Translation Teaching: The Importance of the Translator’s Native Language

Full text

Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2016, 6, 247-254
Published Online August 2016 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojml
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2016.64027
Translation Teaching: The Importance of the
Translator’s Native Language
Lih-Lirng Soang
Tamkang University, Taiwan
Received 14 June 2016; accepted 16 July 2016; published 19 July 2016
Copyright © 2016 by author and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Abstract
In the process of translation, student translators often neglect the importance of the knowledge of
their mother tongue. When selecting the appropriate vocabulary, students tend to use colloquial
language for a written text. They also often ignore cultural factors that would make their transla-
tions inappropriate. A new model of teaching, inspired by Bassnett’s (2002) analysis of alcoholic
beverage advertisements was designed for students to practise in class. Students evaluated their
translation process by using a multidisciplinary method proposed by Newmark (1988). Students
learn to recognize how translation works by using effective strategies to solve translation prob-
lems. This study investigated the problems faced by Taiwanese students when translating a text
from Spanish to Chinese in a junior-year translation course at the B1 level at Tamkang University.
Keywords
Translation Teaching, Translation Studies, Translation Method, Advertisement Translation,
Mother Tongue
1. Introduction
In Taiwan, most research on translation has focused on comparative studies among texts or an individual au-
thor’s commentary on his/her own translations. Little is known about the methodological problems in teaching,
especially in the area of translation between Spanish and Chinese. In fact, the investigation of teaching methods
is an urgent issue; the results of such an investigation would contribute greatly to the teaching of translation for
not only teachers, but also Taiwanese students as apprentices of the Spanish language.
This study first discusses the fact that students often ignore the importance of the knowledge of their mother
tongue, and then examines how a new model of teaching can help students to analyze and evaluate their translation
process by using a multidisciplinary approach proposed by Peter Newmark (1988). This new model of teaching
How to cite this paper: Soang, L.-L. (2016). Translation Teaching: The Importance of the Translator’s Native Language.
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 6, 247-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2016.64027

L.-L. Soang
was inspired by Susan Bassnett’s (2002) analysis of alcoholic beverage advertisements, which will be explained
in a later part of this paper. Students face translation problems not only linguistically, but also culturally. At the
end of the class discussion, students learned to recognize how translation works by using effective strategies to
solve translation problems.
The traditional method of teaching translation involves the teacher giving students articles to read. The teach-
er would then ask students to conduct the translation either orally in class or as a take-home assignment. The re-
sult is that many students would tend to rely excessively on the teacher’s version rather than on trusting in their
own work. Student translators often make mistakes when translating and therefore they are not very highly mo-
tivated to learn. They would regard the teacher’s version as the gold standard and try to memorize it as much as
possible for the sake of exams. In order to call attention to their style of thinking as well as that of writing, it
would be necessary to provide students with a new model of practising translation. The purpose of designing a
new task-oriented activity would be to guide students step-by-step to think and evaluate their translation process
by employing all the strategies that they have learned in class.
Oral Interpretation and Translation (I) is a junior-year course with a total of 72 teaching hours at the B1 level.
Each semester has 18 weeks, and there is a two-hour class each week. In the twelfth week of the first semester of
2014, I selected an advertisement about whisky in Spanish for the students to translate for practice. The text was
required to be short in length so that the translation work could be completed within the two-hour class. Students
are divided into four groups of four or five, and are asked to translate the advertisement into Chinese. After
completing the task, they evaluated both their own and other students’ translations.
2. Translation Methods
Newmark’s (1988) theory is recommended by Rosa Rabadán in the initial stage of theorizing translation. Ac-
cording to Rabadán, Newmark is most famous for his theory, which is an approach that comprises both practical
and academic areas (Rabadán, 2005: pp. 23-24). According to Newmark, there are eight useful translation me-
thods for the teaching of translation. The first category of translation methods focuses on the source language
(SL): 1) word-to-word translation, 2) literal translation, 3) faithful translation, 4) semantic translation. The
second category of translation methods focuses on the target language (TL): 5) adaptation, 6) free translation, 7)
idiomatic translation, 8) communicative translation (Newmark, 1988: pp. 45-47). Newmark suggests that only
semantic and communicative translation would fulfill the two main aims of translation: accuracy and economy.
Generally, a semantic translation is written at the author’s linguistic level and a communicative translation at the
reader’s communicative level (Newmark, 1988: p. 47).
Commenting on equivalence and equivalent effect, Jeremy Munday (2001) points out that the description of
communicative translation is similar to Nida’s (1964) dynamic equivalence in the effect it is trying to create on the
TL reader, while semantic translation resembles Nida’s formal equivalence. Nevertheless, Newmark distances
himself from the full principle of equivalent effect (Munday, 2001: p. 44). Nida’s formal equivalence “focuses at-
tention on the message itself, in both form and content” (Nida, 1964: p. 159). And his dynamic equivalence is
based on “the principle of equivalent effect”, where “the relationship between receptor and message should be sub-
stantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message” (Nida, 1964: p. 159).
To continue the discussion of the problems of equivalence, Bassnett (2002, p. 29) argues that “Exact transla-
tion is impossible”, and prefers Neubert’s (1967) theory of “process and product” (32). According to Bassnett,
Neubert’s theory of translation equivalence is considered a semiotic category that comprises three components:
the syntactic, the semantic, and the pragmatic. Among these, the semantic component is the most important:
“Equivalence overall results from the relation between signs themselves, the relationship between signs and
what they stand for, and the relationship between signs, what they stand for and those who use them” (Bassnett,
2002: p. 34). This study of “signs” or the semiotics is of great value for future research in the translation be-
tween Spanish and Chinese. Although Bassnett’s (2002) analysis mainly addresses the use of English, the con-
cept of decoding and recoding is applicable in the use of Chinese. It is worth paying attention to what she sug-
gests to the translator who must:
1) Accept the untranslatability of the SL phrase in the TL [at] the linguistic level.
2) Accept the lack of a similar cultural convention in the TL.
3) Consider the range of TL phrases available, [with regards] to the presentation of class, status, age, sex of
the speaker, his relationship to the listeners and the context of their meeting in the SL.
4) Consider the significance of the phrase in its particular context—i.e. as a moment of high tension in the
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dramatic text.
5) Replace in the TL the invariant core of the SL phrase in its two referential systems (the particular system of
the text and the system of culture out of which the text has sprung) (2002, pp. 29-30).
Bassnett (2002) argues that it is immoral to contract or omit difficult expressions in translations. Bassnett also
believes that the functional view must be adopted with regards to not only meaning but also style and form, and
suggests that the translator cannot be the author of the SL text; rather, as the author of the TL text, the translator
has a clear moral responsibility to the TL readers (30).
After the presentation of some important theoretical work above, it should be noted that the purpose of using
Newmark’s (1988) teaching methods is to help Taiwanese students understand the essence of translation, so that
they will translate not by memory, but by the application of translation methods. The sophisticated techniques
used in practice by translation specialists are of secondary importance in this course. Since students are in the
initial stage of translation apprenticeship, it is suggested that teachers guide their students through practical ex-
amples with topics related to their daily life.
3. The Importance of the Translator’s Native Language
Are Taiwanese students losing patience with reading and writing? It seems that they do not like to raise ques-
tions in class. When they are asked a question, they usually shrug and say, “I don’t know”. It seems that one
would need to make a significant effort in rousing them to think and answer the question. When translating, it
seems that their only desire is a prompt solution without an investment of careful thought. During exams, most
students submit their papers immediately after completion. Very few students stay in the classroom to check
their answers. One possible explanation for Taiwanese university students’ low proficiency in Chinese reading
and writing is that they spend an excessive amount of time on their cell phones or surfing the Internet each day.
According to Ramos (2012), the frequent use of the Internet has made concentration a difficult task for Taiwa-
nese students (247). Taiwanese students tend to surf the Internet not for reading articles but to watch films and
communicate with their friends by using a lot of text-speak.
Newmark explains that student translators easily ignore the factor of the readership of the text:
The average text for translation tends to be for an educated, middle-class readership in an informal, not
colloquial style. The most common variety of “marked” error in register among student translators tends to
be “colloquial” and “intimate”, e.g. use of phrases such as “more and more” for “increasingly” … The oth-
er common error, use of formal or official register (e.g. “decease” for “death”), also shows signs of transla-
tionese. These tokens of language typify the student translators instead of the readership they are translating
for; they may epitomize their degree of knowledge and interest in the subject and the appropriate culture,
i.e. how motivated they are. All this will help you to decide on the degree of formality, generality (or speci-
ficity) and emotional tone you must express when you work on the text (1988, p. 13).
In the process of translation, students often neglect the importance of the knowledge of their native language.
Students also often ignore cultural factors that would make their translation inappropriate. Student translators
need to carefully consider the style of the language that they choose and take specific cultural factors into ac-
count. Bassnett (2002) suggests the importance of cultural elements in translation:
Language, thus, is the heart within the body of culture, and it is the interaction between the two that results in
the continuation of life-energy. In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart, cannot neglect the
body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from the culture at his peril (2002, p. 22).
Three interesting examples of student translations are provided as follows:
3.1. Example 1
“casa de té” en los monasterios budistas.
(“tea house” in Buddhist monasteries).
「chashi 茶室」 (tea room) instead of 「chawu 茶屋」 (tea house).
“Chashi” is an inappropriate translation in the context of religion because of its cultural meaning. Fifty years
ago in Taiwan, “chashi” can refer to a place that sells not only drinks, but also sexual services. Today, this kind
of tea room can still be found in some countryside areas in Taiwan.
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3.2. Example 2
búsqueda del “espíritu”.
(search of the “spirit”).
「linghun 靈魂」 (soul, ghost), 「jingshen 精神」 (spirit, vitality) instead of 「xinling 心靈」 (heart and soul)
This term appeared in an article about the advantages of drinking green tea. In the phrase “search of the spirit”,
“xinling” is a more stylistic expression than the other two terms, “linghun” or “jingshen”. In Taiwanese society,
green tea is considered to be the top beverage choice for a high-quality, healthy life. Therefore, “xinling” would
be the best choice for the translation of “espíritu” in this context.
According to Yang (2002), Mengzi is one of the most influential traditional Chinese philosophers after Con-
fucius. He creates the important idea of “probing the goodness of nature through the goodness of heart”. Ex-
plaining the use of the Chinese word “xin” 「心」 is a complicated issue. Please refer to J. Li, C. Ericsson, and
M. Quennerstedt (2013) for further information:
The spirit in the Heart is the “soul”; this word delegates a common Chinese belief that “soul” resides in the
Heart, [being] aware that the “transcendental” nature of xin cannot be measured; however this connotation
should not be ignored (Li, Ericsson, & Quennerstedt, 2013: p. 81).
3.3. Example 3
Ella no pudo revertir a su estado mortal.
(She could not revert to her mortal state).
「Ta sibuliao. 她死不了.」 (She is not going to die anyway). instead of 「Ta wufa huifu fanren zhi shen. 她
無法恢復凡人之身.」 (She could not revert to her mortal state).
In the old Chinese legend, Chang-O secretly swallowed the elixir of immortality that belonged to her archer
husband Hou Yi, who had shot down nine suns in the ancient China. The translation “ta sibuliao” is in a collo-
quial style, and therefore would not be a suitable translation for the sentence “ella no pudo revertir a su estado
mortal”. The problem was that the student translator not only ignored the cultural elements of the legend but
lacked vocabulary and was not able to think of other words with which to express this sentence. As a result, he
selected the only word that he knew for this context, i.e. “to die” to represent the meaning of the whole sentence.
3.4. Other Examples
“ante” as “antes”.
“ferry” as “ferrocarril”.
“Europa” as “Egipto”.
Further, misreading a single word would affect the structure of the complete sentence, resulting in an incom-
prehensible translation. For example, some students misread the word “ante” (miandui 面對; in front of) as
“antes” (qian 前; before, previously); “ferry” (duchuan 渡船; ferry) as “ferrocarril” (tielu 鐵路; railroad); and
“Europa” (ouzhou 歐洲; Europe) as “Egipto” (aiji 埃及; Egypt). As a teacher, I would be obliged to remind
students to focus on the spelling of the word in order to avoid this type of mistakes.
4. A Case Study
This new model of teaching was inspired by Susan Bassnett’s (2002) analysis of two advertisements, one for
Scotch whisky and the other for Martini. In a British Sunday newspaper, the advertisement of whisky represented
quality, purity, and social status, while the advertisement of Martini represented glamour, excitement, trendy
living, and youth. However, in an Italian weekly news magazine advertising the same two products, Martini was
represented as a traditional product and Scotch was represented as a new arrival, so that the images presented
with the products were exactly the reverse of the British advertisement (Bassnett, 2002: p. 35). I adopted the
idea that an advertisement for alcoholic beverages could have different cultural meanings in different cultures.
Therefore, translating a Spanish advertisement of whisky into Chinese would be interesting and challenging for
my students as a new model of teaching. For this assignment, students were required to translate a Spanish ad-
vertisement of whisky into Chinese during class (accessed 30 October 2014:
http://todowhisky.blogspot.com/ 2008/ 12/ publicidades- de- Whisky- chivas- regal- 12.html). The advertise-
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ment was an ideal teaching material for this assignment because of the length and the density of the writing style.
Students were expected to employ all of the translation strategies that they had learned in class, including the
eight translation methods proposed by Newmark (1988).
4.1. A Task-Oriented Activity
This advertisement translation exercise was a task-oriented activity. A method called Task-Based Language
Teaching (TBLT) was originally created by Prabhu for teaching English as a second language in Bangalore in
southern India (as quoted in Candlin, 1987). According to D. Li (2013), this approach has proven to be an effec-
tive method for the teaching of a foreign language:
The starting premise is that students learn more effectively when their minds are focused on the task they
are trying to complete … rather than on the language they are learning. In this learner-centred approach, the
focus is placed on the learners, the process of learning, the reflective practice of learning, and the use of
real world authentic tasks (Li, 2013: p. 7).
The process of this task-oriented approach consisted of six stages of teaching: pre-task, task, reporting, analy-
sis, revision and reflection (2013, p. 8). The translation activity that I designed fulfilled the requirements of D.
Li regarding the philosophy of TBLT:
1) The focus is on the learner as well as the teacher.
2) Learners construct knowledge of their own through experiencing and reflection.
3) The focus is more on learning than teaching; emphasis is placed on the development of learners’ critical
and problem-solving abilities.
4) Learners interact with peers as well as the teacher.
5) The teacher facilitates.
6) Students learn (construct knowledge) through interactions with peers, the teacher and the materials.
7) Students take responsibility for their learning, which leads to a heightened sense of ownership and streng-
thened motivation about learning.
8) Authentic (or simulated) materials and contexts are adopted in teaching.
(Li, 2013: p. 3).
It should be noted that as the teacher, I did not provide my own version of the translation to students. This was
so that students would feel free to create their own work. However, students could consult me regarding the
meaning of a word or an interpretation of the text if they had questions. The advantage was that students would
not be influenced by the authorial other, i.e., the teacher. Further, students would need to solve the problems that
arise in the process of translation by themselves.
The difference between the traditional translation instruction and a TBLT activity is illustrated as shown in
Figure 1 and Figure 2.
4.2. A Spanish Advertisement of Whisky
In this case study, a Spanish advertisement of whisky was given to the students to read in class. Students were
divided into four groups of four or five. After reading, students were given twenty minutes to translate this ad-
vertisement into Chinese. They were allowed to use a dictionary and discuss within their group. The purpose of
this activity was to find an ideal translation of the advertisement, and to experience the application of translation
methods and strategies.
Figure 1. TBLT activity.
Figure 2. Traditional translation instruction.
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Whisky
Un sabor indescriptible y un placer sin igual es lo que,
aquellos amantes de esta espirituosa bebida, desfrutamos
cuando una tenue gota se desliza en nuestro paladar.
(An indescribable flavor and an unequalled pleasure is what we,
lovers of this spirit, enjoy
when a fine drop slides onto our palate.)
Students were asked to write down their translation on a worksheet. Then a representative elected by each
group wrote the translations on the blackboard so that everyone could compare their own translations with those
of their peers. Group 1 gave feedback to Group 2, and Group 2 gave feedback to Group 3, and so on. Each group
was asked to give suggestions to their feedback group if there were words that they did not agree with. The re-
sult was four different versions of the translation from the four groups. After the comparison and feedback, each
student gave two votes for their favourite translations among the four versions. Group 1 had the most votes and
Group 3 had the second most votes. After class, students were asked to revise and resubmit their work in the
following lesson. However, since most students were satisfied with their original work, there was not much dif-
ference between the original translation and the final version. The revision of the best and the second best trans-
lations are as follows:
1) “xiangshou yidi xiangchun/hua jin weilei/Hangjia ye nanyi-yanyu de/ weijue xiangyan!”.
(享受一滴香醇/滑進味蕾/行家也難以言喻/的/味覺饗宴!)
2) “lian pinchuzhe ye wufa xingrong de kougan/wuke-bini de yuyue tiaodou/rang women xiangshou ruhou de
sihua xiangchun”.
(連品醇者也無法形容的口感/無可比擬的愉悅挑逗/讓我們享受入喉的絲滑香醇).
4.3. Problem-Solving
An advertisement is a type of professional writing that is different from ordinary writing, as it requires special at-
tention and creative thought. An ordinary translation would not attract the eyes of a reader. Secondly, a word-to-
word or literal translation would not be suitable for this exercise because it would sound “absurd” and be consi-
dered “nonsense” in Chinese. Therefore, students must use methods such as semantic translation and communica-
tive translation in order to find an ideal solution.
Surprisingly, a common word like “lover” (amante), which was used in this whisky advertisement, was the
most challenging word to translate. This was because the literal translation of “lover”, “airen” 「愛人」, would
sound vulgar in the context of drinking alcohol for Mandarin speakers. Therefore, none of the students chose
this translation. They needed to find another word to make this translation more appealing. Students became
aware of the need to be creative in order to find an ideal translation. A better translation of the word “lover”,
“aihaozhe” 「愛好者」, would also not be an ideal translation because it is overused in advertisement. Although
the translation “aihaozhe” 「愛好者」 would be a better choice than “airen” 「愛人」, it would not attract the
attention of Chinese readers since this is often used for ordinary writing. We needed to find an ideal translation
for the advertisement, which explained why the translation of Group 1 and Group 3 won the most votes. Group 1
used “hangjia” 「行家」, which means “expert”. Group 3 used the verb “tiaodou” 「挑逗」, which means “to
seduce”, instead of a noun for the translation of the word “lover”.
In class, we agreed that “hangjia” 「行家」 and “tiaodou” 「挑逗」 were both excellent choices for the
translation of the word “lover”. They presented ideal translation of advertisement writing for Chinese readers.
To summarize the translation choice of the word “lover” (amante) in Mandarin Chinese:
1) 行家 (hangjia): In English,“hangjia” means “an expert” or “a professional”, which is very positive. The
use of these words would increase the appeal of the advertisement.
2) 挑逗 (tiaodou): “Tiaodou” (to seduce) has a sensual and romantic meaning for Chinese readers that would
render it acceptable in the context of the Chinese culture.
3) 愛好者 (aihaozhe): This is a positive term. However, this is a common choice for translation and often
appears in ordinary writing.
4) 愛人 (airen): “Airen” is a positive term when it is used singly or in a loving relationship with others. How-
ever, this term is never used in the context of drugs, alcohol, or any other vices or addictions.
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5. Reflection
During this experimental activity, students not only enjoyed the work of translation but also were aware of the
importance of their Chinese language proficiency. In the later exercises and practice of the second semester,
students were able to fulfill several requirements in order to search for an appropriate translation.
1) Learn to respect and follow the conventional transaltion of geographical terminology. For instance, in an
article about the tourism in London, “la sede del Chelsea FC” is translated as “Quierxi zuqiu julebu” 「切爾西足
球俱樂部」 (Chelsea Football Club) and “el campo de cricket Lord’s” as “Luode banqiuchang” 「羅德板球場」
(Lord’s Cricket Ground).
2) Always look up a dictionary to find the correct meaning of the word that one is translating. For example, in
an exercise of translating the poetry of Gloria Fuertes (1982), students were able to translate correctly two ani-
mals that appeared to be a rare term for Chinese readers, for example, “luo ma” 「駱馬」 (llama, vicuna in
English) and 「鶆䴈」 “lai ao” (ñandú, rhea).
3) Be creative and confident in translating, especially in translating literary work such as poetry. At the end of
the second semester, the students had a successful and pleasant experience of translating Octavio Paz’s (1968)
poem, “Shiren de mingyun” 「詩人的命運」 (Destino del poeta, The poet’s destiny). The focus on poetry
translation will be investigated in my future study.
4) Learn slang words, expressions of praise, and dirty words. For example, students met this requirement in an
exercise of sentiment analysis based on some specific topics about Internet culture (celebrities, movies, fashion,
etc.).
5) Gain knowledge and practice of translating idioms that are found in children’s books. Examples of such
idioms are “hunao” 「胡鬧」 (hacer el indio, mischief in English) and “jinpilijie” 「筋疲力竭」 (hacer polvos,
to make one exhausted).
6. Conclusion
This case study of advertisement translation demonstrated that student translators were able to learn the impor-
tance of Chinese reading and writing in the process of translation. Further, they experienced the advantages of
employing translation methods and translating strategies in order to find an ideal translation. Now, they pay at-
tention to not only the form, but also the style of the language when translating. Most importantly, students
learned to take cultural elements into consideration when making decisions in the translation process. The ap-
plication of Newmark’s eight translation methods is proved to be useful for student translators to solve transla-
tion problems. Students found not only confidence but also interest in the world of translation.
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