Readers are the ultimate users to decide the success of a text translation, yet this fact is often neglected in research about Vietnamese – English tourism text translations. Additionally, cultural translation has long proved itself to be of great importance since Vietnam opened the door to a flat world. This study thus aimed at shedding light on the reactions of foreign tourists to translation errors of object labels at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and their expectations to improve the translation quality of this text type. The researcher based on a study by Bui (2014) about procedures and errors in object label translations at VME to select research subjects (21 translation errors of four types) according to ATA framework. The use of questionnaire in qualitative interview (questerview) was applied as the method of collecting data from 20 random English native speakers visiting VME. Then, both statistical analysis (for questionnaires) and content analysis (for interviews) were employed to answer the research questions. The researcher figured out several interesting findings. First, each translation error type exerted its different impacts at unidentical levels of seriousness on foreign tourists, thus receiving different evaluations from them. Also, three main factors that might impact readers’ translation quality assessment were (1) tourists’ background knowledge about the source language’s culture, (2) their personal interest in the objects and (3) their familiarity with the terms. More interestingly, it was pointed out that informativeness ranked first in terms of importance when it came to foreign tourists’ expectations for a translation of cultural terms in object labels. Hence, the participants suggested using descriptive equivalent translation procedure and asking for comments and recommendations from foreigners or experts to improve the translation quality of object labels at the museum
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER FOREIGN TOURISTS’ ASSESSMENT OF TRANSLATION ERRORS IN VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC TERMS IN OBJECT LABELS AT VIETNAM MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY Supervisor: Ngô Hà Thu, MCS Student: Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang Course: QH2012.F1.E15 HÀ NỘI – 2016 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA DU KHÁCH NƯỚC NGOÀI VỀ CÁC LỖI DỊCH TRONG BẢN DỊCH VIỆTANH CỦA CÁC THUẬT NGỮ MANG ĐẶC TRƯNG VĂN HÓA TRÊN TÊN HIỆN VẬT TẠI BẢO TÀNG DÂN TỘC HỌC VIỆT NAM Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Ngô Hà Thu Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang Khóa: QH2012.F1.E15 HÀ NỘI – 2016 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, QH2012.F1.E15, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I owe the completion of this thesis to Ms Ngo Ha Thu, my supervisor She has been my valuable source of inspiration, ideas, guidance and support throughout the course of conducting the research Many thanks then go to my sister, Nhung and friends, Huyen, Huong, Quynh, Hoan, etc who have continuously provided me with a great deal of encouragement, support and advice during the process I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my two respectable foreign ex-teachers at university, Ms Susan Lucass and Ms Kellie Herod for their willingness to participate in my pilot interviews through Skype despite the striking difference in time zone between Vietnam and their homelands Thanks to these valuable talks, I gained precious consultation and comments on the first version of my questionnaire and interview questions, thus greatly improving them later on Finally, I appreciate the love and support from my parents from the beginning to the end of this process Without all of them, hardly could I accomplish this rewarding, yet challenging task i ABSTRACT Readers are the ultimate users to decide the success of a text translation, yet this fact is often neglected in research about Vietnamese – English tourism text translations Additionally, cultural translation has long proved itself to be of great importance since Vietnam opened the door to a flat world This study thus aimed at shedding light on the reactions of foreign tourists to translation errors of object labels at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and their expectations to improve the translation quality of this text type The researcher based on a study by Bui (2014) about procedures and errors in object label translations at VME to select research subjects (21 translation errors of four types) according to ATA framework The use of questionnaire in qualitative interview (questerview) was applied as the method of collecting data from 20 random English native speakers visiting VME Then, both statistical analysis (for questionnaires) and content analysis (for interviews) were employed to answer the research questions The researcher figured out several interesting findings First, each translation error type exerted its different impacts at un-identical levels of seriousness on foreign tourists, thus receiving different evaluations from them Also, three main factors that might impact readers’ translation quality assessment were (1) tourists’ background knowledge about the source language’s culture, (2) their personal interest in the objects and (3) their familiarity with the terms More interestingly, it was pointed out that informativeness ranked first in terms of importance when it came to foreign tourists’ expectations for a translation of cultural terms in object labels Hence, the participants suggested using descriptive equivalent translation procedure and asking for comments and recommendations from foreigners or experts to improve the translation quality of object labels at the museum ii iii iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AEC: ASEAN Economic Community ASEAN: Association of South East Asian Nation ATA: American Translation Association FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education SD: Standard deviation ST: Source text TT: Target text ULIS: The University of Languages and International Studies USSH: University of Social Sciences and Humanities VME: The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology VNU: Vietnam National University LIST OF TABLES Table 1: ATA framework for error marking .9 Table 2: List of cultural-specific terms with translation errors .22 Table 3: Summary of statistical data .31 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Procedures of pilot questerviews .27 Figure 2: Procedures of real questerviews 28 Figure 3: Data analysis procedures 29 Figure 4: Foreign tourists’ average rating scores …………………………………32 v Figure 5: Number of foreigners who did not understand/ misunderstood the translations without images and explanation 34 Figure 6: Foreign visitors' expectations toward the translation quality of cultural specific terms in object labels at VME 47 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter generally introduces the whole research, leading the readers from a general to specific field of research The section establishes the context and significance of the study by summarizing current background knowledge of the topic and stating the aims of the work The research problem, rationale, objectives, and importance as well as the organization of the study are presented one by one 1.1 Statement of research problem and rationale for the study Since the implementation of “Doi Moi” policy in 1986, and then the establishment of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in 1992, the country has made great leaps in tourism sector The renewed international interest in Vietnam has brought about a surge in the number of tourists, which grew up over four-fold within four years, from 1990 to 1994 (Hall & Page, 2011) Indeed, the past three decades has seen significant advances in Vietnam’s tourism industry The official launch of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN and the ASEAN Economic Community - AEC by the end of 2015 also promises to open a new page in the history of Vietnamese tourism As ASEAN members open their doors in one common market, travelling will become far easier Tourism development has not only boosted the number of visitors to Vietnam but also put forth the urgent need to improve quality of Vietnamese tourism in general and tourism text translation in particular to meet regional requirements (Dao, 2015) First, the increasing number of overseas tourists flooding to Vietnam has urged tourism industry to call for high quality of tourist text translation, which is the major means of both “informing” visitors of the beauty spots and convincing them to purchase tourism goods and services More critically, tourism is an activity involving direct contact between cultures The language used in tourism, hence is of great value between tourists and the places they are visiting, and is a joint element between the domestic and foreign cultures In other words, tourism texts can be ...ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA DU KHÁCH NƯỚC NGOÀI VỀ CÁC LỖI DỊCH TRONG BẢN DỊCH VIỆTANH CỦA CÁC THUẬT NGỮ MANG ĐẶC TRƯNG... CỦA CÁC THUẬT NGỮ MANG ĐẶC TRƯNG VĂN HÓA TRÊN TÊN HIỆN VẬT TẠI BẢO TÀNG DÂN TỘC HỌC VIỆT NAM Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Ngô Hà Thu Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang Khóa: QH2012.F1.E15 HÀ NỘI – 2016... .31 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Procedures of pilot questerviews .27 Figure 2: Procedures of real questerviews 28 Figure 3: Data analysis procedures 29 Figure 4: Foreign