the idioms
Bị Use cultural substitution to produce the same effect
] Others Please SD€CIY Q0 ng ng HH ng nh nh xa