The diary of a cricket

ABSTRACT Because nowadays, more and more people understand English, so English has become the most spoken language in over the world As most of the businesses are international so we need a common language to communicate in there, English provides a medium for it In the context of integration and globalization, English is considered as the most popular language in the world Therefore, this foreign language plays a very important role in the current era of globalization Human relationships as well as cooperation and investment in any field from business, commerce, transportation, technology, media and tourism to opportunities in studying, working, expanding relationships for cooperation are not limited to Vietnam but also to other countries in the world English is one of the effective tools, playing a great role in helping friends in Western understand the voice of Vietnam in the period of international integration Also, literature provides essential knowledge for people It describes the phenomenal of daily life in the vivid manner From this point of view, people could imagine the whole world with the diversity aspect of life In this study, I focus on the daily life of insects who are very small and new Unlike human, the appearance of insects is emerged with different colors and shapes that make me really into it Thanks to the English version by Dang The Binh, the researcher and readers have a chance expose to the book “Diary of a Cricket” in the other aspect The study will focus on the translation strategies on words describing appearance of character in the book and give out some comments and suggestions to audience 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the processing of completing this graduate paper, I have received a great support, advice and guidance from my teacher and friends I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Xuan Phuong, M.A Without her all-round supervision, supportive and encouragement, I could not complete this graduation paper over the last month Her insight and expertise in translation studies and research methodology have greatly assisted me upon carrying out the study Besides, from bottom of my heart, I sincerely thanks to my family and friends for their solid support during the process of my research I would not have mustered enough motivation to finish this study if I did not receive their mental and financial assistance 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES No Abbreviations Full words TV Television V Verb O Object No Tables The frequency of translation strategies Page 15 15 Page 23 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale When it comes to English, people immediately consider it as a global language, which is currently the official language of more than 53 countries Moreover, English is used in a variety of fields from medicine, technology, services, education to daily entertainments such as TV shows, comics and stories Be aware of the importance of English, Vietnamese authorities have promoted and encouraged people to learn English, for example, the curriculum at all levels has English as the main subject The fact that children who study English have more opportunities to get good jobs in the future such as interpreting, translating and travelling In this situation, translating is a difficult task, which requires the diversity of knowledge and the smooth style of content Besides the aim of learning English for getting a job, English is also a way of exchanging cultures by different means such as books, magazines and novels Many books translated from Vietnamese to English have drawn international’s attention so far Thanks to English versions, foreigners have more understand about Vietnamese culture as well as the daily life of people in this country Therefore, translating plays a vital role in transferring deep messages to readers through each word Unlike interpreting, translating has its own standard of word expression with the high accuracy of transference Translators have to make it clear and faithful to the original meaning However, it is say that Vietnam has a complex language system so when it comes to translation the target language partly did not in conjunction with the source language In particularly, some sentences or paragraphs in the source language are omitted when they are in the target language That is the reason why readers could misunderstand the author statements in his/her masterpiece To deal with this problem, there are some strategies for translating from source language to target language in order to reduce the language barriers as much as possible Hence, I want to help people understand how translators convert Vietnamese words to English words clearly without influencing the quality of translation 5 Besides, To Hoai (1920-2014) is a famous Vietnamese writer, playwright, screenwriter and journalist His works and books mainly concentrating on five following themes: Children, History and Present of Hanoi’ suburbs, Mountainous areas, Resistance and the Formation of Socialism and Autobiographies, memoirs and guides on creative writing, with about 150 works The most famous book for children and his best seller, “Dế mèn phiêu lưu ký” 1941 (Diary of a Cricket) has been translated in 37 languages and filmed For many years, one chapter of the book has continued to publish in textbook for elementary students nationwide Under the excellent talent of To Hoai, a Cricket appears like a mischievous child at first After a load of challenges in his adventure, he has learnt precious lessons A Cricket represents younger Vietnamese people who want to take challenges and explore the world Therefore, I decided to select my own childhood masterpiece “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh, not only for researching deeply on translation strategies but also for my interest in the story 1.2 Previous studies 1.2.1 “A study of the English translational versions of Trinh Cong Son’s in terms of semantic and syntactic features” by Luong Van Nhan This study provides insights into the Vietnamese songs into English, especially the translation strategies in handling the complication of semantic and syntactic features of masterpiece written by Trinh Cong Son The study investigates the usage of translation procedure about the semantic features of lexicon and the syntactic features of phrases and sentences in Trinh Cong Son’s song taken from Trinh Cong Son – The collection of everlasting songs (1977) In general, the study has already met its own aims which analysis effectively translation strategies in the Trinh Cong Son’s song and answers the two-question: “How were the semantic features in Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs translated into English?” “How were the syntactic features in Trinh Cong Son’s collection of song translated into English?” 6 The study researched the reality and practice of translating words and phrases from Vietnamese into English in published translated Trinh Cong Son’s songs It finds all the methods suggested by Barker and Peter employed, and they overlapped each other in translating words and phrases from Vietnamese into English It also shows that depending on concrete intention, the number of translation methods can be combined or not Besides, it is a chance to enrich skills of music translation and facilitate vocabulary learning along with developing their English vocabulary Moreover, they can know how to choose words or phrases to go with musical melodies and sound beats It can be seen from the study that researcher has completed analyses the effective of translating strategies in the 14-song from the collection of Trinh Cong Son The study sorts out data into different strategies along with explaining the effective of using translation strategies for each word After analyzing the effective of strategies, musical features are the main reason impacting on the decision of choosing translated words Thanks to its influence, the sound beats of English version songs become more understand and rhythm However, the study also has some limitations Because the wide range of Trinh Cong Son’s songs, the study cannot cover all the words and sentences in the collection It only presents the typical words and sentences which illustrated the translation strategies clearly Among the kind of semantic features classified by Newmark and Baker, the study only focus on researching the word-classes then translating these words from Vietnamese into English Regarding to syntactic features, the study paid attention to four types of translation shifts classified by Catford who suggested strategies only focus on grammatical structure Hence, it can prevent us from revealing the transfer of patterns of experience in translating clauses or sentences if this part of the study had been conducted from the perspective of the systemic-functional grammar 1.2.2 “A study on translation of Vietnamese education terms into English” by Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan 7 The study on translation of education terms aims to figure out an overview on translation strategies and procedures commonly employed in translation of education terms in general In particularly, it collects and provides education terms in Vietnamese and English in the equivalence or expression words, as well as analysis translation strategies and also provides a draft and short reference in education and corresponding Overall, the study has provided definitions and terms relating translation fully such as the translation strategies of Peter Newmark, equivalence in translation and ESP in translation Moreover, it also shows various data of education terms in Vietnamese and English Regarding to education programs, researcher has provided a wide range of education terms in both language from education programs (pre-graduation programs, graduation programs, post-graduation programs and cooperative education programs), education standards to types of education organizations (in Vietnam, Singapore, United Kingdom and Canada) Totally, it has provided over 50 education terms and figures to illustrate the education system in different countries Besides, the study gave some comments on each translation strategies of education terms from Vietnamese into English and its difficulties along with some suggestions It presented some equivalence of subjects, majors and levels in education system and non-equivalence of qualification systems in Australia and Vietnam Thanks to the detail of translating education terms in both language, it helps people can figure out how to using education terms in particular context and differentiate the education system of Vietnam to other countries In term of subjects and majors, education system of Vietnam has the basic features with other education systems such as math, literature, history and so on in subjects and economic, science, technology in majors However, Vietnam also has its distinct characteristics in academic title If primary in Vietnam has years, the same level can be up to years in Australia and so on 8 However, there are some limitations existing in the study The study only concentrates on giving out some examples without indicating obviously the effective of each strategy or the translating education terms In comparison of education systems between countries, the study presents hierarchy of education systems but does not indicate the difference of naming in the same level among countries The terms in education are very popular in society but very difficult to catch the concepts so sometimes these terms make people confused 1.2.3 “An analysis on translation procedures from Vietnamese to English for names of higher education institutions in Vietnam.” By Dang Hong Thu The objective of research is identified the procedures in translating the current names of Vietnamese HEIs into English Therefore, analysis and discussion of translation procedures are implemented to draw out several implication in translating of names of HEIs in Vietnam The study looks answers for the following question below: “What translation procedures are currently used in translating names of higher education institutes of Vietnam into English?” The research conducted in phases through qualitative and quantitative approach based on the theoretical framework of translation procedures proposed by Newmark (1988) Phase 1: Analysis the collected data according to Newmark’s frame to identify translation procedures Phase 2: A comprehensive table of translation procedure generated the trend and the distribution of name translation of HEIs Phase 3: Discussion on the trend of translation procedures and the comparison with names of HEIs in the US in order to draw out the implications of the findings In general, the study showed the translations of names of Vietnamese HEIs and also compared translation products to English-speaking ones represented by United State Regarding to the adopted purposive sampling, almost of 122 HEIs are chosen as sample for researching The source data including original names and their current English translation, is collected mainly from different official websites of 9 Vietnamese institutions and categorized into three groups following their types of institution The comparison of names showed various dissimilarities which is reflected in the attributes Firstly, the whole translation of names of Vietnamese HEIs objects to fulfill the criteria of similarity to target language’s readers As the result, the study has to minimize the distinctions in name structures and concepts of HEI types in countries In addition, the researcher also notices two major problems of variation in translating science and proper name constitutions in English version of Vietnamese HEIs name The discussion anticipates notifying the room for improvement in the field of institutional translation based on the findings of this study The finding of the study is considered as a beneficial reference for all translators in order to improve the translation quality of names of HEIs Translators are suggested to have a thorough reference from different reliable sources Moreover, it also helps foreigners access to Vietnamese HEIs easily, as well as improves reputation of Vietnamese HEIs and presents to other countries all over the world However, there are some disadvantages indicated in the study The researcher only investigates HEIs and generalizes the implications for other English-speaking countries But the educational system of countries may be different which could cause the differences in their name structures of HEIs Therefore, it is impossible to achieve absolute equivalence name structure for all HEIs because of subtle allusions hidden in proper names or specific aspects in the languages Even though the framework of Newmark has provided clear classification of translation procedures already, qualitative discussion on the findings of the study relies upon subjective analysis of the researcher 1.3 Aims of the study In general, this study concentrates on analyzing which strategies has used for converting source language into target language and the effective of its in expressing the author’s implication In detail, my graduation paper aims at collecting and presenting some Vietnamese words describing appearance In general, these words are adjective Besides, the study also concentrate on providing the equivalent English words 10 10 Source text Target text Mặt nghiêm nghiêm Wisdom-filled wrinkle trầm tĩnh Back translation Nếp nhăn chất chứa trải The source text is used two adjective words “nghiêm nghiêm” (solemnly) and “trầm tĩnh” (unruffled) for describing facial expression In the target text, the word has only one adjective “wisdom-filled” To explain the translation, when somebody is thinking or has a seriously attitude, the wrinkle will be appeared on the forehead Moreover, the adjective word “wisdom-filled” indicates to character who has been experience a load of ups and downs Also, it does illustrate the age of person who is old and witnessed different aspects of life Therefore, “mặt nghiêm nghiêm trầm tĩnh” (a concentrated and thinking face) is paraphrased wisdom-filled wrinkle face Personally, I think the way that translator has used is quite good It not only shows the attitude of character which is solemnly and quiet but also draw a detail look of face to readers Example 13: Source text Lực lưỡng uy nghi Target text Back translation Powerful, armor-clad and Mạnh mẽ, giáp mạ savage-looking hoang dại In general, the source text has two adjective words “lực lưỡng” (hefty) and “uy nghi” (majestic) The former adjective word “lực lưỡng” describes about the strength of character which is very strong The latter word “uy nghi” tends to depict a powerful person who has an admired look The source text illustrates an image of warrior with his powerful Back to the target text, there are three adjective words instead of two adjective words of source text The first adjective word “powerful” equivalent to “lực lưỡng” and “uy nghi” in the source text But in this situation, the translator has added two new adjective words, “armor-clad” and “savage-looking” As the intention of author in source text, the target text use paraphrase strategy to make the sentence more detail It depicts an image of warrior who wears an armor-clad with the savagelooking To be honest, it is unnecessary to paraphrase the source text into the target 32 32 text with a detail image of character, translator could use translation strategy by a general word such as a word “powerful” for English version in the brief manner 3.2.4 Translation by a more specific word Appearing times with 16%, this strategy stand on the fourth rank in all strategies In this case, the translator cannot express the true meaning of words describing appearance in target text, so he could use a specific word relating to the true source text to support the meaning more clearly The five examples are presented in the below Example 14: Source text Cường tráng Target text Healthy and strong Back translation Đầy sức sống khỏe mạnh In source text, the adjective word “cường tráng” mean “sturdy” The author only use a simple word to describe the appearance of character which refers to a young powerful man But in the target text, the translator has used two adjective words to describe the appearance of character Because “cường tráng” means sturdy and very strong so that in the English version, translator also use the adjective words have a same meaning “healthy and strong” Instead of using an equivalent word “sturdy”, using more specific words help the image of character be more diversity and detail “Healthy” refers to a mentally powerful body In addition, “strong” is a simple word which mainly refers to physical powerful Thus, in this situation, translation used specific words to describe a power man who is good at inner and outer, totally sturdy Example 15: Source text Bé hạt mít Target text Small and tiny Back translation Nhỏ bé From the point of view of the source text, the author makes a comparison Traditionally, Vietnamese usually compare a small person with a seed of jacket fruit 33 33 which means very small Therefore, in source text, To Hoai has used the traditional comparison to describe a small size of character But in English, people not make a comparison person to a seed of jacket fruit So that translator has chosen two adjective words of size for description “Small” and “tiny” both refer to mini size However, the expression of each word is different “Small” refers to a neutral expression while “tiny” describes something “very small” The translator has used the level of adjective words descending from neutral to extreme to narrow the size Therefore, instead of using a comparison to express on mini size, translator selected double mini size adjective words which transfers the meaning of author effectively Example 16: Source text Oai linh Target text Terrible Back translation Khủng khiếp, kinh hoàng The source text “oai linh” means “majestic” When it comes to “oai linh”, readers usually refer to a positive image which has powerful and confident to direct the other The word is used to describe a leader or a king who could make the other being scared In this context of the story, the author is illustrating the Longhorn who appears in a majestic-looking making a Cricket be scared and unconfident The source text and target text seems non-equivalent but actually it does equivalent at all Because the context of story is in a battle, a Cricket saw a Longhorn with a fear The appearance of Longhorn was too impressively holy that makes he feels scared Therefore, translator has used a specific feeling “terrible” to depict the appearance of a Longhorn instead of faithfully to the source text Using a specific word, readers of the target text has more understand about the appearance of a Longhorn as well as the feeling of a Cricket The majestic-looking of Longhorn is definitely too amazing that could make a Cricket being scared too much 3.2.5 Translation by cultural substitution The fewest number of descriptive words goes to cultural substitution strategy which is data, at 4% of all Dealing with cultural substitution, translator depends 34 34 on the foundation of culture, especially English culture to make a comparison between two countries then choose appropriate words in target text Example 17: Source text Bệch vẻ công tử bột Target text Back translation The complexion of dandy Làn da Dandy In western, Dandy is a man who places particular importance physical appearance, leisurely hobbies and refined language When it comes to Dandy, he is a familiar figure in writings, Dandy pay a lot attention into his appearance He really into fashion, thus, he was a symbol of aristocratic superiority of mind Nowadays, the word “dandy” refers to a jocular or sarcastic adjective meaning “great” But in the form of noun, the word “Dandy” means a well-groomed and well-dressed man or self-absorbed However, the intention of translator is not about his fashion, but about his appearance Because “Dandy” is a symbol of nobility who are served by their slaves, so that they are quite relaxed and white without burning skin Similarly, in eastern, “công tử bột” is a guy illustrated amazed appearance and leisurely hobbies Sometimes, “công tử bột” refers to a weak man as a girl But in the source text, the intention of the author focuses on the white skin which did not suffer any sunlight or sun-bathe from the sun Having the same meaning which comes from the different culture, translator has used the image of Dandy to describe the skin of character which helps reader could understand the message of author easily 3.3 Summary of findings After researching through the book “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh both in Vietnamese and English versions, I had a deep understanding about the way of translation in English literature style To make the sentence be more natural and smooth in target text, translator could use various translation strategies which depend on the intention of source text In some cases, it could be used combination of two translation strategy as long as the target version could transfer the meaning of source text, such as the following word: 35 35 Source text Cằm vuông bạnh lún Target text Square face Back translation Mặt vuông This words are used both “translation by omission” (omitting the word “bạnh lún”) and “translation by a general word” (using “square face” for “square chin”) 36 36 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Summary of the study In general, the study was conducted to discover the translation strategies of words describing appearance and compared data between two versions of Vietnamese and English By using material collecting and contrastive methodology, the research has completed the analysis of the usage of translation strategies on each word The source words and target words are collected directly from the book “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh About over 40 words describing appearance has been selected Actually, in the source version, there are about 60 words of descriptive appearance, yet because of the omission of paragraph that translator had eliminated in the target version, the data could be listed fully in the study In summary, the study has indicated the effective of translation strategies of Newmark and Baker for words describing appearance The translation of words describing appearance in “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh does transfer the message of To Hoai effectively which means that readers of the target version could almost understand the appearance of characters as much as readers of the source version The words describing appearance which has translated into English were examined with these typical strategies in order from the highest to the lowest frequency, in particularly, the translator did not use the strategy by a loan word plus explanation because of the specific feature of words describing appearance which has not too flexible to loan a new word 4.2 Limitations of the study After researching the words describing appearance, I realized that there still have some inevitable limitations in my study First of all, the scale of the study is still narrow that could not cover all the other kind of words in the book “Diary of a Cricket” Because translation is based on the whole meaning of sentence so sometimes in the target language, translator have to choose and convert words by many methods while descriptive appearance words just play a small part of sentence In addition, due to the limited time as well as human resources, the research only investigated in one English version of “Diary of 37 37 a Cricket” by Dang The Binh Besides this version, “Dế mèn phiêu lưu ký” is also translated in other language such as Russian, Chinese, France and Korean Therefore, it could not highlight the talent of To Hoai in using words for description Another limitation is that the lack of studies about words describing appearance from Vietnamese into English It means that there is no previous study relating to this topic directly Hence, it finds difficult to compare the previous study with my research as well as research how to approach to the topic in the most suitable manner As the result, the study could not analysis further of the strategies on descriptive appearance words 4.3 General recommendations and suggestions 4.2.1 Recommendations and suggestions for teachers Teachers play an important role in guiding student to research this study Therefore, the success of the study is depended on the guiding of teachers a lots I have some recommendations and suggestions for teachers in the following below Firstly, the background knowledge is very important Thus, students need to be taught comprehensive Because translation is a combination of processes, so that besides the knowledge of translation strategies, the other definition of translation theory also play an important role in the process of translation such as translation methods: word-by-word, literal translation, faithful translation and so on Secondly, regarding to the teaching methods, teachers should give out some examples and suggestions documents to students Instead of presenting a load of definition and theories, teachers should add more examples and exercises to force students into practice Because translation is a wide field which has no limitation in any language or any scope Only when students get familiar to new vocabulary, new terms and new phrases, they could understand which translation strategy is suitable and effective in each concrete situation Beside, teachers also should correct the student’s wrong in the regular basic Because of the limitation of students on translation experience, student could choose unsuitable translation strategies for words describing appearance which lead the target text is unclearly or differ from the meaning of source text Thus, teachers 38 38 should indicate the unreasonable in the target text of students and recommend some suggestions for the word Similarly, in the period of researching, teachers also guide the direction of the study for student and make some comments on grammar as well as the content of study whether it is on the right direction 4.2.2 Recommendations and suggestions for students According to the period of the research, I have some suggestions for further researchers who will take the following options into consider At first, at the school, students have to a good knowledge of translation strategies The translation strategies could be taught in the translation theory lesson Besides, the understanding of translation methods also supports to the skill translation On the whole, the background knowledge is very important to pursue translation Moreover, students also need to read as much as possible bilingual books which could indicate practical examples and show how to deal with nonequivalent words, especially words describing appearance These words mainly appear in various type of books from daily life such as “Diary of a Cricket” to fashion magazines Therefore, if students want to enhance the translation skill, at first, they have to expose these words through books and documents The future studies could research similar problems by the comparison to other countries with English as first language, second language or even foreign language Because the book is translated in many languages, so that the researchers could choose to research in another language or from English to Vietnamese In this study, I choose translating from Vietnamese into English, it quite difficult than the vice versa way from English to Vietnamese Because almost the definitions and background knowledge are based on researching originally from English features Moreover, the words describing appearance in Vietnamese seem wordy and unclearly Therefore, in some cases, translator and also student have to separate and put it in to the context to understand the message of author Besides, although the data has been given, the future researchers also could a survey and consult readers of the target language from other contexts A multilateral approach to the problems of translation strategies is highly recommendation because the researchers’ view could prove to be subjective and lacking in reliability 39 39 Because the final aim of translator and author is that transfer the message of work to audiences, thus, when students research on the comprehension of readers of the target language, the study seems more deeply and reliable Also, because the lack of documents relating to translate words describing appearance, so instead of study on words describing appearance, researchers could choose other type of words, condition clauses, cultural terms or a whole of poems in order to more understand about the usage of translation strategies The lacking of previous studies could make students cannot compare and comment on the same topic As the result, the study may become less trustworthy and ineffectively 4.2.3 Recommendations and suggestions for translators Apparently, translator takes an important responsibility for converting the source language to the target language Therefore, the comprehension of readers in target language depends mainly on the translation style of translator There are three suggestions which I suppose are very important elements to have a good translation in the following sentences Firstly, the translator must have a good background knowledge relating to various aspect of life Once the translator wants to transfer the author’s message, the translator has to understand what the author writing about We all know that there are currently many types of book which cover from daily life to science If the translator has no knowledge relating to documents, they will not transfer terms or phrases in this field in the right way such as health and construction In term of health, people use a lot of Latin language to name medicine and diseases, thus, translator at first needs to identify some typical knowledge of this field in order to deal with further documents In particular, in this book, the translator does not need too much special knowledge because it is a story of a daily life However, translator also need going further into the Vietnamese culture and English culture to make the translation closely to readers of target text as much as possible Besides, it is necessary to have a good knowledge of translation Many people suppose that translator just only need to good at English, however, the fact that they have to good at the source language too Because Vietnamese is a flexible and wordy language which uses a lot of useless words or usually beats around the bush 40 40 Meanwhile, English is appreciated as a concise and brief language which tends to use simple and general word Obviously, it can be seen in the chapter that the translation strategies by omission and using a general word are the mostly used Thus, when translator understand the main meaning of source language, it will become easier to convert the text into target language In addition, the translator also need to familiar to translation strategies When it comes to translation, translator would choose the most suitable strategy for converting to the target language The usage of these strategies is not based on any formulas or rules Because each translator has their own translation version, therefore, it has only ensured that the meaning of target language could transfer the meaning of author in any forms or any words So, choosing translation strategies is one of the most important step to translate word Finally, regarding to vocabulary, translator has to have a wide range of vocabulary, especially words describing appearance In general, each word supports for its own specific meaning such as “small” is for neutral mini size but “tiny” refers to a very small size Therefore, when translator comprehends the meaning of words, it will be easier to find an equivalent word or any suitable word for the target language In this book, the translator did not use too much strange words but still transfers the message of the author in the correct way because of the deep understanding of translator about vocabulary In particular, the translation strategies by using a general word or a specific word require a good wordplay of translator which express to the same meaning but different vocabularies 4.2.4 Recommendations and suggestion for readers Unlike translator, readers are recipient of translations Thus, I consider readers as a judge of translation who indicates how the translation works well Nowadays, one book could have a lot of translation versions, in addition, the translation style of each translator is different Therefore, the best seller version will prove that the translation version is successful However, readers are not the specialist of translation, they could not understand the translation strategies, they just follow to the word that translator used in the target version Therefore, I have some 41 41 suggestions for readers who are finding a good translated book which close to the source language book Firstly, choosing a famous translator Because a famous translator has been translating various books before, so they seem have experience in translation book field While the number of translated books is getting increase day by day, the quality of translated version could be ensured When readers buy a low quality translated books, it could make readers have a bad attitude to the original book because the message of author is not transferred in the right manner or even lead readers misunderstand the story from the source language Therefore, readers should choose translated books from an experience translator which could ensure the quality of translation Besides, readers also choose an original books if they can understand the source language As I mentioned before, Vietnamese word are express a variety of different expression, so that when it is translated into another languages, partly the expression of words are not preserved as source language In addition, using source language dictionary to more understand the meaning of word is recommended 42 42 CONCLUSION In conclusion, the study has completed the research on translation strategies words describing appearance from Vietnamese into English in the book “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh In general, it has presented the token of these strategies in the book and gave out the effective of these strategies on translating words describing translation Translator has used translation strategies for words based on the intention of sentences in the source text If the sentence of the source text concentrates on describing, the target language is tended to using translation strategies such as a general word or a specific word But if it focused on the action or a narrative of specific character which not relate to describe, strategy by omission and paraphrase are tended to be used in the regular basic As the result, using omission to deal with non-equivalent words are the most regular translation strategies which accounts for over 33% Besides, I also indicated some recommendations and suggestions for teachers, students, translators and readers in term of translating words Once again, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Xuan Phuong as well as my friends who had supported me a lot in the period of doing graduation paper 43 43 REFERENCES The book “Translation Theory” of English Faculty of Thuongmai University Newmark, Peter Approaches to Translation New York Prentice Hall, 1998 Newmark, Peter A text book of Translation Pergamon Press, 1998 www.wikipedia.com.vn Instruction Curriculum Reading Glossary Curriculum Learning Literate-Futures Glossary Deep Trance https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270267638_Strategies_of_Translati on Translation Strategies: A Review and Comparison of Theories by Zohre Owji, M.A at https://translationjournal.net/journal/63theory.htm APPENDIX No Translation strategies Strategy by omission 17 Cơ thể màu nâu bóng mỡ Cánh mỏng, ngắn Đôi mắt lồi cao Gầy đêu cao, bé quắt Mặt tái nhợt, nghiêm xám Già ốm yếu Cằm vuông bạnh lún Áo dài lụng thụng Già lụ khụ Tảng đen sắc Đôi cánh nhỏ ngắn Ngắn thủn lủn Strategy by a more general Người gày gò, dài word nghêu Bè bè, nặng nề, trông xấu 18 19 Râu ria cụt mẩu Bé nhỏ, gày gùa, yếu đuối 20 21 22 Mặt lạnh đá Mặt nặng đá Quê kệch, dài thuồn thuỗn Hùng dũng, hiên ngang Lực lưỡng, vai rộng vuông vắn, khỏe Tháo vát, lanh lợi 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 23 24 25 26 27 Strategy by paraphrase Vietnamese Kheo chân cứng nhọn hoắt Đen nhánh Sợi râu dài, cong nhìn hùng dũng Mắt toét nhèm Đầu trọc English Spear-pointed Black Long and martial-looking antennae glossy brown Short and thin wings Bulging eyes Small Solemnly Old Square face Long coat Old Razor-sharp My wings Short Thin and pale Thick and utterly inelegant Ludicrous Small and fragile Cold reception Angry Rough Fierce-looking Tough man-ofaction Majesticlooking Loss of some keenness owning to nights of epicurean indulgence My antennae never grew back 28 29 30 31 32 34 Béo múp mơng đít Bụng lép Mặt vêu vao Mẩu cánh tí teo Mặt nghiêm nghiêm trầm tĩnh Khỏe mạnh, cứng cáp, đen nóng Đơi mẫm bóng 35 Lực lưỡng uy nghi 33 36 Strategy by a specific word Cường tráng 37 Cánh ngắn củn 38 39 Oai linh Gầy kheo khư 40 41 Bé hạt mít Bụng trắng 42 43 44 Strategy by substitution Lưng bạc cultural Bệch vẻ công tử bột (Mắt) to hó Fat paunch Hungry look Hollow cheeks Silky wings Wisdom-filled wrinkle Bulging muscles Shone with dark lustre Powerful, armor-clad and savage-looking Healthy and strong Ridiculously short wings Terrible So thin and so weak Small and tiny Snow-white dickey Time-whitened The complexion of dandy Owlish (eyes) ... describes a chin with a strange shape in a unique way The usage of these words make readers have a detail image which ease imagine the appearance of character in their head However, when it comes to the. .. summary, the study has indicated the effective of translation strategies of Newmark and Baker for words describing appearance The translation of words describing appearance in ? ?Diary of a Cricket? ??... depict the appearance of a Longhorn instead of faithfully to the source text Using a specific word, readers of the target text has more understand about the appearance of a Longhorn as well as the