An investigation into difficulties in translating movie subtitles challenging english translation and interpreting majored seniors at can tho university

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An investigation into difficulties in translating movie subtitles challenging english translation and interpreting majored seniors at can tho university

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CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE  B.A THESIS An Investigation into Difficulties in Translating Movie Subtitles Challenging English Translation and Interpreting Majored Seniors at Can Tho University Field of study: English Translation and Interpreting Supervisor: Student: TRƯƠNG THỊ NGỌC ĐIỆP, M.Ed LÊ SANG THIÊN PHÚ Student code: 7116869 Class: XH11Z8A1 Course: 37 Can Tho, May 2015 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this thesis “An Investigation into Difficulties in Translating Movie Subtitles Challenging English Translation and Interpreting Majored Seniors at Can Tho University” is the product of my own work under the supervision of Ms Truong Thi Ngoc Diep, M.Ed, Department of English Language and Culture, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University This study has not been submitted by any organizations or individuals and all of the sources and materials I have used or quoted have been mentioned in the references Lê Sang Thiên Phú May, 2015 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Truong Thi Ngoc Diep, M.Ed who has given me precious advice and guidance Without her dedicated support and tireless correction, I could not have finished the thesis I would like to express my appreciation to students in English Studies major, especially Ms Nguyen Do Phuong Lien, who helped me with the test and translation My sincere thank is to 35 English Translation and Interpreting seniors of the School of Foreign Languages, I could not have finished this thesis without their participation Finally, I wish to send my acknowledgements to my classmates and my friends who gave me their encouragement and support, which helped me a lot to finish the thesis They were great motivation for me to overcome difficulties in doing this study ii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES vi ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of Research 1.3 Significance of Research 1.4 Thesis Organization CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of Translation 2.2 Kinds of Translation 2.2.1 Common Classifications 2.2.2 Audiovisual Translation 2.2.2.1 Subtitles 2.2.2.2 Subtitling Process 2.3 Difficulties of Movie Subtitles Translation 2.3.1 Cultural Difficulties 10 2.3.2 Linguistic Difficulties 10 2.3.3 Spatial and Temporal Restrictions 13 2.4 Translation Strategies 14 2.5 Research Questions 17 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS 18 3.1 Research Design 18 3.2 Participants 18 3.3 Data Collection 19 iii 3.3.1 Instrument 19 3.3.2 Procedures 20 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 21 4.1 Translation Test Results 21 4.2 Discussion of Translation Test Results 23 4.2.1 Cultural Difficulties 23 4.2.2 Literary Style Difficulties 24 4.2.3 Vulgarism Difficulties 26 4.2.4 Dialect and Slang Difficulties 27 4.3 The Methods Students Preferred in Translating Subtitles 30 4.4 Conclusion 31 CHAPTER 5: LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 32 5.1 Limitations 32 5.2 Implications 32 5.3 Recommendations for Further Research 32 References Appendix 1: Translation Test iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Kinds of translation by Larson Figure Gottlieb’s Schematic representation of subtitling and revoicing Figure The subtitler’s work Figure A dialogue and translated subtitles in the movie “Blood Diamond” 11 Figure Baker’s translation strategies 15 Figure Items with high percentage of inappropriate-answer choices for subtitles 22 Figure Items with high percentage of appropriate-answer choices for subtitles 23 v LIST OF TABLES Table The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Captain America” 24 Table The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Tangled” 24 Table The result of Clip 10 translation – from the movie “The Dictator” 25 Table The result of Clip 11 translation – from the movie “Battle: Los Angeles” 26 Table The result of Clip 12 translation – from the movie “Big Hero 6” 26 Table The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Captain America” 27 Table The result of Clip translation – from the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” 27 Table The results of Clip translation – from the movie “Life of Brian” 28 Table The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Gone with the wind” 29 Table 10 The result of Clip translation – from the movie “The Avengers” 29 Table 11 The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Tower Heist” 30 Table 12 The result of Clip translation – from the movie “The Help” …………….30 vi ABSTRACT Watching movies is one of the most popular ways of entertainment Though the majority of foreign movies are subtitled when they approach Vietnamese audience, the quality of subtitles is still not stable since many mistakes exist In fact, this field of study has been developed very quickly in the world, little has been found in Can Tho University A twelve-item online test is used in this thesis to investigate (a) difficulties that English Translation and Interpreting seniors at Can Tho University have to face when translating movie subtitles, and (b) the strategies they prefer to use to translate those difficult terms With the participation of 35 students, the test results showed that participants had difficulties when facing cultural and stylistic elements The most frequently chosen strategies that students preferred in translating movie subtitles were literal translation that was applied in nine out of twelve items, and as swearwords appeared in spoken language of movies very often, the strategy of translation by a more neutral/less expressive word was also frquently used This thesis can be used as reference for those who want to learn about translation in general and subtitles translation in particular vii TÓM LƯỢC Xem phim phương tiện giải trí phổ biến ngày Mặc dù phần lớn phim nước làm phụ đề đến với khán giả Việt Nam, chất lượng phụ đề chưa ổn định tồn nhiều lỗi Trên thực tế, lĩnh vực phát triển nhanh chóng mạnh mẽ giới, Đại học Cần Thơ lại có nghiên cứu chủ đề Luận văn sử dụng kiểm tra dịch thuật 12 câu để tìm hiểu (a) khó khăn mà sinh viên năm cuối ngành Biên dịch – Phiên dịch tiếng Anh Đại học Cần Thơ gặp phải dịch phụ đề phim, (b) phương pháp họ sử dụng để dịch gặp khó khăn Kết kiểm tra cho thấy sinh viên gặp khó khăn gặp phải yếu tố văn hóa văn phong Phương pháp dịch thuật chọn thường xuyên sinh viên dịch phụ đề phim dịch theo nghĩa đen từ, phương pháp chọn 9/12 câu hỏi Vì ngơn ngữ phim ngơn ngữ nói nên từ ngữ thơ tục xuất thường xun, phương pháp làm giảm mức độ thô tục từ ngữ sử dụng thường xuyên Luận văn dùng làm tài liệu tham khảo cho muốn tìm hiểu dịch thuật nói chung, dịch thuật phụ đề nói riêng viii because “chỉ huy” is more popular, which literally means “commander” or “captain” Generally, both options could be appropriate for subtitles depending on the intention of the translator that the subtitles should be more precise or be more intelligible Some participants suggested other answers as “Đánh hắn, huy, đánh mạnh vào!”, “đánh ta đi, huy trưởng, mạnh tay vào!”, and “Đánh mạnh lên huy!, đánh ta, đánh mạnh vào!” they also preferred the word “chỉ huy” to “bách phu trưởng” One participant left this item blank Table 9: The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Gone with the wind” Answers N0 % Appropriate option 25 71 Inappropriate option 20 Others The slang “don‟t give a damn” means “không quan tâm” in Vietnamese but in an aggressive manner Therefore, 71% participants chose the answer “Thật lịng mà nói, em u ạ, anh cóc cần quan tâm”, that would be appropriate for this context in which the character was angry Besides, the answer “Nói thật, em thân mến ạ, anh khơng cần biết” was chosen by 20% participant One participant suggested another way as “Nói thẳng anh cóc cần quan tâm em yêu à”, this translation probably was the most appropriate to be put in subtitles Another answer from participant was also acceptable but it lessened to some extent the aggressive mood of the scene “Em yêu à, thật lòng anh chả quan tâm nữa” On the other hand, one participant mistranslated since she thought that the word “frankly” was the character‟s name, and she translated the sentence as “Frankly anh không quan tâm em sống nào!” Table 10: The result of Clip translation – from the movie “The Avengers” Answers N0 % Inappropriate option Appropriate option 31 88 Others 28 According to the context, “suit up” and “party” have completely different meaning from their literal meanings, so the literal translation “Nói với anh đến lúc Tôi mang buổi tiệc đến cho bạn” seemed to be nonsensical for this item, which was only chosen by 9% participants On the contrary, 88% of the participants chose the answer “Bảo anh biến hình Tơi mang trị vui đến đây” Another suggested answer was “Bảo chuẩn bị đi, mang "tiệc" đến đây”, and the two latter answers were more suitable for the context than the first one Table 11: The result of Clip translation – from the movie “Tower Heist” N0 % 33 94 Inappropriate option Others 0 Answers Appropriate option According to website: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com, the word “ain‟t” is a contraction of “am not, is not, are not, has not, and have not” in many dialects and informal speech of Britain and North America Therefore, in this situation, the answer “Không, chưa có gia đình” was the only appropriate answer which 94% participants chose it Chosen by 6% participants, the answer “Tôi kết hôn rồi”, which meant “I am married”, was a mistranslation for this context Table 12: The result of Clip translation – from the movie “The Help” Answers N0 % Inappropriate answer Appropriate answer 32 91 Others This sentence “You is smart, you is kind, you is important” is from the dialect of African American English Most audience who know English can see it different from the normal English they have used so far However, the differences in English structures could not be depicted in Vietnamese subtitles, and it was translated as a standard English sentence The literally translated answers were “Bạn thông minh, bạn tốt bụng, bạn quan trọng” and “Con thật thông minh, tốt bụng, quan trọng đấy” Although the 29 two options were both correct in terms of semantic aspect, the answer “Bạn thông minh, bạn tốt bụng, bạn quan trọng” chosen by only one participant (3%) was not consistent with the context Those words were spoken to a little girl by her nanny, so the answer “Con thật thơng minh, tốt bụng, cịn quan trọng đấy” (91%) was much better about literary style as discussed in Chapter Other translations were “Con thật thông minh, thật tốt bụng, quan trọng đấy” and “Con thông minh, tốt bụng, quan trọng nữa”, they were also appropriate for the context Although some of the clips in the test had very badly audible accents (Clip and Clip 6), which were also a difficulty as mentioned in Chapter 2, they were not considered „accent problem‟ in the test The reason was that the test gave participants the written script of the utterance, so they were not forced to listen by themselves In fact, the subtitles translators usually have a script with the whole dialogue including even the parts with very badly audible (Reich, 2006) 4.3 The Methods Students Preferred in Translating Subtitles As regards the translation strategies applied in the test, the strategies of Baker (1992) as well as Cintas and Remael‟s (2007) were used together to make appropriate answers in accordance with each clip The fact was that some of the items needed to be applied several strategies to make them „good subtitles‟ Answers of Clip and Clip were all appropriate; the answers were only different in the method used to produce the meanings to determine which methods the participants preferred The strategies presented as follows also included answers from “Others” part First of all, as the language in movies was spoken language used in daily life so literal translation (or word-for-word) was likely the most frequently used strategy In fact, literal translation was used in Clips 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12 The explicitation (using more general or more specific word) was applied in Clip 1, and Clip 10 Clip 1, Clip 7, and Clip 12 were translated by using cultural substitution As discussed above, the swearwords in some items are flattened, so the strategy of translation by a more neutral/less expressive word was applied to Clips 2, 4, and 30 Most partitipants used the translation by paraphrasing using related words strategy to find good answers for Clip and Clip 11 The translation by paraphrasing using unrelated words strategy was applied in Clip and Clip Lastly, one of the most frequently used strategies in subtitling (Cintas and Remael, 2007) „omission‟ was only resorted to in Clip and Clip 4.4 Conclusion Regarding the search question “Which difficulties are the most challenging to ETI students when translating subtitles?”, the findings of the study reported that most English Translation and Interpreting students at CTU had difficulties in translating items related to cultural and stylistic aspects It can be said that in general, the participants lacked cultural backgrounds and were not familiar with the spoken language style To the second question “Which methods they prefer to use to produce a natural translation in Vietnamese?”, it can be said that students know how to apply diverse strategies that they have learned to subtitles translation Moreover, most students prefer literal translation strategy to other ones as it was chosen in nine out of twelve items However, the „omission‟ strategy that is likely to be the most prevailingly used in translating subtitiles is rarely applied by the students The reason for this could be that the participants were not confined to the real space and time restrictions of subtitles translating, so they were likely to produce the most comprehensive meaning as much as possible In short, the translation test result sastified the research questions and expected outcomes mentioned in Chapter 31 CHAPTER LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Limitations Due to limited time and specific characteristics of subtitling, this study had unavoidable limitations Firstly, I encountered many difficulties in approaching participants and collecting data Because the translation test was published online and all participants are final-year students who are very busy with their work and study, hence many of them did not have time to access the Internet and the test Moreover, the test did not have any time limitation or supervision, so the test could not create the real spatial and temporal restrictions and the results might be not as reliable as expected Secondly, the study only focused on English movies with English subtitling, so other kinds of subtitling such as Reversed subtitling from Vietnamese to English, or Bilingual subtitling were not discussed Finally, the analyses of the levels of difficulties and the relationship between translation strategies and difficulties have not been done; therefore, insights of the difficulties levels and the relationship cannot be achieved in this study 5.2 Implications This research help students as well as teachers to have a closer look on the new field of translation In other words, it provides information such as term definitions, processes, difficulties of subtitles translation and the strategies to overcome those difficulties Besides, the research hopefully benefits teachers and curriculum planners to design more effective, diverse teaching materials, and syllabi Finally, the research partly contributes to the translation field in Can Tho University in general and can be reference for further research related to the field of subtitling 5.3 Recommendations for Further Research As mentioned in the limitation section, it is better if the further research will focus in a larger scale with students from different courses so that the results will be more diversified and have more practical values If the test could be given in translation class 32 under the supervision of lecturers, it could make real the spatial and temporal restrictions for participants and the results would be more reliable Secondly, an investigation into other kinds of subtitles should be conducted to have a broader multidimensional view of subtitles translating among this new field Finally, a more thorough study of the levels of difficulties and the relationship between translation strategies and difficulties should be made to assess the best strategy for each type of difficulties in movie subtitles translation In addition, the research should have interviews instrument to know the effectiveness of each strategy in subtitles translation 33 REFERENCES Abdellah, A S (2002) What Every Novice Translator Should Know Retrieved from http://translationjournal.net/journal/21novice.htm Andrea, M (2013) Audiovisual Translation: subtitling the BBC‟s documentary “The Quantum Revolution” Antonini, R (2005) The perception of subtitled humor in Italy Humor: International Journal of Humor Research (pp 209 - 225): Walter de Gruyter Baker, M (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation New York, NY: Routledge Bassnett, S (2002) Translation Studies (3 ed.) New York/London: Routledge Caimi, A (2006) Audiovisual Translation and Language Learning: The Promotion of Intralingual Subtitles University of Pavia, Italy Retrieved from http://www.jostrans.org/issue06/art_caimi.php Catford, J C (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation London: Oxford University Press Chiaro, D (2012) Audiovisual Translation In C A Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics Blackwell Publishing Ltd Cintas, J D (2005) Back to the Future in Subtitling In H G.-A S Nauert (Ed.), MuTra 2005 – Challenges of Multidimensional Translation : Conference Proceedings Saarbrücken: Advanced Translation Research Center Cintas, J.D., & Remael, A (2007) Audiovisual translation: Subtitling Manchester: St Jerome Publishing Cohen, L., Manion, L & Morrison, K (2000) Reserch methods in education (5th Ed.) London: Routledge/Falmer Denton, J & Ciampi, D (2012) A New Development in Audiovisual Translation Studies: Focus on Target Audience Perception Firenze University Press Durdureanu, I I (2011) Translation of Cultural Terms: Possible or Impossible? Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 34 Ferklová, S (2014) Subtitles vs Dubbing: Approaches to Translation of Swear Words and Slang in Film Masaryk University Gay, L R & Airasian, P (2003) Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications (7th Ed.) New Jersey Merrill Prentice Hall Georgakopoulou, P (2003) Reduction levels in subtitling” DVD subtitling: A compromise of Trends University of Surrey Georgakopoulou, P (2009) Subtitling for the DVD industry In Diaz-Cintas, J & Gunilla, A Audiovisual translation: language transfer on screen, Palgrave Macmillan, pp 21-36 Gerzymisch-Arbogast H (2008) Introduction to Multidimensional Translation Research Advanced Translation Research Center Hamaida, L (2007) Subtitling Slang and Dialect MuTra 2007 – LSP Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings Hatim, B & Munday, J (2004) Translation, An Advanced Resource Book London Ho, D T (2012) Dịch thuật Tự Hong Duc Publisher Larson, M L (1984) Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence Lanham Md: University Press of America Le, T N (2011) Equivalence of English – Vietnamese Translation for Subtitles of Some Documentary Films University of Languages and International Studies Lever, H J (n.d.) MA in Translation & Interpreting Retrieved from www.peaktranslations.co.uk/pdfs/Subtitling.pdf Lie, S (2013) A contrastive study on the subtitling of taboo words Universitetet i Oslo Liepa, T (2005) The sound of Silents: Representations of Speech in Silent Film New York University Mansella, T G (2005) Foreign Language Translation and Interpretation Intake and Language Resources Center 35 Mujagic, A (2013) Audiovisual Translation: subtitling the BBC‟s documentary “The Quantum Revolution” Università degli Studi di Padova Munday, J (2009) The Routledge companion to translation studies New York: Routledge Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International Nguyen, B N (2014) The Effects of Text Types And Topic Familiarity on Listening Comprehension: The Case of English Translation And Interpreting-Majored Senior Students in Can Tho University (Unpublished B.A thesis) Can Tho University Nguyen, L T N (2012) An Insight into The Translation Strategies Employed in The Translation of Movie Titles from Vietnamese to English Vietnam National University Nguyen, T T H (2012) A Study of Translation of English-Vietnamese Subtitles in Selected English Films from The Website Kst.net.vn Vietnam National University Nguyen, P T (2013) An Investigation into CTU‟s English Speaking Anxiety and Preferable Feedback Strategies Can Tho University Nguyen, T D (2010) A Study on Translation of Movie Titles from English into Vietnamese Hai Phong Private University Pujol, D (2006) The Translation and Dubbing of „Fuck‟ into Catalan: The Case of From Dusk till Dawn Journal of Specialised Translation Retrieved from http://www.jostrans.org/issue06/art_pujol.php Reich, P (2006) The film and the book in translation Masaryk University Roberts, R P (1988) Towards A Typology Of Translations School of Translators and Interpreters Universidad de Ottawa, pp 69-78 Venuti, L (2000) The Translation Studies Reader London: Routledge 36 APPENDIX - TRANSLATION TEST Link to the Online test: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1m2tv2bkOgN6R1j8s1XR8ravXoAMucBIsG9Buhrskyg/viewform?usp=send_form 37 38 39 40 41 42

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