Day 10
Thurs. Sept. 22
Discuss Ch-En translation challenges
Homework:
➤ Due Friday: Translator’s Note for Challenge 2
Please don’t forget that your translator’s note for Challenge 2 is due this Friday at midnight China time.
CSL-track students may write their notes either in English or in Chinese. (Please be aware the I will require your final translator’s note to be in Chinese.)
EAP-track students will write their notes in English.
➤ Due next class: Improve a passage
Choose a short passage from one of the translations into your L1 (for CSL-track students, Translating Modernity or Yan Bing; for EAP-track students, Donald Trump or Blue Apron) and attempt to improve it by either retranslating it entirely or editing the existing translation. See details below:
CSL-TRACK STUDENTS:
Translating Modernity: Edit the existing translation for the first excerpt only (first 800 characters or so) in such a way that it makes more sense as the beginning of a book. (See the Table of Contents here to get a sense of what the entire book contains.) Take care with sentences that signal the author’s central focus/thesis, making sure they perform the same job in English. (Feel free to also edit the English to make word choice and word combinations more natural.)
Yan Bing: Pick a short passage (150-250字 or so) that contains a metaphor and improve the translation (or retranslate it) so that the metaphor comes across more clearly and vividly in English. (Click here for examples of three passages that rely heavily on metaphor. These are not the only passages you could choose, but they would work well for this exercise.)
EAP-TRACK STUDENTS:
Donald Trump: Pick a short passage (100-200 words or so) where the translation sounds too formal and literary, and edit it (or retranslate it) so that Trump’s “voice” comes through stronger in Chinese.
Blue Apron: Retranslate the text of the ad called “Being a Hero in the Kitchen” so that it “works better” in Chinese, whatever you understand that to mean. You could use language that feels more natural for an advertisement; or you could even go so far as to localize it (i.e. change the text!) in such a way as to convey the ad’s “core message” better in a Chinese cultural context.
Upload your new and improved passage, along with the original AND the previous translation, in a single Word document, to the SharePoint folder titled “11-Improve a passage (Challenge 2).”
➤ Start thinking about your final project
By Friday of this coming week I’d like you to have decided what your final project would be. Over the weekend, I would encourage you to message me with any preliminary thoughts about what you’d like to do. Later I will upload a more detailed document about the final project. For the moment, here is the key information I’d like you to know:
1) There are three different ways you could approach the final project. You could:
a) Pick one of the challenges you or other students attempted this session, and improve it;
b) Attempt one of the other challenges on the translation challenge menu; or
c) Propose your own challenge — translate a text of your choice.
2) You may complete this challenge as a group or individually. Here are some ground rules about how this should work:
a) If you work as a group, I recommend that your group include at least one native speaker of the target language (the language you’re translating into).
b) If you work individually or in a group that does not contain a native speaker of your target language, I recommend you translate into your L1 (native language) and work with an informant: a native-level speaker of the source language (the language you’re translating from) who can clarify questions you have about the source text to make sure you’re understanding it in enough depth to translate it well. Your informant could be a friend or classmate who is not in this class, or you could also work with WLS tutors. (In fact, you could consult multiple different informants if you wish!)
c) I do not recommend translating into your L2 (second language) unless you have a groupmate who is a native speaker of that language. (A possible exception could be if you have a friend outside of this class who is a native-level speaker of the target language and is willing to spend considerable time with you reading and polishing your translation.)
3) Guidelines on length:
Length of source text should be similar to the length of the texts in the translation challenges (1000-2000 words / 1500-3000字). If you want to attempt something longer, consult with me to see if it’s practical. I recommend focusing on quality over quantity, though.
Length of translator’s note should be 800-1200 words / 1200-1800字. (Note that for this translator’s note, CSL-track students should write in Chinese.)
