The difficulties and somesolutions to Vietnamese-English translation

DECLARATION I certify this report of the Study Project entitled: “The difficulties and some solutions to Vietnamese-English translation” to total fulfillment of the requirement for the report of graduation practice Son La, April 2011 Nguyễn Thị Thiện ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisors, Mrs Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuy and Mrs Nguyen Mai Huong, lecturers of the Foreign Languages Department of Son La College This report could have probably not completed without their patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement I also would like to show my profound gratitude to all the lecturers in the Foreign Languages Department in Son La College for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over the past three years My special thanks go as well as to the Foreign Languages Department of Son La College for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement this report I also would like to delicate my special thanks to my classmates in English course 45, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuable suggestions Especially, I am obliged to my friends who looked closely at the final providing me their translation exercises and assignments to use as version of the report for English style and grammar, correcting both and offering suggestions for improvement Finally, I can not fully express my gratitude to all people whose direct and indirect support me to accomplish my report in time My report still has many shortcomings TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Acknowledgement Table of contents Part I: Introduction Rationale Aims and objectives Methods Structure Part II: The contents Chapter 1: The literature of Vietnamese-English translation What is Vietnamese-English translation History of translation Why is it necessary to translate The dynamics of translation Chapter 2: The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation The difficulties from difference of language The difficulties from difference of culture between countries The difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level The difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions Chapter 3: The suggested solutions to improve Vietnamese-English translation The solution to difference of language The solution to difference of culture between countries How to deal with non-equivalence at word level How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions Part III: Conclusion References Page 4 5 6 6 7 9 11 13 18 20 20 21 21 24 26 28 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale When practicing translation at College, students often have lot of difficulties, such as, how to remember what has been said, how to express an idea clearly and quickly in the target language, how to deal with non equivalence at word level, how to deal with newspaper headlines, etc In order to find some causes of the difficulties to translation, especially, to Vietnamese-English translation and give some solutions to improve Vietnamese-English translation “The difficulties and some solutions to Vietnamese-English translation” is produced It is important for prospective translators to understand the process of translation, to identify the problems in doing translation and then to efficiency and feasible solutions these issues are also the main content of this written Aims and objectives Understanding about the difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation from that we can know how to use translation techniques and skills Moreover, we can more understand about cultural concerns in translation, know the way to solve problem situations, how to use specialized terminology in some field, such as, political-social, literary-art, scientific-technical Moreover, the report concentrates on analyzing in details the VietnameseEnglish translation It touches upon translations of this kind by English students as well as translator for Vietnamese magazines, newspapers and publishers This is due to the fact that not only translations by students but worryingly, those by some contemporary professional translators in Vietnam can be dubbed difficulties This is a flow we need to eliminate or at least reduce to the minimum level with a view to purifying out mother tongue and providing readers with the best possible sources of knowledge and enjoyment This is important to the development of Vietnamese culture and the society in the future The primary aim of the report is to share with English students, who would be translators, an overview of the frequently seen types of difficulties in VietnameseEnglish translation So that they are fully aware and able to avoid them The report also aim at finding some possible strategies to improve the difficulties to VietnameseEnglish translation Nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work can consider it a useful reference helping improve their translating skills Methods Sampling The process of collecting samples consists of two main step First, through classroom lectures and translation activities and self-study In both VietnameseEnglish were taken to enable comparison between translation texts and the original later Second, the content of the sign were transcribed saved in the format of printable word documents Data analysis process Obviously, translation can be understood either as a process, i.e the activity of translating, or as a product, i.e the text that has been translated It should be note that translation activity is hardly of just applying different, translation methods to convey the message of the source text Linguistic knowledge, particularly, grammar, is also crucial to quality of a translation Accordingly, in order to have comprehensive analysis The English version of each document was examined from two different perspectives as a product of translation activity and as an independent text Structure As can be seen from the content page, I divided my report in to parts: The first part is introduction, this part focus on rationale, aims and objective, methods and structure of this report The second part is the main contents of the report including: Chapter 1: The literature of Vietnamese-English translation (focus on the definition of Vietnamese-English translation, history of translation, the dynamics of translation) Chapter 2: The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation (in this chapter, I will show some difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation, such as, the difficulties from difference of language, the difficulties from difference of culture between countries, the difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level, the difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions) Chapter suggests some solutions to improve Vietnamese-English translation The third part is conclusion (brief overview and summary of the report, final comments) PART II: CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: THE LITERATURE OF VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION What is Vietnamese-English translation? Vietnamese-English translation is rendering a Vietnamese written text into English in the way that the author intended the text Translators are concerned with the written word They render written texts from Vietnamese into English Translators are required to undertake assignments, which range from simple items, such as, birth certificates and driving licenses to more complex written material, such as, articles in specialized professional journals, economical article, legal documents History of translation According to "Interpreting and translation course book" (1997) of Bui Tien Bao, Dang Xuan Khu Translation have always been done by somebody for somebody The first trace of translation dates from 3000 BC, during the Egyptian Old Kingdom, the area of the first Cataract, Elephantine, where inscriptions in two languages have been found It is became a significant factor in the West in 300 BC Luther's Bible translation in 1522 laid the foundations of modern German In the 19th century translation was mainly in a one-way means of communication between prominent men of letters and to a lesser degree, philosophers and scientists and their educated readers abroad Whilst trade was conducted in the language of the dominant nation, and diplomacy, previously in Latin, was in French The 20th century have been called the "age of translation" to which one may add "and interpreting" International agreements between states, public and private organizations are now translated for all interested parties, whether or not the signatories understand each other's language The setting up of a new international body, the constitution of an independent state, the formation enhanced importance The exponential increase in technology (parents, specifications, documentation), the attempt to bring it to developing countries, the simultaneous publication of the same book in various languages, the increase in world communication, has correspondingly increased requirements That the very survival of such bodies as the United Nation is crucially dependent on interpreting and translation can be taken as a good example of the importance of translation and interpreting Why is it necessary to translate? Even with the most up-to-date and sophisticated communication system, we can never know how many languages man uses today in the world, let alone how many languages man has used during the course of his development Some sources say there are some two or three thousand language being used in the word, but some other say the number may be as large as eight thousand What a habit man has, that of speaking different tongues And thus he offers himself difficulties and obstacles Since communication within only one speech community is not enough, certainly there has a great number of time arisen a situation in which some individuals are unable to understand the words or expressions of some others this phenomenon creates a barrier to understanding whenever man tries to communicate across a great distance of space or across a great interval of time Some things have to be done to overcome this restriction One way to cope with the restriction is for individuals to know the foreign language But this is not the final solution because apparently no individual in the world can an know all the language in use The best polyglot so far knows only about twenty five languages, and still people want to read what other people write and what other people say Translation may be considered as the most universally accepted solution for surmounting the obstacle And thus there is a need for professional translators The dynamics of translation (Peter New mark) There are some participants/ actors in the translation process: L1 C1 L1 C1 L1 C1 L2 C2 Author  Reader Translator  Reader L2 C2 Translation Initiator Translation Commissioner The truth ( the facts of the matter ) SL writer TL readership SL norms TL norms TEXT SL culture TL culture SL setting TL setting and tradition and tradition 10 Translator A text is pulled in ten different directions, as follows: The individual style or idiolect of the source language(SL) author when should it be preserved, normalized? The conventional grammatical and lexical usage for this type of text, depending on the topic and situation Content items referring specifically to the SL, or the third language (i.e not source language or target language (TL) cultures The typical format of a text in a book, periodical, newspaper etc, as in influenced by tradition at the time The expectations of the putative readership, bearing in mind their estimated knowledge of the topic and the style of language they use, expressed in terms of the largest common factor, since one should not translate down (or up ) to the readership 6,7,8 As for 2,3 and respectively, but related to the TL What is being described or reported, ascertained or verified (the referential truth) Where possible independently of the SL text and the expectations of the readership 10 The views and perfidies of the translator, which may be personal and subjective, or may be social and cultural, involving the translator’s “group loyalty factor”, which may reflect the national, political, ethnic, religious, social class, sex etc, assumptions of the translator CHAPTER 2: THE DIFFICULTIES TO VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION The difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation The classification of the difficulty in translation have great significance in term of methodology, while also creating awareness to the general freedom to bring forward, build a strategy and tactics to help translation work and training translate better The difficulties are divided into major types They are : Common difficulties and their own difficulties Common difficulties occur in the full process of translation with any languages and in all types of translation Their own difficulties are limited by a certain aspect of the translation, such as: For each type of translation, each type of writing (political- social, literary- art, scientific- technical,…), each language-specific (Vietnamese- English,…), as well as individual, functional units degrees in difference of language For example : Translate nouns, verb, conjunctions, prepositions, subject, simple sentences complex sentences,… Base on the origins, causes, I divided common difficulties into types: The difficulties from difference of language, the difficulties from difference of culture between countries, the difficulties when translate non-equivalence at word level, the difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions The difficulties from difference of language This is the most seen difficulty and the most direct impact to the process of translation For example: "Mẹ 42 tuổi Bà làm việc cánh đồng" We translate "she", what is "she"? It is not simple because to show the third person in singular and belong to female, in Vietnamese language has many words to choice, such as," nó, y, mụ ta, bà ấy, cô ấy,etc" In the above situation, we can choice the word "bà ấy" When translate we have to choice the word which suit with the context and meaning, that is reflect reality in the text When translate the alteration in Vietnamese in to English is so difficult to ensure equivalence of form and increasingly did not reflect the nuances of meaning Because of English have very few alteration and type of the alteration In the Vietnamese-English dictionary (Le Kha Ke-the chief author, Education Publishing House in 1991) translate: Vietnamese English Héo Héo hon Héo hắt Heo héo Lạnh Lạnh lung Lạnh lẽo Wither Cold Table 1: The difference about nuance of expression Recently, Vietnamese language continue to appear many new words with general meaning, for example: Fuel, water magnet,…In order to call the name (identify) of things make a basic meaning (physical demonstration meaning) of word, Vietnamese people base on the shape and outside features For example: Vietnamese people call "bulb" is the "trunk" or "root" which develop and contain nutrients, such as, water caltrop, kohlrabi,…), (sweet potato, ginger,…) Vietnamese Mang Vác Khuân Khiêng Lôi Đun Đẩy Cõng English To carry To carry on shoulder To carry (a heavy thing) To carry Drag Pull Push To carry on the back Table 2: Motion verb of Vietnamese language The difficulties from difference of culture between countries 3.1 Culture aspects Translation is not simple a linguistic transformations of texts, but it is also a rendering of cultural concepts from one language to another Asian culture in general and Vietnamese culture in particular have few thing in common with Western and American culture Unless a translator is capable of breaking through "decayed barriers" of his own culture and opening his mind to new and sometimes alien concepts, his translation can not be considered successful and natural Difficulties occur when you have to translate foreign nations like much up day, new year's resolution, fair go, and wife swapping because they are typical of the culture in English-speaking countries but not in Vietnam However, most alien concepts can be rendered with some translation technique 10 4.2 The problem of non-equivalence The problem of non-equivalence have been drawing the attention of many researchers Jacobson claims that "there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code units" Jacobson also explains the difference between structures, terminology, grammar and lexical forms of languages are the main reasons of non-equivalence Jacobson states that "equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistic" In his theory, the general principle of cross-language difference and the concept "semantic field" has been established Catford (1996) found that there are two factors which affected the equivalence i.e linguistic and cultural factors, leading to two kind of equivalent i.e linguistic and cultural equivalents This finding of Caford is very significant because it consists of both important approaches toward equivalence, namely, linguistic and cultural approaches On the contrary, there were some arguments against Catford theory SnellHornby (1988) claims that textual equivalence introduced by Catford is "circular" and his examples are "isolated and even absurdly simplistic" Furthermore, she criticizes equivalence in translation is an illusion because there are many aspects, including textual, cultural and situational ones, get involved in the equivalent degree of the translation That is not only functional but situation factor need to be taken into consideration during the process of translation Equivalent effect, as judged by New mark, is "the desirable result, rather than the aim of any translation" Accordingly, the equivalent effect is the result which all translators long to achieve Further, New mark (1988) argues that the text may reach a "broad equivalent effect" only if it is "universal" that means cross culture share common ideas 4.3 Non-equivalence at word level Among many approaches introduced above, Mona Baker was the most outstanding theorist dramatically focusing on equivalence at word level since, as being claimed by her, word is the basic unit to be considered in meaning of translation text Her analysis on word level is particularly clear, easy to comprehend It is undeniable that Mona Baker's theory on non-equivalence at word level is universally supported by a great number of famous linguistic scholars and researches Firstly, Haliday (1985) strongly stresses the importance of seeking for equivalence at 14 word level by the famous saying "meaning are realized through words, and without a theory of wordings, there is no way of making explicit one's interpretation of the meaning of the text" In my opinion, there is no word equivalence among languages since even in the same language there is no absolute synonym between words It is impossible to perfect translation equivalence between source language word and its target language correspondent Between the two words that are deemed to be correspondents, one always covers more ground in meaning than the other, leading to the problem of nonequivalence at word level In rank-bound translation an equivalent is sought in the target language for each word, or for each morpheme encountered in the source text In bottom-up approach to translation, equivalence at word level is the first element to be taken in to consideration by the translator 4.4 Classification of non-equivalence at word level No equivalent words between languages, especially culture-specific concepts The source language word expresses a concept totally unknown in target language It is obviously difficult for one to translate a word in Vietnamese into English and vice versus once it does not exist in the target language It is a Herculean task for a translator when he has to transfer a concept that people of target language has never heard about Cultural concept is not the only but the most common case in which a translator is likely to introduce an exotic concept to people of target language Vietnamese Categories Food and drink House and furniture Political regime Occupation Bánh trôi Bánh tét English Floating cake Cylindrical glutinous rice cake Bánh ướt Vegemite Bún thang Vermicelli and chicken soup Nhà sàn House on stills Tủ chè Bungalow, Cupboard Chủ Tịch Ủy Ban Hành Front Benchers Pháp Bí Thư Thành Uỷ House of Representatives Nghề bán cháo phổi Access And Equity Quân tử Gentleman 15 Traditional practices Tết Hàn Thực Cây Nêu Muck up Day New Year's Resolution Table 4: Selected categories and examples about Cultural Concepts Not surprisingly, no matter how excellent a translator can be in term of both linguistic and culture backgrounds, there are always concepts that can not be translated from one language to another language This phenomenon has been defined as "cultural untranslatability" by a great number of international researchers and scholars Some non-equivalent cultural categories which are considered hurdles by many inexpert Each category is supported with several examples In fact, there are many other categories in cultural field that can confuse a translator when seeking for an absolute equivalence The target language lack of a super ordinate It may have a specific word but no general word Mona Baker (1992) proposes the necessity to group vocabulary in a language into some conceptual fields She states that semantic fields are the division "imposed by a given linguistic community on the continuum of experiences" There are some certain semantic fields such as, "speech, plants, vehicle, distance, size, shape, time, emotion, beliefs" In addition, lexical sets are "the actual words and expression under each field" From the more general words, namely super ordinate, to the more specific i.e hyponym For example, in the field of furniture, "furniture" is a super ordinate and table, desk, chair, cabinet, bookshelves, armchair, couch, cupboard, hammock, sofa, rug, etc "Problems" is an extraordinarily frequently use word in English but it might be a puzzle for Vietnamese-English translator since there are a great number of Vietnamese words nominated to be equivalence but each of them owns a slightly different connotation It does not have a list of Vietnamese words which can be thought of such as "vấn đề" (issue), "vấn nạn/ tệ nạn" (irregular), "khó khăn" (difficulties), "trở ngại" (obstacle), "trục trặc" (as in mechanical troubles), "biến chứng" (complications), "thắc mắc" (queries) However, "chứng" can be translated as "problem" "Chứng khó thở" should be translated as "Breathing problems" English does not have the general word for "đàn" in Vietnamese English words that describe groups of animals are" herb" (herb of cattle), "flock" (flock of geese) and 16 "school of fish" It may be difficult for Vietnamese translators to use vocabulary that consists of lexical-semantic destinations which not present in Vietnamese The target language lack of a hyponym This phenomenon is noteworthy since it is likely to occur during the translation course It is quite the opposite of the above case, which means in the target language there are not enough specific terms to illustrate words in source language For example, a super ordinate as the word "house" in English has plenty of subordinates such as "bungalow, cottage, croft, chalet, lodge, hut, mansion, manor, villa, hall" and in Vietnamese are "nhà sàn, nhà tranh, nhà tranh vách đất, nhà lá, nhà ngói, nhà gạch, nhà vườn, biệt thự, villa, nhà chòi, túp lều, nhà trệt" However, specific terms not equally math each other, resulting in the non-equivalence between source language and target language To describe "the moving of a part of body", English propose many words such as shake, tremble, shiver, quiver, shudder i.e "Shake": To move or make somebody or something move with short quick movements from side to side or up and down; "Tremble": To shake slightly, usually because of coldness, fright; "shiver": To shake suddenly because of coldness; "Quiver": To shake slightly, to make a slight movement because of strong emotion Differences in expressive meaning Another common problem of translator encounters is that at a time he translates a word which has different expressive meaning in source language and target language For example, the word "sexy" in English means "attractive" which generally has a positive, complimentary meaning On TV, it is used often For example, on Star World Channel, the show "Grey's Anatomy" is advertised as "better, funnier, and sexier" Flow the show "American Idol", they advertised it as having "the sexiest judges" Nevertheless, in Vietnamese it means "khiêu gợi, gợi tình" (wearing erotically) Hence if in the sentence "hôm em thật khiêu gợi" translator translate that "you look so sexy today", it might it might insult the reader and make they misunderstand the compliment of the speaker The word "exotic" is another example It means "unusual and often exciting because of coming (or seeming to come) from a distant country" (Cambridge 17 Advanced Learner Dictionary, 2008) "Exotic" has a neutral or even positive meaning in most the case However, in Vietnamese, the adjective "ngoại giao" often convey a disapproving meaning It refers to something which is not suitable or even against Vietnamese culture The difficulties when translate idioms and fixed expressions 5.1 What is an idiom? Idiom is a word, phrase or expression that can not be literally In other words, idioms have meanings that can not be figured out by looking up the word in the dictionary They have meanings that are understood by people who speak that language For example, "break a leg" is a common idiom Literal meaning: I commend you to break a bone in your leg and you should probably go to the doctor afterwards to get it fixed Idiomatic meaning: Do your best and well Often, actor tell each other to "break a leg" before they go out on stage to perform In the idiom, words have lost their individual identity The structure of the idiom is to a large extent, fixed and unchangeable Every language has a set of idioms and fixed expressions of its own, which have been created and developed throughout history It is profoundly influenced by the geographical position, natural and social conditions of the culture in which the language is used Thus, the sets of idioms and fixed expressions in different language varies in many ways An idiom or fixed expression has been recognize correctly, the next step is to decide how to translate it into the target language The difficulties involved in translating an idiom are totally different from those involved in interpreting it Here, the question is not whether a given idiom is transparent, opaque, or misleading The main difficulties involved in translating idioms and fixed expressions may summarized as follows 5.2 An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target language The way language chooses to express, or not express, various meanings cannot be predicted and only occasionally matches the way another language chooses to express the same meanings One language may express a given meaning by means of a single word, another may express it by means of idiom, and so on It is therefore unrealistic to expect to find equivalent idioms and expressions in the target languages as matter of course 18 Like single words, idioms and fixed expressions may be culture-specific For mules such as "Merry Christmas" and "say when" which relate to specific social or religious occasions provide good examples The expression of "say when" is "directly linked to English social behavioral patterns" and suggests that "the translator putting the phrase any languages has to contend with the problem of non-existence of a similar convention in either target language culture" Idioms and fixed expressions which contain culture-specific items are not necessarily untranslatable It is not the specific items an expression contains but rather the meaning it conveys and its association with culture-specific contexts which can make it untranslatable or difficult to translate For example, in Vietnamese idiom" Trâu chậm uống nước đục" translated into English as "The early bird catches the worm" 5.3 An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target language, but its context of use may be different The two expressions may have different connotations, or they may not be pragmatically transferable, for instance, To sing a different tune is an English idiom which means to say or something that signals a change in opinion because it contradicts what one has said or done before 5.4 An idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time Unless the target-language idiom corresponds to the source-language idiom both in form and in meaning, the play on idiom can not be successfully reproduced in the target text E.g He was deaf to his father's advice The very convention of using idioms in written discourse, the contexts in which they can be used, and their frequency of use may be different in the source and target language The difference in rhetorical effect of using idioms in general and of using specific types of idiom in the source and target languages and quite rightly conclude that 'Translation is an exacting art Idiom more than any other feature of language demands that the translator be not only accurate but highly sensitive to the rhetorical nuances of the language CHAPTER 3: 19 THE SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION The solution to difference of language 1.1 Borrowing words Borrowing is not a new method It has been discussed in many books on lexicology and translation What my report wants to emphasize is translation-loan, special kind of borrowings translation-loan "are not taken into the vocabulary of another language more or less in the same phonemic shape in which they have been functioning in their own language but undergo of the process of translation" Translation not only resolve problems of different of language but also help increase on language's vocabulary For instance, Vietnamese people are now similar with terms like "người chơi" (indicating a player in a game show), "thân thiện với môi trường" (environment friendly), "định hướng cho khách hàng" (client oriented) 1.2 Free translation In some study, free translation is also called adaptation According to Wikipedia, an adaptation is a translation procedure whereby the translator replaces a social or cultural, realty in the source text with a corresponding reality in the target text, the new reality would be more usual to the audience of the target text For example, in Vietnamese some proper names are modified so that it is not similar to English readers Often using the severs order, adjective + noun or noun + preposition + noun The solution to difference of culture between countries 2.1 Overcoming cultural problem Cultural substitutions To avoid cultural substitutions over issues of culture, translators should keep in mind that sometimes an effort to translate correctly is not as a suitable substitution Bellow are some more cultural substitutions when translating Vietnamese idioms and fixed expressions into English Things unfamiliar with the Vietnamese culture have been altered with ones that are close to Vietnamese people's daily life Moreover, thing that may seen improper or unpleasant replaced so as to avoid causing any version to readers 20 Consider the English versions of the above examples, words and phrases like "làng", "gà", "trâu", "cha", "bị", "lợn", "gà", "nhà ngói", "nhà tranh", "cuốc" are so near and dear to ordinary Vietnamese people that they evoke pleasant feelings when properly used in translated text An attempt to translate literally Vietnamese word like ( eagle, dove, cheese, minnow, whale) would surely sound far and away and fail to communicate to English readers How to deal with non-equivalence at word level It is the case that no direct equivalents can be found in English for Vietnamese words It may be that the concept or idea is new to Vietnam, as is the case with "gender", which is in fact a relatively new concept in general, and a difficult to understand and explain in many language Or, it may be that the concept is known or really understood but there is no specific word in Vietnamese to express it Another difficulty is that, in addition to their concrete meaning, some word have special connotations that are not conveyed by the Vietnamese word for the same thing The strategies below can be used to handle case of non equivalence 3.1 Translation by a more specific word The strategy of translation by more specific terms (hyponym) is the opposite of the following-mentioned strategy of generalization There is a warning that this strategy might lead to over interpretation of the source language meaning, which in the majority of cases seems to be more dangerous than over generalization However, in some case, it may be appropriate or necessary to use a more specific word to translate a Vietnamese word into English word This usually involves choosing among several different words, as there may be many Vietnamese words that correspond to general category or meaning expressed by the English word Vietnamese has many words that mean "to carry" with distinctions being made depending on the size and shape of the object, its animas (e.g a child as opposed to a box); and how it is carried (e.g in the hand, in both arms, etc.) Accordingly, there are some Vietnamese words to used such as, "đem, đưa, mang, vác, sách, đội, cõng cầm, ôm, bồng, khiêng, ghánh, quảy, đeo, đèo, chở, lai, thồ, địu, bưng, bê, kiệu, công kênh) Similarly, the English word for "rice" can be translated by many different Vietnamese words, depending on whether one is planning it, harvesting it, cooking it 21 In these cases, the English word alone is not enough to determine the appropriate Vietnamese translation, and it is necessary to examine the English context 3.2 Translation by a more general word In other case, it may be appropriate to use a more general word to translate an English word with no specific Vietnamese equivalent For instance, English makes distinctions among mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles, the latter having larger wheels and engines than both mopeds and scooters; Vietnamese, on the other hand refers to all two- wheels, motorized vehicles as "xe máy" Similarly, the English "paw", "foot", and "leg" may all be translated by the Vietnamese "chân", which does not present problems of the words are meant Another example can be found in a manual on community development, which translates "ma trận" by the English "matrix" However, in Vietnamese, "ma trận" has a specific use in mathematics only, and does not have the additional sense of a model or plan according to which something is developed In this instance, "bảng" is translated "matrix", which is a more general word used to classify a written plan or formula 3.3 Translation by cultural substitution This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with one of different meaning but similar impact in the translated text Because of their selfdescribed "respect" for the original text, most of Vietnamese translators object to this strategy and tend to translate directly, even when it may be highly inappropriate For example, a farmer's manual that have been translated into Vietnamese suggests the planting of different types of fruit and fuel trees that are not even grown in Vietnam The original manual, which developed in other parts of Asia, was not modified at all for the Vietnamese context Through some translators argue that it is not the responsibility of the translator to change the text in this way, in fact, the translator is an important role here Translator should be encouraged to question the appropriateness of the documents, they are translating and suggest changes to make them more culturally appropriate However, this is not only the burden of tether translator, but also of the commissioner of the translation and the editor In addition, field testing of documents will elicit useful feedback on cultural appropriateness 3.4 Translating by using a loan word plus explanation 22 Another strategy which is particularly useful in dealing with culture-specific items is the strategy of using a loan word This also helps in the case of very modern, newly introduced concepts The loan word can and very often even should, be followed with an explanation The reader does not have problem with understanding it and his attention is not distracted by other lengthy explanations As many translators prefer to create new Vietnamese words rather than borrow English words However, this strategy can be useful when dealing with concepts or ideas that are new to Vietnam, culture-specific items, and proper names of disease or medicines that widely known by their English name For instance, HIV and AIDS arte two loan words that are frequently used in Vietnamese as they are referred to by their English names in most of the world Because these words have been in common use in Vietnam for sometime now, they are often used without any accompanying explanation, which is not advisable Whenever, a loan word is used, it is better to give an explanation ORESOL, for instance, stand for Oral Rehydration Solution (dung dịch bù nước đường uống) In many packages, It is written in English with the explanation in parenthesis as ORESOL ( muối uống để bù nước) 3.5 Translation by omission Though some translators may reject this strategy as too drastic, it is sometimes appropriate to omit words or phrases that are not essential to the meaning or impact of the text This is especially true for words that would require lengthy explanations, awkward paraphrases or literal and unnatural translations, which would interrupt the follow of the text and could distract the reader from the overall meaning For example, the sentence: "Nhiều việc làm khơng có mặt họp" is the best translated into English by "Much can be done even without being physically present in the meeting" Which omits the word "physically" in the translation The different between "being physically present" and "being present" is too minimal that it does not just translation into English, which can not easily express the slight emphasis implied here by the author, and would not so by emphasizing the physicality of a person's presence In some circumstance, a plural noun is also determiner showing plurality (some books, three pens) If the "double" expression of such category is reflect in Vietnamese, redundancy will occur Once a given noun is in plural form, the quantifier 23 has to be deleted Such a deletion of expressions or information is debatable in relation to the translation of academic texts However, anyone who writes an academic text, for example, will not include unimportant information in his or her writing Similarly, anyone who reads such a text should consider that all information in the text is important Translators are not an exception; they should read the text as the original reader or a non-translator reader read it That is to say that this nation of information deletion should not be used as "an excuse" to hide the inability of translators to understand and transfer message of the original text 3.6 Translating by illustration This is a useful option if the word which lacks of an equivalent in the target language refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space or if the text has no remain short, concise and to the point "Tò he" toys are sculpture figurines fashioned from colored rice dough It is made to depict different heroes and ordinary people of daily life, symbolic animals However, it is still difficult for the readers to visualize what exactly a "Tò he" is, what size is it, etc the best way to illustrate a "Tò he" is showing a photo of it How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions 4.1 Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning and form It is sometimes possible to find an English idiom or expression with a similar meaning to a Vietnam idiom or expression, and which is expressed in the same way For example, "Cãi chó với mèo", which is expressed using the same words in English "to find like cat and dog", another is "thà muộn cịn khơng bao giờ", which translated as "better late than never" It is ideal if such a match can be found, but this kind of correspondence is not common, and it is usually necessary to use other strategies in dealing with idioms and fixed expressions 4.2 Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning but dissimilar form It is also possible, and usually easier to find an English idiom with a similar meaning to a Vietnamese idiom, but which is expressed differently A good example is the translation for "Chở củi rừng": "To carry firewood to the forest" or "to carry coals to Newcastle" The meaning here is clearly the same for both idioms -to bring something to a place that already has an abundance of that thing -but the way in which each language expresses, it is bound to the culture of that language It would be more 24 cumbersome to translate this idiom word-for-word into English with an explanation that Newcastle is a well-known coal-producing city in England (as was suggested by some Vietnamese translators), which would unduly interrupt the flow of the text and greatly diminish the idiom's impact By substituting a similar English idiom, then, the flow and the impact of the original text are retained in the translation 4.3 Translation by paraphrase When English equivalent cannot be found, paraphrasing may be the best way to deal with an idiom or fixed expression A good example can be found in an article on maternal mortality, which includes the sentence, "but therefore the new estimates replace the old as a way of packaging up the problem It should be said that a mistake has been made in allowing statistics such as these to slip into easy language" The expression "packaging up the problem" presented problem in translation, as it was misinterpreted to means "assembling" or "gathering together" However, even if this phrase were clearly understood, it would be difficult to find a equivalent in English In fact, it would be difficult to re-state concisely in English This phrase is the best dealt with by paraphrasing, which in English should read something like, "summing up the problem by referring to it simply as a number, which does not reflect its true magnitude or impact" The expression "to slip into easy usage" is problematic for the same reasons, and is also best dealt with paraphrasing, as direct translation into English would be nonsensical PART III: CONCLUSION With this conception, translate is transmute, I want to emphasize further this shift must be correctly, have a scientific awareness of the original content problem from that can replicate in translation Translation can occur in several different ways, depending on the kind of the document of translator to be translated The difficulties in language is resolved by results works compare, confront Translator may be applied but the similarities and differences - One of the purposes of the bilingual or multi-language works to translate from source language into other languages The second difficulty makes a heavy duty for translator It is always improve both native language and foreign language A good translator must be fluent in several foreign languages First is the mother tongue and language translation 25 Idioms and fixed expressions be deal with in the similar way However, with idioms, there is the added difficulty that the translator may not realize that he/ she is dealing with an idiomatic expression, since more idioms may make sense when translated literally Although, some stylists consider translation "sprinkled with footnotes" undesirable, their uses can assist the target text readers to make better judgment of the contents In general, it seems that the procedures 'functional equivalent' and 'notes' would have a higher potential for conveying the concepts underlying the culturespecific concepts embedded in a text; Moreover, it can be claimed that a combination of these strategies would result in a more accurate understanding of the culturespecific concepts than other procedures All in all, examples provided in this report, however, can not cover all cases in real practice of translating Vietnamese-English There is a potential space for further study and analysis nominated from international translator and professionals to better explore and share more knowledge and experiences in this field Translating Vietnamese-English is always long to achieve since it depends on the text, the translator and the receptors It is a fact that no matter how competent the translator is , the translation might be lose a certain degree of meaning relative to the original text Not only the linguistic but also the culture gaps among languages create the possibility of difficulties in translating Obviously, the larger the gap is the harder the translation process will be Hence, it is a must for a translator to continuously improve the personal knowledge on various areas and cultures of different countries Despite of the recommended strategies, the creativeness of translator is particularly important as no look can cover all the case happen in reality Last but not least, this report is unable to avoid certain limitations Quality of the study is restricted due to the time limit of research, the scarcity of differences the broad scope and complex nature of the issue as well as the humble experience of the writer The study apparently can not offer detail and comprehensive comments on the strength and weaknesses of various strategies applied in different context as well as more researches on Vietnamese-English case is critically needed 26 Various strategies opted for by translators in rendering idioms seem to play a crucial role in recognition and perception of connotations carried by them If a novice translator renders a literary text without paying adequate attention to the idioms, the connotations are likely not to be transferred as a result of the translator's failure to acknowledge of them They will be entirely lost to the majority of the target language readers Consequently, the translation will be ineffective REFERENCES Gimenez, A P (2005) Translation-Strategies Use NXB Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh Bùi Tiến Bảo, Đặng Xuân Khu (1997) Interpreting and translation course book NXB Giáo Dục Phạm Thanh Bình (2010) Strategies to deal with non-equivalence at word level in translation NXB Trường Đại Học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Vũ Ngọc Cẩn (2007) Các khó khăn dịch phương pháp khắc phục NXB Language and life Journal Hanna & Michael (1992) The Key to technical Translation NXB Đại Học Quốc Gia Hồ Chí Minh 27 New mark, Peter (1988) A textbook of Translation NXB London and New York : Prentice Hall International (UK) New mark, Peter (1982) Approaches to Translation NXB Pergamon press Hoàng Tất Trường (1991) Basic English lexicology NXB Trường Đại Học Sư Phạm Hà Nội 28 ... my sincere thanks to my supervisors, Mrs Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuy and Mrs Nguyen Mai Huong, lecturers of the Foreign Languages Department of Son La College This report could have probably not completed... functionality of things, meanwhile in English call a "bicycle" "two circle" means it is called by the shape of the thing Thus, language is the most effective and tool to indicate the method of thinking... English: Green, blue I can add a character feature of thinking method of Vietnamese people, it is the thinking suitable with objective reality exists This is shown clearly in combine word order into