NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT TRAN THI THU HUONG A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS RELATED TO ‘CAT’ FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT TRAN THI THU HUONG A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS RELATED TO ‘CAT’ FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE Supervisor: Tran Thi Thu Giang, MBA Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My report paper could not have been completed successfully without the guidance, assistance, and encouragement from my dear teachers, my family, and my friends. I would, first and foremost, like to express my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to Mrs. Tran Thi Thu Giang, my supervisor. I am very grateful for her inspiration, academic guidance, and significant comments that helped me greatly improved my study.
I am also thankful for all my teachers at the Faculty of Foreign Language, National Economics University for their lectures, and great enthusiasm to me and all students. Besides, my warm thanks go to my friends for using their time, idea, and spirit. Last but not least, many heartfelt thanks to my family and best friends for always stand by and encourage me. I just want to say that I love them so much.
Thank you very much with all my heart and soul. Ha Noi, May 2020 Tran Thi Thu Huong BES8A Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Language skills are one of the most important qualities of a good translator. Particularly, idioms are an element that translators must be master to convey a message naturally and most appropriately. Idioms are a treasure that preserves the unique and rich cultural sediments of the nation.
Significantly, animal idioms as a valuable and interesting aspect, which attracts many people's attention. Among animals, I am just interested in cat, thus, I would like to choose the subject “4 study on the translation of idioms related to ‘cat’ from English into Vietnamese” to study. The research was completed based on the translation theories of famous translation researchers such as Peter Newmark and Mona Baker; the writer's knowledge of idioms in both English and Vietnamese; and results from 60 people responding the survey of idioms, idiom translation, as well as difficulties in translating English idioms into Vietnamese and recommendations for improving them. In this study, firstly, I give the theoretical framework of translation and idioms, as well as the translation theory of idiom.
In the next part, the translation of English idioms containing the word ‘cat’ into Vietnamese was completed by translation methods of Newmark and Baker, the result of the survey and research. Thereby, this thesis shows some difficulties in translating idioms related to ‘cat’ caused by the lack of knowledge of translators and students in the study, language, and culture such as cultural barrier, lexical problems, translation skills, and grammatical problems. Above all, I suggest recommendations for translators that emphasize subjective awareness in order to avoid the difficulties and improve the translation of idioms. This also contributes to the translation work of idiomatic expressions to achieve both effectively and efficiently.
Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3. The importance of using idioms in both academics and life Figure 3. Difficulties in translating English idioms containing the word ‘cat’ into Vietnamese Figure 3. The percentage of facing the lack of vocabulary in translating idioms Figure 3.
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TT Họ TT TH 29 CHAPTER IV: RECOMMENDA TIONGS. cọ TH HT. HH HH 000 000000090 36 APPENDIYX.010000096008090080 vii vi Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, English is considered to be the language of international communication, and obviously, it is also widely used in Vietnam.
English has become a compulsory subject at all school levels in Vietnam from primary school, high school to university. There is no doubt that, if you desire to be a master in this language, you need to learn how to use it as naturally as possible. Literally, it is the capture and use of idioms - an important element of any language. In everyday communication, we can observe the regular appearance of idioms.
Anyone who cares a lot about idioms has a very interesting and academic way of speaking. Writers also use many idioms in written texts. In learning English idioms and their equivalent idioms in Vietnamese, we can discover the similarities and differences, which, thus, help language learners to understand and get better use of English idioms and Vietnamese ones. Due to different language structures as well as cultural backgrounds, English learners in Vietnam could encounter several difficulties, and amid which ‘How to use English idioms related to ‘cat’ efficiently and find proper € Vietnamese ones’ is one of the most complicated issues.
The here and now, learners of English seem to pay no attention to idioms that contain the word '‘cat' even though they may have heard of them, consequently they often get a failure in using them suitably. Also, I realize that idioms related to ‘cat’ are complex but very interesting and useful in oral communication and written one. Idiom research is a topic of great interest to language learners, so I chose idioms as the subject of this thesis. Because of limited time and knowledge, I only concentrate on a small part of an enormous treasure of idioms, "A study on the translation of idioms related to ‘cat’ from English into Vietnamese".
Intending to present an overview of idioms in general and English idioms containing the word ‘cat’ in particular, I hope it could somewhat help English learners and translators avoid troubles in understanding and translating idioms from English into Vietnamese. Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A 2. Aims of the research The main purpose of this study is to highlight the main problems translators or students face while translating, the obstacles that hold the translators back from understanding the meaning of idioms related to ‘cat’ and some recommendations to improve translating them from one language to another. Scope of the research Due to the time limit and knowledge base, I just can cover some aspects of idioms in this thesis.
Thus, I focus on the English cat idioms and main issues in translating them from English into Vietnamese. What are difficulties in translating English idioms related to ‘cat’ into Vietnamese? 2. What are recommendations for translators to improve the ability to translate English idioms related to ‘cat’ into Vietnamese? 5. Method of the research To accomplish this study, I have researched many dictionaries, documents, and books of language, idioms, proverbs; newspapers, magazines, and internet websites in both English and Vietnamese relating to idiom containing the word ‘cat’.
Thereby, I designed an analysis to show English 'cat idioms and equivalent words or idioms in Vietnamese. At the same time, I designed an online survey for 60 students from my university and other universities to collect the data of problems mentioned in this research. Introduction of the internship place: Faculty of Foreign Languages Faculty of Foreign Languages of National Economics University was established in January 2003. The address is located at Room no.705, Al Building, 207 Giai Phong Street, Dong Tam Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Faculty of Foreign Languages carries out the responsibility of teaching and conveying the current international language knowledge - English to students. Specifically, for students of Business English classes, they will learn intensive knowledge of English along with basic knowledge of socio-economic, 2 Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A business administration, banking and finance, business international, and marketing. Besides, students being forced to learn another language that is Chinese or French. The Faculty creates a generation of English language students who have strong professional knowledge and skills to work effectively in aspects such as translation, interpretation, teaching English, international relations - external relations, business, and marketing.
As a translator intern at the faculty, I translate the information of National Economics University and its partners as well as the updated news on their official website. Information materials of the University and its partners are often the school's history, facilities, courses, learning environment, and accommodation. In addition, other materials are regularly updated information on the NEU official website and partners on activities, events, or research on the field being conducted at the university. Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1.
Review of previous studies There are many studies of idioms in general from an article, a book to a graduation report or scientific research, in which, here are some studies that are directly related to the field of this research paper: A study on techniques to deal with non-equivalence in translating English idioms into Vietnamese (Pham Thi Luong Giang, 2010) In the study, the author first demonstrated a detailed understanding of translation theories, idioms, and non-equivalence in translation and how to translate flexibly, creatively, and exactly. Second is enhancing the knowledge as well as comprehension words in idioms. There are many idiomatic words with multi-lexical meaning used as contact languages. Thus, all of this study helps translators learn more about the skills of translating English idioms into Vietnamese and better knowledge of non-equivalence in translation.
A translation of English idioms on natural and _ geographical phenomena into Vietnamese (Nguyen Minh Huong, 2009) Giving knowledge about English idioms on natural and geographical phenomena to raise learners’ awareness of them. The thesis gives some main causes of non-equivalent in English - Vietnamese translation of idioms. Finally, this study offers some recommendations for non-equivalent in translation idioms. Difficulties in translating business communication idioms from English into Vietnamese and suggested solutions, Business English, intakes 56, 57 (Kieu Ngoc Linh, 2018) The study introduced background knowledge of translation and idiom.
The second part is analysing difficulties in translating English business communication idioms into Vietnamese. Finally, the thesis gives some solutions to limit these difficulties and improve translation skills. Tran Thị Thu Hương — 11162286 — Business English 58A 1. The relationship between language and culture What is the relationship between language and culture? Language and culture are inextricably linked.
The vocabulary of a language is a mirror of culture and therefore a close relationship with culture. Language does not just contribute to structure into the culture, but also transport and cultural retention. Language has spread far and wide in social life, for it is a regular and inevitable phenomenon of humans. During the contact process with the natural world, people accumulate their knowledge and experience of that the world through language.