Day 5
Tues. Jan. 31
Discussion of “Ad” translations
Discussion of Ch-Eng translation challenge -news journalism
About translator’s notes
Homework:
➤ If you haven’t yet, vote on your favorite versions of “ad”!
I don’t want to release the final results till everybody has voted! Please fill out the survey here: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_264u89qJoFo07Ou
➤ Read handout on 老红书 article
Read this handout, which highlights specific places in our two translations of the 老红书 article and asks you to think about them from the perspective of style, accuracy, and culture. Come ready to share your answers to the questions on the handout.
➤ Read Challenge 1 Option B translation
Please read the Chinese translation of the New York Times article “For Suburban Texas Men, a Workout Craze with a Side of Faith.” As you read, think about these issues and come to class prepared to share/give thoughts on these questions:
1) Readability: How readable is the translation? If there are places that are hard to understand, distracting, or require effort to read, why is that? (If there are any problems with readability, be ready to share one example of a place where readability is an issue.)
2) Style: Does the style fit the genre? (i.e. does this read like a piece of journalistic writing to be published on a 公众号?) Be ready to share an example of one sentence where the style particularly fits the genre, and (if there are any) an example of a place where the style does not fit the genre.
3) Culture: Do you feel like the Chinese is giving an accurate portrayal of the culture being described in this article? Come ready to share an example of place where you think the translation does a good job — or doesn’t do a good job — portraying something related to culture.
➤ Read instructions for translator’s note assignment
Your translator’s note is due 48 hours after we discuss your translation. (So Arthur and Hong Tu, yours is due this Thursday.) Translator’s notes should be completed individually — each of you write your own. To submit your note, just send me it to me directly by email or WeChat.
Please read the instructions for the translator’s note carefully. You can find them on this document.
➤ Read excerpts from the Phantom Tollbooth, come ready to share observations
Next week we will look at two classmates’ translation of several excerpts from Zheng Yuanjie’s 《皮皮鲁外传》. For the translators to handle this text effectively, they will need to adopt an appropriate style in English, which means they’ll have to understand the conventions of the genre of literary prose (novels / fiction) in English.
To prepare for this, please read pages 22-26 and pages 45-49 of The Phantom Tollbooth, a well-known English-language children’s book that is quite similar to 皮皮鲁 in many respects, and therefore can serve as a useful parallel text for us — an example of a similar text in the same genre in the target language. Please come to next class ready to share some observations about the conventional language used in the genre of literary English. Here are a few things to pay attention to:
1) Dialogue: When characters are speaking, what kinds of words are used to introduce their speech? (Be ready to give a few examples.) Where do those words go in relation to the words being spoken by the characters?
2) Action: What kind of words are used to convey action? Can you make generalizations about these words or phrases? Be ready to give a few examples.
3) Description: What kinds of words are used to describe scenes (paint pictures in the reader’s mind)? Can you make any generalizations about these words or phrases? Be ready to give a few examples.
4) Register (formality vs. colloquialism): How formal or informal is the language? Where is it more formal and where is it more colloquial? How do you know it when the register shifts (i.e. become more formal or less formal?）
➤ Find a “Parallel Text” in Chinese for Deresiewicz article
The article “We Aren’t Raising Adults, We Are Breeding Excellent Sheep” by William Deresiewicz is an example of the genre of journalism called the op-ed or “opinion piece.” In Chinese we might refer to this genre as 议论文 or 评论 or 社论.
Read the scenario for this translation challenge (you can find it on the instruction sheet for Challenge 1) and take a look at the Deresiewicz article. Then go online and find an example of a good parallel text for this article — an article in the same genre in Chinese that can serve as inspiration for how one might translate it.
Upload your parallel text to the folder “10-Parallel texts for Deresiewicz article.” You can either copy the text into a Word document or paste a link to into a Word document.
