Practical experience of English Vietnamese translation working in the newsroom of Sai Gon Tiep Thi Magazine

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION STUDIED IN CLASS AND ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE NEWS TRANSLATION IN NEWSROOM OF SAI GON TIEP THI MAGAZINE .... Meanwhile, Roge

SAI GON TIEP THI MAGAZINE

A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Arts in English

Submitted by TRAN THI TRUC MAI Supervised by NGUYEN VU PHUONG THAO

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .scssssssssssoosscsseseseesscnsassnsnencccetoneaceasnecncecsssenensersersenseasessenoes ii ABSTRACT co chen họ nh TA 00480000 0500804103100040000600004.1800689101050090400001 00156 iti TABLE OF CONTENTS .ccccssscssscssovcossssntsenccocsersnsccssasecenensencacensncenenenaceestsossnenessoesooses iv LIST OF DIAGRAM .ssssscsssenesesssesrerseseesennnneees sasssensecossvorsacecaeaneneesereseees

INTRODUCTION .cceseeesese = ¬ I.LITERATURE REVIEW 5%

1.1 Theory of translation

L.Ld Definition of translation

1.1.2 Rule€s 0ƒ HfHSỈQ{ÍGH «ecceeeeeeexeesretrrrisreeesrrirseieieeersneeirrererniirel011101004 3

1.1.3 Roles oƒ translation

1.2 Introduetion of Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper offÏÏc€ He iaeeesee 5 1.2.1 Background infOr mation wiccsecsserreccscssrsereaceserecnceenssessesessanisssscesnenassesassnsesensenes 5 1.2.2 Specific work of a person working in the HCWSFOOHH, co Hee 7 1.2.3 Required skills of a person Working in the NEWSTOOHA srssssereceervoroersreresaseriornneeee 7 TIL METHODOLOGY .ccsssccsosessesssscnesenserssssrecorensesscneneneneaserevenegeacarsnsasecssssosseanseseneces 8 2.1 Research design Án 0 L4 0n HE 000808910103000011410000000318000941010190012012400400004000000008404 § 2.2 Population and sampÏe .- s-essssseEseessssetssessstsneesersA081001011Y 0n e0e 71 § 2.3 Insfrument .oo sac 9196083610160064800818041012004060040000090100 9 2.3.1 Comparison method .csserrssssscsssssenesccssstssecsssesscsceeeeeeneesenensnenensesessssasansnseseneneesay 9 2.3.2 Interview .rscccscsssersrereseeseeserseee saseveesssocenenesesoroveasassstersscsteneneceenessenenesasscenceseseaceseaesses 9

2.4 Data collection procedures .sccssssssssosecssesssecscssssensnesssenssenossetsscenenesseeceacerennseseenenes 9

III SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION STUDIED IN CLASS AND ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE NEWS

TRANSLATION IN NEWSROOM OF SAI GON TIEP THI MAGAZINE 10 3.1 Similarities .sccscossssssvscesscesscsssssscenscsessatssonscesaarsprsecesssrsvesnussenconsesencensoneeenenencenesens 10

3.1.1 USing WrHHg lIHBHAQ86 ào "—

3.1.2 Equivalence in translation

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EU S82 nh II L2 ra ch ốc ố 12 3.1.2.4 Equivdlence Qƒ fEHS€ ìàcocvnennehhhhrrrehrrHdrrrrrderterdrrirrdrrddmrre 12 3.1.2.5 Equivalence of Proper NOME .à cà ch nh hhrhhhrrrgehrrrrdrrrerrrrrriida 13 3.1.3 Accurate preservation of information implied in source language text 13 3.2 Differences .ccccscssssssssescsssssessrsesevcsentererveccvsossecesonscessasenseensenonsansserarscessscesssonenesnensenes 14 3.2.1 Rules of “Six Wh” and “Inverted Triangular Order” socom 14 3.2.2 Readers of translation (0F fdrgel CHSÍOHGTS) .c«eeieesensrierrerrrrrmsreeiireree 19 3.2.2.1 Reader affecting choices Of HWS ececcceseriereie irene tees iene ee en anan teenies 19 3.2.2.2 Reader affecting the editor's WFHing SDÌ€ ào eeinerrerrerrerrrre 20

IV PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES .«« ««<e< "1 —¬ 21

4.1 Interview with an editor of the Sai Gon Tiep Thi magazine —-.` 21 4.2 Interview with some people working as translators for the Sai Gon Tiep Thi

MAB AZINE ssessccesversosoreresserersnngnecersssensonsacerensussensosentnsenenesesesnes 26

CONCLUSION .sssssescsscsssssesescseeseseenersanacesasassaseseneatentosensenen 28 REFERENCCE .-cescseesseeeseeesssersrsesenrierrtraraekre .29

Appendix 1: Chinese pour saving deposits into stock market 31 Appendix 2: Pound touches 14-year dollar high ceerenerrrrrrererrr 33 Appendix 3: Company recalls beef patties sold in New England 35 Appendix 4: Global warning may pose threat to heart .ceeeeeerrrrrrrrrrree 36 Appendix 5: Comparison between the editor’s translation and the final-year student’s translation .ccceccscccseesssesesessesesseeecencecsesesseseseeseseussneceerseseesesssersensssteenearecerensetenseneecsessanees 38 Appendix 6: Comparison between the editor’s translation and the final-year student’s 1) E11: 0 41 Appendix 7: American Airline to test in-flight broadband internet 45

LIST OF DIAGRAM

Diagram 1: Overview of the translation task 0.0.0 ::cecssseeeeeeeresseeeeenneerenee reset ener ns 2 Diagram 2: Structure of Sai Gon Tiep Thi Newspaper Office - :::esc creer 6 Diagram 3: Inverted triangle order in News Writing eeeeernnnnnnnrnrntrnrrrrstte 16

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INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, it is surprising that companies in Vietnam often take from one to three months to train students who have just graduated from university, even when the students do work which is suitable with their major in university Specifically, the students specializing in English Translation and Interpretation were trained in their work, which relates to English Translation and Interpretation For example, some other students and I working as translators in newsroom of SGTT magazine had to be trained

in nearly two months before we are officially employees here I wondered why we should be trained in the few months when we learned at least four years

I gradually answered my question when working for SGTT magazine It is a fact that knowledge of translation studied in class is not enough for the learners to work well It

is only basic foundation and rules of translation, which will support the learners’ profession in the future In addition, some rules will be applied for the work completely, but some rules will be changed The thesis will show and explain what rules will be applied and what rules will be changed

TL form Meanwhile, Roger T.Bell (Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice)

says:

Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of

what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving

semantic and stylistic equivalence

In general, translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language

by a representation of a equivalent text in a second language

“Translation, then, consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, analyzing it

in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context” (Larson 1998, p.3)

Here is diagram of overview of translation task (Larson 1998, p.4)

OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION TASK

In this thesis, the source language is English and the target language is Vietnamese Therefore, the simplest definition is that translation is the expression in Vietnamese of what has been expressed in English, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences For example, in an English essay “ Wonders in Creation” in the book - 120 Model English Essays by H.Martin has a paragraph:

“ Every thing in nature is wonderful Even the commonest object is a mystery The fact that it is familiar to us, does not explain it For example, take a common plant, a weed

in the garden, which we dig up and throw away as worthless If you consider the delicacy of its tissues, the perfection of its forms and colour, the marvellous way in which it has grown from a tiny seed, you will wonder how it came to be Not even the greatest scientist in the world can explain the principle of life that has formed it Common and familiar as it is, it is a mystery.”

Nguyén Van Khi, a translator translated the paragraph as following:

“ Moi thir trong thiên nhiên đều tuyệt diệu Ngay cá những thứ tầm thường nhất cũng là

một điều bí mật Sự kiện nó gần gũi với chúng ta không đủ là lí do để lý giải được cho

nó Lay ví dụ một giống thực vật nhỏ, cây cỏ dại trong vườn chúng ta đào và vứt đi như

một vật dụng vô ích Nếu chúng ta xét đến sự tỉnh tế của những tế bào, sự tuyệt hảo về

hình thức và màu sắc, cách thức kỳ diệu qua đó nó phát triển từ một hạt giống bé nhỏ,

người ta sẽ ngạc nhiên làm sao sự việc lại có thé được như vậy Ngay ca nhà khoa học

vĩ đại nhất trên thế giới cũng không thể cắt nghĩa được nguyên lý vẻ sự sống đã hình

thành nên nó Mặc dù phỏ biến và gần gũi, nó là một điều khó hiểu.”

1.1.2 Rules oƒ ramslation

Each translation, however, cannot avoid some kinds of loss, due to a number of factors

The losses derive from the fact that the two languages have differences in their basic characters and their social varieties According to Newmark (1981), the translation rule

is that corresponding elements, collocations, syntactic units must be equally frequent in the source and the target language On the other hand, translators cannot apply this rule

to the letter because it has inherent contradiction Besides, the styles of using language

of the source text and the translated text do not coincide Normally, the translator writes the text in his individual way that comes naturally to him He forms his translation by

using his own idiolect or his conception of the source language (SL), which is written naturally in the target language (TL)

In the case when the learner’s mother tongue seems to enhance the target language learning process due to its similarities in structure and form with the target language, the appropriate and applicable term is positive transfer: “the effects of positive transfer are only determinable through comparisons of the success of groups with different native languages Such comparisons often show that cross-linguistic similarities can produce positive transfer in several ways Similarities between native language and target vocabulary can reduce the time needed to develop good reading comprehension and similarities in syntactic structures can facilitate the acquisition of grammar” (Odlin,

an international scale However, every country uses its own language or uses English in communication For example, a Vietnamese company together with a foreign company

is implementing an economic project What will happen if a party cannot understand what the other says just because of language difference? Translation and Interpretation are the twin keys to overcome this communication barrier The translator or interpreter will play a critical role in, and give a significant contribution to, the communication between the parties involved Accordingly, every international company, government organization, non-governmental organization, etc always needs a translator or an interpreter to ensure that the intended message is channeled through appropriately, clearly, and naturally

1,2 Introduction of Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper office

1.2.1 Background information

This newspaper office was founded in 1995 The newspaper office has 4 representative offices throughout the country They are based in Hà Nội, Đà Nẵng, Hồ Chí Minh City, and Cần Thơ

It includes many departments - Advertising, Circulation, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, News, Online, Production, etc A diagram can simplify its

main structure

EDITORIAL STAFF

GENERAL EDITION (LEADER)

ART (INFORMATION READERS DOCUMENTA PROMOTION ACCOUNTS ADMINISTRATION

ECTOR TECHNOLOGY) CONTACT RY

The newspaper office publishes four publications, Saigon Tiếp Thị (Saigon Marketing), Khám Phá (Discoveries), Kiến Trúc và Đời Sống (Architecture and Life), and Cẩm Nang Tiêu Dùng (Tips of Shopping) Besides, it has a website called Saigon Tiép Thi Online News: http://www.sgtt.com.vn, which provides daily news Its rivals are the Tudi Tré (The Youth) and Tié p Thi va Gia Dinh newspaper (Marketing and Families) The newspaper office reported VND 110 billion in revenue in its latest fiscal year The trainee is allowed to practise in newsroom providing newspaper edition office with news from foreign countries This room has eight employees who daily collect and then edit news from foreign news channels on Internet The head of the staff is Mr Lé Hién Thao, whose job is checking edited news to guarantee that they are correct and written

in journalistic style He then sends these pieces of news to IT room and editorial secretaries who recheck them, After considering and evaluating them, these persons decide which news is good and hot, and ask the newsrooms to develop the news chosen into articles which later appear in the newspapers on the newspaper office’s online

news website

1.2.2 Specific work of a person working in the newsroom

The newsroom specializes in foreign news of economy, political situation, culture,

society, technology, health, environment, etc People working in the newsroom are both

a translator and an editor They find English news on websites of foreign newspapers, such as The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN), International Herald Tribune (THT), New York Times, etc Then they translate English

news and edit into Vietnamese news

1.2.3 Required skills of a person working in the newsroom

Because of both a translator and an editor, people working in the newsroom are required skills of a translator and skills of an editor "

As role of a translator, he / she should have a comprehensive knowledge of both English and Vietnamese As role of an editor, he / she should master skills of editing news, Vietnamese journalistic style, journalistic terms, etc He / She must be an active,

careful person because news is always updated and required the accuracy of information

Moreover, he / she should be good at reading and writing skills Reading skills will help him / her get information more quickly With the good ability to write, he / she will write what he / she knows smoothly and correctly

The most important thing is a “rich brain” This means that it is easy for him / her to work well if he / she has background information of all the specific fields They include

the fields, such as economy, culture, society, education, etc

Therefore, a person who wants to work in the newsroom needs to equip himself /

herself with many skills- editing news, writing, reading, etc

The administration of the comparison and interview methods was carried out in different classes and in the newsroom The participation of the subjects in the study was voluntary, which was made possible through the help of the teachers in charge The students and the translators had been explained the purpose, relevance and importance

of the study

2.1 Population and sample /

The target population of the survey was HOU final-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages and editors and translators working in the newsroom of SGTT magazine

2.3.2 Interview

Beside the comparison between the students’ translation and the translators’ translation,

the interview method was carried out with an editor and three translators who are working for SGTT magazine The interview’s purpose was to find out their ideas and their own experience of English-Vietnamese translation The interview’s questions had prepared beforehand in consideration:

- Similarities between translation studied in class and news translation

- Differences between translation studied in class and news translation

- Their own experience when working as translators in the newsroom

- Their recommendation for translation teaching and learning methods at university Besides that, some unprepared questions in case the interviewees’ responses needed more explaination or clarification

2.3 Data collection procedures

For the comparison method, the researcher collected English news from the newsroom

of SGTT magazine Then, English news was distributed to the students and the

translators to translate into Vietnamese.The students were requested to translate English news in the way that is similar with translation studied in class The translators were requested to translate English news in the way that is similar with translation to write

Vietnamese news After two weeks, the researcher collected the students’ translation

and the translator’s Vietnames news to compare similarities and differences between translation studied in class and translation to write Vietnamese news

The interview consisted of three main ideas implied in 4 questions prepared in advance

It was implemented to learn about practical experience of English-Vietnamese translation By appointment, each of the target editor and translator was interviewed separately and personally in a warm and friendly atmosphere With permission of the interviewees, all the talks were videotaped Those measures would increase the probability of abtaining significant practical data that were extremely valuable to study

HI SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLIGH-

VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION STUDIED IN CLASS AND ENGLISH-

VIETNAMESE NEWS TRANSLATION IN NEWSROOM OF SGTT

MAGAZINE

3.1 Similarities

Both English ~ Vietnamese translation studied in class and English — Vietnamese news translation comply with basic rules of translation which the translators are required of These are using writing language, equivalence in translation and accuracy of information implied in SL text

3.1.1 Using writing language

A student receives English text to be translated, decodes its meaning and re-express the meaning into Vietnamese translation When expressing the meaning of SL text in the target language, the student translates in his / her individual way that comes naturally to him / her He / She forms his / her translation by using his / her own idiolect or his conception of the source language, which is written naturally in the target language Likewise, the employees working as translators (also called the editors) in newsroom of SGTT magazine collect English news from foreign news channels on Internet, decode

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their meaning, edit the news into Vietnamese news and write the news in journalistic style

Some examples of equivalences in translation are following:

The example shows that both English sentence and Vietnamese sentence are equivalent

in passive voice structure

3.1.2.2 Equivalence of phrase

- The phrase “The Asia — Pacific Economic Cooperation forum” in English may be equal to “Dién đàn hợp tác kinh tế khu vực Châu Á — Thái Bình Dương” in Vietnamese

- The phrase “APEC Concluding Senior Officials Meeting” in English may be equal to

“Hội nghị quan chức cấp cao APEC” in Vietnamese

- The phrase “Doha round negotiations” in English may be equal to “Vong dam phan

Doha” in Vietnamese

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- On the sidelines of = Bên lề : On the sidelines of the APEC meetings = Bên lễ

các hội nghị APEC ; on the sidelines of the European Society of Cardiology°s annual

meeting = bên lề cuộc hội thảo hàng năm của Hội tìm mạch châu Âu; etc

- At the same time = Vao thdi điểm đó

- On the eve of = Vao dém trước: On the eve of the APEC meetings = Vào đêm

trước ngày diễn ra hội nghị APEC

~ In the next few = Trong vai téi: In the next few days = trong vai ngay tdi; in the next few months = trong vai thang téi, in the next few years = trong vai nam tdi; ect

- In first-half 2007 = 6 tháng đầu năm 2007

- The focus on = Tap trung vao / quan tâm đến: The focus on quality, indulgence brands has been integral to our growth = quan tam đến chất lượng sản phẩm, và đây

mạnh sự phát triển của nhãn hiệu được ưa chuộng là điều tối cần thiết để thương hiệu

của chúng tôi thành công

- Simple past: Current loans outstanding of the CBD in Africa amounted to one billion U.S dollars by the end of March = Sé tian cho vay của ngân hàng ở Châu Phi tinh đến

- Simple future: According to the draft plan, the fund will start from one billion U.S dollars, and then add up to three billion U.S dollars in the second phase, until eventually amount to five billion dollars = Theo ké hoach, nguồn quỹ sẽ bắt đầu từ một

tỷ USD và thêm 3 tỷ USD trong giai đoạn hai, trong giai đoạn cuối là 5 tỷ USD

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3.1.2.5 Equivalence of proper name

Both proper name in English and proper name in Vietnamese are capitalized

- Name of people: The focus on quality, indulgence brands has been integral to our growth,” say Jean — Marie Gurne, head of Neatle’s ice cream strategic business unit = Theo trưởng bộ phận quản lý chiến dịch kinh doanh kem ăn của tập đoàn Nestle, Jean

— Marie Gurne khang dinh thi “quan tam dén chat luong san .”; Australian prime minister John Howard said that he hoped APEC leaders would also go “beyond agreement on principles” to set a “long — term aspirational goal” for reducing greenhouse gas emissions = Thu tuéng Uc John Howard cho biét 6ng hy vọng các nhà

lãnh đạo APEC cũng sẽ “tiến xa hơn thỏa thuận về nguyên tắc” tạo một “mục tiêu khát

vọng lâu đài” giảm thiểu sự phát ra của lượng khí nhà kính

- Name of place: Fairbank Farms, a U.S ground beef producer, said it is voluntarily recalling beef patties sold to Shaw’s Supermarkets in New England = Nha san xuat thi

bò chính gốc Fairbank Farms lên tiếng yêu cầu thu hồi các mặt hàng đã được bày bán

tại siêu thị Shaw tại New England; On the sidelines of the European Society of

Cardiology’s annual meeting in Vienna = Bên lề cuộc hội thảo hàng năm của Hội tim

mạch châu Âu diễn ra tại Vienna

3.1.3 Accurate preservation of information implied in source language text

“Translation is converting one language, source language (SL) to another, target

language (TL) so that the TL could convey the intended message in SL” (Lotfollah

Karimi), so it is very important for translator or editor to preserve the meaning implied

in SL text, especially in news translation In class, if a student translates meaning of a text incorrectly, he / she can be got a low mark by his / her teacher

What will happen if the editor wrongly conveys what he / she decodes in English

news? Of course, he / she can be scold or dismissed by his/ her boss, but it is not

serious The serious thing is that there are many people throughout the country catching wrong information In the age of communication technology, this can affect their business, etc For example, | mistook the meaning of the word “to fuel” when translating news The mistake made my information unreal:

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