E/C and C/E Practicums /
Research Projects
Ke Ping
1: Comparative Reading of Source Texts and their
Translations
2: Library Study of Resources for Studying
Translation
3: Textual Study of the Translation of Publicity
Material
4: Sight Translation of the Texts of the Premier’s
Press Conferences
5: Sight Translation of the Texts of the Foreign
Minister’s Press Conferences
6: Using Compensatory Procedures in Translating
7: Using Reference Tools to Resolve Difficulties in
Translating
8: Field Study of the Translation of Local
Publicity Material
Tasks:
1 Select some quality source texts with
Chinese/English translations and read them carefully. (Texts may be found in,
e.g. Yu, Yungeng 喻云根’s《英美名著翻译比较》[1996. 汉口：湖北教育. iii+432pp], 双语观点. in 新加坡’s《联合早报》[http://www.zaobao.com/bilingual/viewpoint_index.html], etc.)
2 Make a comparative study of the originals and their translations, commenting on both the merits and infelicities which you detect in the translations.
3 Get ready to present the results of your comparative study to the class.
Tasks:
1 Search first the School Library and then the University Library for all the books, journals, media stuff and other resources for studying translation.
2 Browse these resources and pick out from them at least three items which you regard as most valuable and worthy to be recommended to your classmates, giving your reasons for making the selection.
3 Get ready to present the results of your investigation to the class.
Tasks:
1 Study the following instances of translated publicity material, identifying the grammatical, textual, semantic, pragmatic, logical, or technical infelicities each of them may contain.
Jinghai Si
(Jinghai Temple),
Yuejiang Lou,
2 Retranslate the above publicity material, stating reasons for all the revisions you made of the original translation.
3 Get ready to report to the class on how you completed the above tasks.
Tasks:
Click on one of the following links:
2005 Text:
Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site 1 Site 2 Video:
Site
1 Site 2 (Realplayer)
2006 Text:
Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site 1 Site 2 Video:
Site 1 Site 2 (Realplayer)
2007 Text:
Site
1 Site 2 Audio:
Site
1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site 2
2008 Text:
Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site 1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site 2
2009 Text:
Site
1 Site 2 Audio: Site 1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site 2
2010 Text:
Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site
1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site
2.
1 Read the text of the Chinese Premier’s answers to the questions raised by the journalists covering the annual full session of the country’s national legislature (National People’s Congress). Sight-translate the transcription into English paragraph by paragraph.
2 Click on audio/video links and listen to the interpretation of the Premier’s interpreter, comparing your sight translation with it. Think and be prepared to discuss in class what you’ve learned in this process of comparative sight translation.
Tasks:
Click on one of the following links:
2005 Text:
Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site 1 Site 2. Video:
Site 1 Site 2
2006 Text: Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site
1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site
2 (Realplayer)
2007 Text:
Site 1 Site 2 Audio:
Site 1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site 2 (Realplayer)
2008 Text: Site 1 Site 2 Audio: Site 1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site 2
20099 Text: Site 1 Site 2 Audio: Site 1 Site 2. Video: Site 1 Site 2
2010 Text:
Site
1 Site 2 Audio:
Site 1 Site 2 Video: Site 1 Site 2.
1 Read the text of the Chinese Foreign Minister’s answers to the questions raised by the journalists covering the on-going annual full session of the country’s national legislature (National People’s Congress). Sight-translate the transcription into English paragraph by paragraph.
2 Click on the audio/video links and listen to the interpretation of the Foreign Minister’s interpreter, comparing your sight translation with it. Think and be prepared to discuss in class what you’ve learned in this process of comparative sight translation.
On December 18, 2008, Hu Jintao, Secretary General of the CPC, made a speech to honor the 30th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. The speech includes the following remarks:
“我们的伟大目标是，到我们党成立100年时建成惠及十几亿人口的更高水平的小康社会，到新中国成立100年时基本实现现代化，建成富强民主文明和谐的社会主义现代化国家。只要我们不动摇、不懈怠、不折腾，坚定不移地推进改革开放，坚定不移地走中国特色社会主义道路，就一定能够胜利实现 这一宏伟蓝图和奋斗目标。”
Two official translations of “不折腾” in the speech were:
(We should) never (sway back and forth, relax our efforts, or) get sidetracked.
(中国政府门户网站)
(Don’waver, don’t relent, and) don’t do
much ado about nothing
([曾任邓小平翻译的] 高志凯)
Less formal translations of the phrase include:
avoid self-inflicted setbacks ([中国驻纳米比亚大使] 任小萍)
no trouble-making (季羡林)
bu
zheteng
What is your take on these translations and what would be your own translation of the phrase? Explain in what ways your translation would do justice to the original.
Tasks:
1 Read the following text: The Use of Reference Tools in Translation.
2 The following passages are taken from authentic texts, most of which were already translated into Chinese, though in an incorrect way. These passages contain technical terms, foreign forms, ambiguous words, or even errors. Use local and online reference tools to find out the Chinese equivalents of the italicized words and phrases in the context and translate the passages into Chinese.
You need to hand in a report in which you give your translation of these passages as well as detail:
(1) what reference tools (including both local and online ones) you consulted or searched when translating the passages; and
(2) why you believe your translation of the italicized and bold part of each passage is the Chinese equivalent of the original or renders reasonably well the meaning of the original.
(Close shot. Ilsa. She rises, still pointing the gun at Rick. Her finger rests on the trigger. It seems as if she is summoning nerve to press it. Then, suddenly, her hand trembles and the pistol falls to the table. She breaks up, covering her face with her hands. Rick walks into the shot, stands close to her. Suddenly, she flings herself into his arms.) (Casablanca)
Business
once looked to the market as the key signal for the future. Today it looks to
When the [stock] market is buoyant, it has been a signal to business that the “business climate” is favorable, and the effect on what Keynes called the “animal spirits” of executives has been to encourage them to go ahead with expansion plans. When the market is falling, on the other hand, spirits tend to be dampened, and executives may think twice before embarking on an expansion program in the face of general pessimism. (Heilbroner. Economics Explained)
In niche markets, like the market for organic products, farmers receive a higher price for their products because they are producing a specialty product that is different from what is produced on conventional farms. (US Department of Agriculture: Organic Agriculture)
If there is a determination that the level of pest population or pest infestation is too high — meaning it has exceeded the economic threshold — Ms. Pickel will provide treatment suggestions based on IPM [integrated pest management] principles. (US Department of Agriculture: Organic Agriculture)
Snap bean
LOS
ANGELES - A man who sold high-end computers, laptops and other equipment on
eBay Inc.'s online auction site pleaded no contest to allegations
of fraud totaling $453,000. Chris Chong Kim, 28, of
It's a fairly new biotechnology type product, it’s only been around about four years, the BT corn has. What it is a gene we put in the plant that protects the plant against corm (sic) bore which corn bore can reduce the yields in our corn anywhere from 15 to 40 or 50 bushel an acre yieldwise a year loss. (US Department of Agriculture: Organic Agriculture)
He won in 50.58 seconds from Switzerland’s Franz Meier, who clocked 59.95. (Ovett Wins 800 Metres [AP sports news])
Department of Languages, Literatures and Translation, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa "Luis de Camoes"
instrumentation and orchestration
The story of The Jackal and the Brahmin is an East Indian folktale. (Melvena L. Green et al. World Folktales)
Pfizer's
Celebrex Lifts Heart Attack Risk in Trial
Fri Dec 17, 4:46 PM ET. Business Reuters. By Ransdell Pierson
Tasks:
1 Select at least three local public places where travelers from other countries or foreign nationals may frequent or regularly visit. Make a trip to those places in groups of two or three, collecting as many translations or English versions of the publicity material of those places as possible. (Examples of publicity material include public signs, shop signs, ads, commercial brochures, profile of a tourist attraction, information on tickets for public parks or museums, explanatory texts accompanying exhibits in a gallery, museum, or monument. You may use a digital camera to record the Chinese originals and their translations or English versions.)
2 After returning to the campus, study the collected translations or English versions of the Chinese originals carefully, analyzing their semantic accuracy and functional appropriacy, and identifying all referential, pragmatic, and intralingual infelicities in them. Your analysis should be informed by the content of the course Advanced English-Chinese & Chinese-English Translation (including whatever we went through in class and all the suggested readings you read out of class) and you are expected to specify the sources your analysis is informed with.
3 Retranslate or revise, on the basis of completed Task 2, all faulty/inappropriate translations or English texts you have discovered, supplying solid evidence (e.g. definitions and citations in quality reference tools, comparable texts in the target language, etc.) to justify your retranslations or revisions.
4 Revisit the places where you collected data
for this research. Find the management and/or technical personnel of the site (or
contact them by post/email if they are truly unavailable), requested permission
to report to them the most important findings of your research, and submit in
both written and spoken form detailed suggestions as to how the errors and
infelicities you identified should be corrected. Seek feedback from them and
make a note of the feedback along with the contact information of the person(s)
who provided the feedback....
5 Write a research report in English on an
individual basis, detailing how you completed Tasks 1 through 4,
what results or findings your research action in Tasks 2 and 3 produced, and
what implications you think those results or findings have. The report should
also include the feedback you received when performing Task 4 as well as the
contact information of the person(s) who provided the feedback. The submitted
report is to be typewritten on A4 paper with sufficient margins left (top:
6 Make preparations to give a presentation of your research in class.
Remarks:
1 All cited sources must be properly documented following the APA style. For illustrations of proper APA style, please visit the page:
http://dhost.info/pingke/W_Pub-PublishersOfTheCitationStyleGuide-APAStyleMadeEasy.htm.
2 The marking scheme for this research project is as follows:
Task 1: 20%
Task 2: 20%
Task 3: 20%
Task 4: 20%
Tasks 5 and 6 (organization, language, presentation, etc.): 20%.
3 The deadline for submitting the research report is June 3. Late submission will result in a deduction of 5 scores per day from the scores you obtain for the final examination / end-of-semester research project which, incidentally, contributed 50% of the total scores for this course.
