difficulties in translation of economic and trade terminologies from english into vietnamese for juniors of faculty of english in thuongmai u

ABSTRACT The world is slowly turning into a global village; borders that once stood between cultures now serve as bridges of diversity between people of different races and ethnicities At the forefront of this change is the English language, which has become the global medium of communication This modern renaissance of human interaction has facilitated economic and trade booms and English is the main language used in this field This thesis aims to point out the difficulties in translation of economic and trade terminologies from English into Vietnamese for juniors of faculty of English in Thuongmai University It provides useful theory and information as well as typical examples related to this field In addition, the thesis also gives some suggests to help translators in general and students in particular know some common strategies to deal with technical terms when they encounter problems 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received a great deal of help, advice, guidance and encouragement from many teachers, friends and my family It is my great pleasure I have got First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Vu Thi Thanh Hoa, MA for her constant support, various materials, precious advice and valuable comments on draft chapters to complete this study This would not have been possible without her supports Besides, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Thuongmai University for providing us professional learning environment and facilities as well as all the teachers in Faculty of English for their useful lessons, teaching, guidance, experience sharing with the kind heart and whole-hearted instruction and giving enthusiasm, sympathies to lift us to be better ones as we are today Especially, I am proud of my family and friends They are always beside, support and encourage me throughout this study I wishfully send the deepest gratitude to all of efforts, support me to complete this graduation paper Finally, it is an honor for me to extend my regards to all those who kindly gave their advice and supported me If there are not these helps, I could not complete my graduation paper successfully All your help and support are motive power for me to finish this study Hanoi, April 24th 2018 Student Nguyen Thi Ha 2 TABLE OF CONTENT 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL TL p Source language Target language Page LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLE CHART 5 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Viet Nam - a country, which is improving everyday, changing itself vigorously to integrate global economy, has stepped in industrialization and modernization Taking part in many economic communities is chance as well as a challenge Thus, updating financial information, technological advantages, global trading is an essential foundation for researching, building manufacture and business strategy as well as a guideline for future development orientation, which every enterprise needs to to gain profit It will be a huge advantage for enterprises in such a hard competition business environment if they can catch up with these economic and political events, which can affect the worldwide finance-trade industry That is the reason why English becomes an important tool to get these events and information while there are more than 60 countries use English as the main language besides their mother tongues, and nearly 100 countries use it as the second language We have established the economic and trade relations with a lot of countries Successful economic and trade cooperation requires many factors, of which mutual understanding is the most importance Therefore, the translation of economic and trade documents plays an important role and is of the greatest concern However, the translation from English into Vietnamese or vice versa is a big challenge, because of the difference between English and Vietnamese languages and culture Especially, in economic and trade field, the translation of its documents in general and terminology in particular is not a simple task because of their fully specific terminology Moreover, economic and trade cooperation among different countries in the world is increasing, to become a good translator is not only the interest of many people but mine However, I often meet many difficulties as well as challenges in translation process because of the linguistic differences between the two language systems and the most noticeable difficulty is the problem of how to deal with non-equivalence and equivalence economic and trade terminology Therefore, with the hope of helping translators, as well as myself particularly, students who have just graduated begin to step out the university environment and have orientation to become future translators in economic and trade field, I implement this study to study on the translation of economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese Hopefully, it can help translators enhance their translation skills after reading 1.2 Previous studies Translation and the Law: Observations of a Law Professor/Translator Language International, 1999, page 12 The study points out the importance of performing a good and correct translation (synonymy, homonymy and polysemy), which is one of the most important elements to be considered when discussing translation The paper is an overview of the history of translation studies, of the errors and difficulties in translating text and of the consequences of errors in professional translation, with applications to the economic field And last but not least it is an approach to the differences between languages, regarding issues of word meaning, multi word items that can hinder comprehension for those who have embarked upon the difficult task of translation Seguinot, C Interpreting errors in translation Meta, 35,page 68 “Translation of economic texts: challenges and limitations” This study is about the most common errors in translation It provides the characteristics of economic terminology as well as long sentences From these characteristics, then suggest some translation strategies to help translators to translate correctly but keep the loyalty with the source language "Errors in translation mostly result from the non-equivalence between the source and the target languages” Baker, 1992 The study of Le Thi Hanh in Hai Phong Private university, 2015, “A study on translation of economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese” Reviewing the theoretical issues relating to translation, translation methods, translation equivalence and terminology, its definition and main characteristics Not only the overview of translation history by some famous translators ago but also by the practical view of Vietnamese students Knowledge like the ocean, every day we can learn and gain for ourselves These previous studies have gave me a chance to open my eyes and built a great foundation about theoretical background, from which I can research and investigate deeply into my main issue to complete my paper 1.3 Aims of the study The study on the translation of basic economic and trade terminology aims to figure out an overview on translation strategies and procedures, which are commonly used in translation of economic and trade terminology In detail: • Point out some difficulties, which usually appear in translation process • Reviewing the theoretical issues relating to translation, translation methods, translation equivalence and terminology, its definition and main characteristics • Point out the linguistic difference between two language systems, which create the difficulty in translation process • Collecting and presenting common English terminology in economic and trade sector • Providing their Vietnamese equivalences or expressions • Finding out the translation strategies and procedures applied in the translation of economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese Regarding to Junior in Faculty of English in Vietnamese university of Commerce, my study of “Difficulty in translation of economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese” will let them to realize the reason why it is difficult, based on the deep understanding in the language systems and classification of terminology to translate as well as learn some strategies to translate correctly I hope my study can help translator to understand, avoid mistake, and know how to deal with difficulty when facing with economic and trade terminology Therefore, it will be a foundation for 3-year students to be good translators in the future together with the fact that they might able to read and update worldwide information correctly and easily And for me, acting as a translator in my company, this study will let me know more about the difficulty that the others are facing with and be more confident in translating process 1.4 Research Subjects • The main research subject of the study is the difficulty in translation of economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese To find out the common difficulty as well as the reason for this situation The research object is the Junior of Faculty of English in Thong Mai University I focus on 3-year students in Faculty of English in Thong Mai University because they usually face with economic and trade terminology in translating process, which cause many difficulties and errors To help them have better understanding and suggest some strategies for translating process is the main purpose of the study 1.5 Scope of the study Terminology is various in different fields such as commerce and business, market, economic laws, insurance, investment, shares and securities, etc However, it is impossible for me to carry out study on them, due to limitation of time and my knowledge In my study and work process, recognizing that economic and trade terminology plays an important role in Business Management and Foreign Trade field, especially in the renovation period of our country Therefore, the major aspects of the investigation are translation and popular translation strategies being applied in economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese In detail, I concentrate on 3-year students in Faculty of English in VCU who usually find that it is hard to translate these terminologies into Vietnamese 1.6 Research methodology As this study is carried out for the sake of translation of economic and trade terminologies from English into Vietnamese, the quantitative method is applied I have implemented this study with the support sources from economic and trade books and dictionaries, internet and other references Then, from the collected data I will analyze to find out some difficulties and common mistakes, which are usually made by junior in Faculty of English in Thuongmai University 1.6.1 Questionnaire A questionnaire is a set of questions typically used for research purposes which can be both qualitative as well as quantitative in nature A questionnaire may or may not be delivered in the form of a survey, but a survey always consists of questionnaire A questionnaire used in quantitative research asks more closed ended questions with restricted options to answer There are some types of questionnaire, however I chose to use the questionnaires that measure factors incorporated into a scale like those about individual identities and different attributes, index and traits Here are some advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires in my research process: Advantages:  Questionnaire is one of the most affordable methods to gather quantitative data Especially online and mobile surveys have a very low cost and a generous reach  Apart from being inexpensive and flexible, questionnaire is also a practical way to gather data They can be targeted to groups of your choosing and managed in various ways  Disadvantages:  It’s hard to convey feelings and emotions when using online questionnaire A survey questionnaire cannot fully capture emotional responses or the feelings of the respondents Conducting online questionnaire without administering the questionnaire face – to – face, there is no way to observe facial expression, reactions or body language  Questionnaires are not always the best way to gather information For example, if there is little previous information on a problem, a questionnaire may only provide limited additional insight If the right response is not among the choice of answers, the investigators will obtain little or no valid information  Respondents may have a hidden agenda Another setback of questionnaires is the varying responses to questions Respondents sometimes misunderstand or misinterpret questions If this is the case, it will be very hard to correct these mistakes and collect missing data in a second round  Some questions are difficult to analyze 1.6.2 Secondary data Secondary data is research data that has previously been gathered and can be accessed by researchers The term contrasts with primary data, which is data collected directly from its source Secondary data is used to increase the sampling size of research studies and is also chosen for the efficiency and speed that comes with using an already existing resource Secondary data facilitates large research projects, in which many research groups working in tandem collect secondary data 10 3.3 Common mistakes when translating economic and trade terminology Basing on the data collected, the following chart is the ratio of common mistakes, which are usually made in translating process There are most common mistakes I focus on: + Translation out of context + Not use appropriate style + Lack of knowledge Chart 3.2: Percentage of common mistakes in translating process 3.3.1 Translation out of context When facing with these difficulties, translators will apply some common translate methods to transfer text in SL into TL, the following chart is the ratio of some common ways/methods which are usually applied to deal with economic and trade terminology Chart 3.3 Translation methods applied by Junior in Faculty of English when facing with economic and trade terminology Through this chart, we can see that most students use word-for-word translation when dealing with difficulty (42%) and 32% of them using dictionary in this case Only few students choose “ask teacher and friends” as well as “reference to previous translation” option Many novice or non-native speaking translators idioms, or just any script, word for word For example: A student translated the following sentence: “GLOBAL financial intermediation is broken That intricate and interdependent system directing the world's saving into productive capital investment was severely weakened in August 2007” 31 => “Trung gian tài GLOBAL bị phá vỡ Hệ thống phức tạp phụ thuộc lẫn hướng tiết kiệm giới vào đầu tư vốn hiệu bị suy yếu nghiêm trọng vào tháng năm 2007.” 32 By applying word-for-word translation methods, the main idea of the sentence is clear but it is out of the context: + “The world’s saving” should be translated into “ quỹ dự trữ giới” => “The world’s saving into productive capital investment” should be “Quỹ dự trữ giới vốn đầu tư hiệu quả” Word-for-word translation is the rendering of text from one language to another one word at a time with or without conveying the sense of the original text This usually refers to the mistranslation of idioms that affects the meaning of the text, making it unintelligible Especially when translating economic and trade terminology, word-for-word translation can make the sentence in the TL be out of context than in the SL As a professional translator, you have to be familiar with an idiom, its meaning and its proper use in order to translate the text and convert it into another language and a parallel idiom if one exists This requires a translator to possess a hefty vocabulary and to be a native speaker of both the language of source, and the target language Not many translators have such a level of familiarity with the languages they translate to and from From this chart, we also can see that there are 32% of students using dictionary when facing with economic and trade terminology In general many students without experience, using the dictionary and choose at random the first equivalent of the word in the original One of the basic problems, when dealing with translation is choosing the correct equivalent of the word So, the responsibility of a translator is to find that equivalent and use it in the given context However, it is not simple when dealing with economic terminology, which is combined by many technical words or short forms or phrases Thus, using dictionary may keep the structure and word order in SL but lead to misunderstanding and loose the exact meaning as well as the accuracy of the source text 3.3.2 Not translating in an appropriate style Is the style and tone of a legal documents same as the style and tone of an unrelated topic such as financial document? No, it is not Students often fail to 33 understand this and translate a document without paying enough attention to the style, and mostly end up with a poor quality work 34 As these following examples are some translations collected in my research process: -“For decades, holders of the liabilities of banks in the United States had felt secure with the protection of a modest equity-capital cushion, allowing banks to lend freely” => “Trong nhiều thập kỷ, chủ nợ ngân hàng Hoa Kỳ cảm thấy an toàn với bảo vệ vốn nhỏ vốn cổ phần khiêm tốn, cho phép ngân hàng cho vay tự do” In this sentence, the underline should be translated into “nền vốn cổ phần khiêm tốn” -“Banks, fearful of their own solvency, all but stopped lending” => “Ngân hàng, đáng sợ khả chi trả mình, tất ngừng cho vay” In this sentence, all of the words in translation are clear and have correct meaning, however, it is not in appropriate style In the SL, it is formal style, therefore, in TL it shoulde be formal as well And it can be “Ngân hàng, trước lo ngại khả tốn dừng tồn việc cho vay” The source sentence is in formal style but style and tone of the translation is informal Thus, translator can not make the main meaning of the source sentence clear To convey real meaning of a topic, it is important to translate a document in the right tone It makes sure that the meaning in TL can reflect fully and correctly which are expressed in the SL 3.3.3 Skipping key words in source language when translating process As mentioned before, lack of vocabulary is a huge barrier for students in translating process Therefore, 26% of them choose to ignore the words, which they not know However, skipping words can cause the misunderstanding of meaning the whole sentence leading to the unclear, incorrect meaning of the sentence in the TL, which means loosing the royalty with text in SL Instead of ignoring words, students can refer to previous translations or ask for help from teachers or friends as well as reading book and find out some equivalent words It creates a better attitude and easier to remember vocabulary As these following examples are some translations collected in my research 35 process: -“ WTO deals with the global rules of trade between nations” => “WTO giao dịch với quy tắc thương mại toàn cầu quốc gia” In this sentence, translator skiped the word “WTO” and used it in TL, however, WTO is not suitable for this sentence And it should be “tổ chức kinh tế giới” 36 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION SUGGESTS In the previous chapter, we can see some difficulties and common mistakes of juniors in faculty of English when facing with economic and trade terminology To let readers find out some solutions to deal with these terminologies, this chapter points out some methods to help them have the whole view of translation and some typical examples for deeply understanding about the difficulties and mistakes in order to avoid and overcome these challenges 4.1 Learning vocabulary Due to the importance of vocabulary in translation, learning vocabulary plays a key role for each translator to have good foundation serving translating process With 36% of juniors in faculty of English consider that lack of vocabulary is the reason leading to difficulties when facing with economic and trade terminology, thus learning economic and trade vocabulary is very necessary However, there is not one perfect way to learn English In addition, learning economic and trade vocabulary is not a simple task Therefore, here are some solutions to make learning vocabulary be easier: - Finding the vocabulary you need Do not just rely on what you already know for the vocabulary you use Instead, when given an assessment task Use any of these terms that might be relevant, if you are not sure of their meanings, ask your teacher or consult a dictionary Other good vocabulary sources include course and subject, set readings, textbooks and relevant websites, journals or other sources - Daily habit Obviously, one way you can improve your English economics vocabulary is to read books, papers, study the words carefully and start using them in real-life situations - Learning more collocations To help learn collocations try to recognize them when you translate and when you learn a new word too, write down some collocations for it Example: If the word is ‘brand’ you could also note ‘brand identification’ and ‘brand loyalty’ You should read as much as possible to understand collocations in context and 37 then use these new collocations if possible 4.2 Gaining more knowledge of economy and trade Economics is a field of study that has become increasingly relevant in our globalized, financialized society When translating economic and trade terms, translator has to understand the content as well as basic knowledge of commerce in order to use suitable word in target language To gaining more knowledge of economy and trade, reading is an effective way when nowadays, economic information are approachable, you can find them in every paper, or even in televisions, especially when the internet grows and plays an key role in accessing information Having basic background knowledge will help translators understand the main content as well as context of the sentence which also removes the difficulties when you not know some words in the sentence but you can translate this one based on its context Example: - “Issuance of corporate bonds, commercial paper and a wide variety of other financial products largely ceased” “Commercial paper” is an unsecured, short-term debt instrument issued by a corporation, typically for the financing of accounts receivable, inventories and meeting short-term liabilities The following translation is collected in my research process: => “Sự phát hành trái phiếu doanh nghiệp, giấy thương mại nhiều sản phẩm tài khác ngừng hoạt động” Through this example, we can see how important of basic knowledge is And “commercial paper” should be translated as “thương phiếu” 4.3 Popular strategies and procedure to dealing with economic and trade terminologies To deal with non-equivalence in translation, there are many measures which raised and applied such as: translation by illustration, translation by cultural substitution, translation by omission (is known as reduction translation) The following procedures are mainly applied in economic and trade sector 4.3.1 Translation by using unrelated words This strategy is mainly used when translating economic and trade terminologies, which are not totally lexicalized in the TL and mainly based on the modification of a 38 super ordinate or simply on the unpacking of the source terminology meaning With 62% of juniors consider that phrase terminology is the most difficult terms to translate Using unrelated word is a effective strategy to deal with these phrase The following example is a translation made by students in faculty of English in my research process: Example: “In a free-floating exchange rate system, governments and central banks not participate in the market for foreign exchange.” => “Trong hệ thống tỷ giá trao đổi tự do, phủ ngân hàng trung ương khơng tham gia vào thị trường trao đổi nước ngồi” In the above example, the verb “exchange” is normally translated as “đổi, trao đổi” However when the word “exchange” converted into specialist terms, economic and trade sector, and goes along with “rate”, its meaning is “ tỉ giá hối đoái” This state indicates that the terminology “exchange rate” when translating into Vietnamese, in economic and trade sector, as “tỉ giá hối đoái”, is a big change when translating from English into Vietnamese When a word is used in special context, its meaning will be different from in normal conversation Therefore, this sentence should be translated as: =>“Trong hệ thống tỷ giá hối đối thả tự do, phủ ngân hàng trung ương không tham gia vào thị trường ngoại hối” The following is the list of economic and trade terminologies which applied this strategy to translate: English Vietnamese Vacancy Các chức vụ cịn trống Innovative Có óc đổi Futures Hợp đồng kỳ hạn, hợp đồng hàng Interchangeable hóa giao sau Có thể chuyển đổi cho 4.3.2 Translation by using loan word This strategy is widely applied nowadays with the loan terms written and read in Vietnamese way which is much easier for Vietnamese people to read and memorize 39 For instance: Ma-két-tinh, công ten nơ, séc Especially, in economic and trade contracts or documents, we often realize many letters as “GDP, IMF or ITO” In some cases when Vietnamese terms are short, precise and familiar, they are opted in even though the English acronyms are not accompanied with their full forms The following are the terms, which are usually abbreviation in English but in full forms in Vietnamese The following table is illustration examples which applied this strategy and are commonly used in economic and trade sector Example: -“ When you write a cheque to someone else you fill in the name of the person or business you are paying and the amount in both words and numbers” => “Khi bạn viết séc cho người khác, bạn điền vào tên người doanh nghiệp bạn toán số tiền hai từ số” In this sentence, “cheque” is translated into “séc”, it is an easy way for Vietnamese people to read and understand English Vietnamese CIP Cước bảo hiểm trả tới đích Circular Thư tín dụng lưu động Gr.wt Tổng trọng lượng Nt.wt Trọng lượng ròng FDI Đầu tư trực tiếp nước IDA Hiệp hội Phát triển quốc tế B/E Bảng kê khai chi tiết hải quan BOP Cán cân toán FPA Miễn bồi thường tổn thất riêng In order to have proper translation of these terms, it is essential for the translators to be aware of the full forms of the English abbreviations that can help to decode the English acronyms and get the English equivalents For instance, the translators should realize that CIP is the abbreviation of carriage and insurance paid to, nt.wt=net weight before the Vietnamese equivalents are given 40 41 4.3.3 Shift or transposition translation This strategy makes grammatical changes when translating form SL into TL It is known as a quite popular strategy in translation of compound terminology This strategy includes two types One type is “automatic translation” which mainly applied in translation of compound terminologies in the form of simple and unmarked nominal group as the following example: English Productive capital investment Vietnamese Vốn đầu tư hiệu Adj-noun Noun-verb From the above the illustration, the readers can be easy to realize that the English terminologies is a compound which is created by one “ Adj-noun” and one “ noun” - “ labor cost” But it automatically changes the grammar when translating, the “ adj” is replaced by one “noun” in Vietnamese terms and the lexical meaning and linguistic meaning is not different in both the SL and the TL For example: The compound terms “registered trademark” comprises two main components, one “ adj” – “Registered” and one “noun” –“ trademarked” When translating into Vietnamese, the adj “ registered” changes form into the verb “ đăng ký” However, to make it more clearly, the translator finds the lexical equivalent for the lexical items of the compound when explaining it into Vietnamese And it is translated as “Nhãn hiệu đăng ký” This is a strategy which mainly uses in translation of terminologies The following table is a list of terminologies belonging this strategy English Vietnamese Managerial position Chức vụ quản lý Comparable worth Giá trị so sánh Collective goods Hàng hoá tập thể Coercive comparisons So sánh ép buộc Classical techniques Các kỹ thuật cổ điển Bilateral assistance Trợ giúp song phương Behavioral expectation Kỳ vọng dựa hành vi CONCLUSION 42 Strength and weakness of the thesis The economic and trade sector becomes more and more popular To help the students in faculty of English who will be the future translators My graduation paper supplies an overview and general valuable information about economic and trade sector, English terminologies using in this sector With analyzing on strategies applied in non-equivalence and equivalence translation coming with the attached relevant examples, they will help the readers improve their skills, especially, for the future translators With the list of the attached terminologies, they will be precious reference for readers However, this sector is quite large with many sub-fields along with the limitation of time and knowledge, I could not make overall aspects of this field, I have only indicated main aspects and applied methods I tried my best to complete this graduation report but in the time of completion, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable Therefore, I am always willing to receive the contributions, advice, comments and sympathies from teachers and readers to make my graduation paper much better Suggestion for further research and final comments With the development of the global world, the economic and trade sector is incessantly developed This sector plays the important role in the change of the world, especially, in the world economy and trade The demand of translation as well as the interpretation of this sector are more and more attentive and ask for high quality My thesis only studies some aspects of this sector, hopefully, other studies should touch up on the translation from different aspects to supplement this sector more perfect, especially, the importance of translation of economic and trade terminology thence the translators will improve the behavior toward terminologies and boost their skills In conclusion, I would like to contribute to the Study of English- Vietnamese translation for students who will be the future translators in university system in 43 particular and in Faculty of English of Thuongmai University in general Hopefully, this study can bring valuable knowledge for the future works of readers and some improvements on the English- Vietnamese translation skills as well as the quality of their skills Wishfully, it would be a precious reference for economic and trade future specialists and translators as well 44 REFERENCES Đỗ Hữu Vinh (2009), Từ điển Thuật Ngữ Kinh tế thương Mại Anh, Nxb Giao thong van tai Nguyễn Trùng Khánh.(2004) Cách dùng từ ngữ & thuật ngữ Kinh tế Thương Mại Việt- Anh, Nxb Thanh Niên, p.254 Trần Thúy Lan, MA (2005), Giáo trình Kinh Tế Thương Mại, Nxb Hà Nội Baker (1992), Errors in translation mostly result from the non-equivalence between the source and the target languages Bell, R.T (1991), Translation and Translating: Theory and practice Catford J.C (1965), A Linguistic Theory of Translation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.26-27 Clive M Schmitthoff (Nov 2, 1976), International economic and trade law Newmark, P (1995), A book of translation, New York: Prentice - Hall International Michael Trebilcock, Robert Howse and Antonia Eliason (Nov 23 rd , 2012), The Regulation of International Trade Michael (1999), Translation and the Law: Observations of a Law Professor/Translator Language International, page 12 Seguinot, C Interpreting errors in translation Meta, 35,page 68 From the Internet source: http://www.termnet.org http://wikipedia.com and http://wiki.answers.com/ http://www.tradeeconomics.com/Home.html ... applied in the translation of economic and trade terminology from English into Vietnamese Regarding to Junior in Faculty of English in Vietnamese university of Commerce, my study of “Difficulty in translation. .. and trade terminology 2.6.4.1 Single terminology • Single terminology in the form of Noun Economic and trade terminologies in the form of noun are various and broadly used in this sector And. .. English- Vietnamese translation for students who will be the future translators in university system in 43 particular and in Faculty of English of Thuongmai University in general Hopefully, this study