MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY --------------------------- NGUYEN LE UYEN MINH DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING TV PROGRAMS IN ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE: A STUDY AT LAM DONG RADIO-TELEVISION STATION Major: English Language Course code: 1741900025 HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY --------------------------- DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING TV PROGRAMS IN ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE: A STUDY AT LAM DONG RADIO-TELEVISION STATION Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master‟s degree in English Language Course code: 1741900025 By NGUYEN LE UYEN MINH Supervised by NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, PHD HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2019 HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE HCMC, June 2019 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: Nguyen Le Uyen Minh. Sex : Female Date of birth: 14/02/1986. Place of birth : Bao Loc- Lam Dong. Major: English Language.Student code: 1741900025 I- Thesis title: Difficulties in Translating TV Programs in English into Vietnamese: A Study at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station II- Objectives and contents: - To explore difficulties that the translators and translation trainees at Lam Dong Radio -Television station encounter in translating TV programs in English into Vietnamese.
- To examine errors that the translation trainees at Lam Dong Radio and Television station make in translating TV programs in English into Vietnamese. III- Starting date: (as stated in the Decision released by the University : 30/11/2018 IV- Completing date: 15/04/2019 V- Academic supervisor: (full name,title) Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, PhD. SUPERVISOR DEAN OF FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE ((full name, signature) ((full name, signature) Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, PhD. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, PhD The thesis entitled “Difficulties in Translating TV Programs in English into Vietnamese: A Study at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station” was successfully defended and approved on 31st of May at Hochiminh City University of Technology (HUTECH).
Nguyen Dang Nguyen, PhD. Le Van Tuyen, PhD. Huynh Van Tai, PhD. Pham Huy Cuong, PhD.
Tran Quoc Thao, PhD. Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair (full name, title, signature) …………………………… CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master‟s Thesis submitted today entitled: “Difficulties in Translating TV Programs in English into Vietnamese: A Study at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station” In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master‟s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Linguistics, Hoc Chi Minh City University of Technology. Ho Chi Minh City, May 2019 Signature ………………………… NGUYEN LE UYEN MINH i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYEN LE UYEN MINH, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Linguistics) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master‟s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the case, loan, and reproduction for theses.
Ho Chi Minh, May 2019 Signature. NGUYEN LE UYEN MINH ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to specially thank my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu for her instructions and comments that were a great help to me in finishing my thesis. Her insight was valuable and encouraging.
I am deeply indebted to my enthusiastic colleagues at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station who have supported in my thesis efforts. I would also like to express my gratitude to my family and my friends for their mental and financial support. Words may not demonstrate my love for them. Last but not least, I would like to thank the translation trainees who inspired me ideas how to improve the translation training programs.
iii ABSTRACT This study examined the difficulties in translating TV programs in English into Vietnamese and the possible solutions. The project involved a multidisciplinary study of audiovisual translation; in particular, voice-over translation that was undertaken with a mixed methodology including a descriptive model of content document analysis and structured interviews. The framework linked translation difficulties and translation errors as a causal relationship. The translation difficulties were associated with the factors that caused translation errors.
The proposition with three ramifications of linguistic, cultural and rendition categories and their subsets were a grid to spot and parse these errors. The research was conducted with the content analysis of the translation tasks assigned to the translation trainees and structured interviews with the professional translators at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station. The results revealed the most prominent translation errors that the translation trainees committed while doing the tasks of translation were linguistic errors (73.2%), followed by rendition errors (14.6%), and cultural errors (13. The sources of these errors found in this thesis included absence of English equivalents, a lack of linguistic proficiency, and inadequacy of cultural knowledge from SL and TL.
The findings might be a parameter of skill-training for the futuristic voice-over translation for TV programs. Keywords: audio-visual translation; corpus; translation difficulties; translation errors; TV programs; voice-over translation iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………iii ABSTRACT.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF TABLES. ix LIST OF FIGURES. x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS.
xi CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION. Background to the study .1 The need for English translation and interpretation .2 The evolution of Vietnamese Television and broadcasting involved in translating foreign language programs .3 The foreign language translation at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station .3 Aims and objectives of the study.5 Scope of the study .6 Significance of the study .7 Definitions of key terms .8 Organization of the thesis. 9 v CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Definition of Translation .1 What is Translation?.2 The General Theory of Translation Studies and Translation .3 Audiovisual Translation and Voice-over Translation in TV programs .2 Voice-over Translation .3 Difficulties in translating TV programs .1 Linguistic difficulties in translating TV programs .2 Cutural issues in translating TV programs .2 Different humors, irony, idiomatic or fixed expressions .5 Solutions for translation errors .6 Review of related research. Error! Bookmark not defined.4 Sample and sampling procedures .2 Interviews with the translators .6 Data collection procedures .7 Data analysis procedures.
49 CHAPTER 4 - RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .2 Syntactic/ syntax errors .1 Inappropriate translation by SL cultural background inadequacy .2 Inappropriate translation by TL cultural background inadequacy. Error! Bookmark not defined.1 Too lengthy expression and redundant rendering .2 Substance errors such as incorrect spelling, typing, punctuation, and capitalization.1 Translation errors made by TRs and the ingruence of PTs‟ voice during interviews .2 The implications of the research.3 The limitations of the research .4 Recommendations for further research. 888 Appendix A: Questions for Interviewing the Translators. 955 Appendix B: The PTs‟ suggestions to revise the TRs‟ translation errors.
977 Plagiarism checking report. 1132 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: The order of the Vietnamese auxiliary verbs (Nguyễn Đình Hòa, 1957).2: Types of Translation Errors partially adopted from the above scholars‟ classification .1: Translation errors in the translations of the trainees at LTV .2: Linguistic errors in the translations of the trainees at LTV .3: Cultural errors in the translation of the trainees .4: Rendition errors in the translation of the trainees. 77 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Nida‟s Model of Translation Process .2: The professional translation process with four steps .3: The components of the connotation of a word .4: An example of word order differences between English and Vietnamese .5: Conceptual Framework of the study. 41 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS AI: Artificial Intelligent AVT: Audiovisual Translation CSI: Culture-specific Items CSR: Culture-specific References DTS: Descriptive Translation Studies FCC: Federal Communication Commission GALA: Globalization and Localization Association LTV: Lam Dong Television Station PACTE: Processes for Acquisition of Translation and Evaluation Competence PT: Professional Translator RQ: Research Question SL: Source Language ST: Source Text TT: Target Text TL: Target Language TR: Translation Trainee VLLF: Vietnam Law and Legal Forum xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Background to the study Over the last three decades, Vietnam has been integrated into various international organizations and communities, first in the Asian region and then in the world. In this process of integration, the use of foreign languages has become significant. Among them, English has become the language to fill the gap between cultures, developed a market-oriented economy, contributed to diplomatic relations and improved national security. More and more multinational residents speak English.
It is important that the Vietnamese people learn English so they also can communicate with this growing number of international citizens.1 The need for English translation and interpretation In view of the fact that the Vietnamese people were controlled by foreign forces and suffered a variety of armed conflicts in their history of struggle, the Chinese, French, Japanese and Americans all left behind strong cultural influences. Although many Vietnamese intellectuals and scholars can fluently speak one or more languages, they were unable to read original foreign documents such as Russian, Chinese, and English (Bousquet and Brocheux, 2002, p. Working in the translation profession has never as simple as it is thought. An exact translation is nearly impossible, and much change in meaning often happens.
The ideas of the translators become a crucial part of original communication. For example, translators have assumed a key backstage impinging on the national diplomacy. Escort interpreters, while working with elected officials or military commanders in political negotiations, insert their own concepts in interpretations. These interpretations may be then passed on to the news agencies who broadcasted them nation-wide.
If the translators mistranslate the idea or documents, it 1 may cause a diplomatic scandal between two countries. The legal or technical documents which are incorrectly translated can deliver wrong messages and lead to illegal decisions. Indeed, there is a growing need of English translation and interpreting service providers in the Vietnamese society up to the present. A professional translator (PT henceforth) who has a good language and culture intelligence when doing their job is even more needed.2 The evolution of Vietnamese Television and broadcasting involved in translating foreign language programs Before 1945, possessing a radio receiver was limited.
The French colonial government controlled broadcasting, and in the late 1920s, set up the first radio station in Saigon (Headrich, 2012). In the early 1960s, the United States and South Vietnam established the television broadcasts with black-and-white FCC system. They started two channels (one in Vietnamese and the other one in English). The American-run radio and television stations were part of the national network after the reunification in 1975 (Hsiao, 1996).
With the aim of protecting national security, the Vietnamese government controlled access to foreign television channels until the reforms known as “Đổi mới” (1986) opened Vietnam to the whole world (Goldstein, 1970). The options of overseas programs on TV and the Internet are now available for Vietnamese audiences; however, according to Vietnam Law and Legal Forum (VLLF), the Vietnamese government requires the contents of foreign broadcasts to be translated and edited by a certificated local TV translator/censor. These regulations enforced the provision of “healthy contents”. The subscribers of TV network services need to understand the content of TV programs (VLLF, 2016, para 2).
As a result of these requirements, Vietnamese translators also supply numerous services such as subtitling, voice-over translation and dubbing for TV news, game shows, documentaries and movies. Translations have increasingly been in demand by the broadcasting industry.3 The foreign language translation at Lam Dong Radio-Television Station The Radio and Television Station of Lam Dong province (LTV henceforth) is one of the sixty-seven radio and television institutes at central and local levels in Vietnam. It is also a spokesman for The Communist Party. Boobbyer and Spooner (2013) describe that Lam Dong province was the first region in South Vietnam to establish a radio station.
The first news broadcast was in April, 1975.