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Globalization enhances the close relationship, and the mutual understanding among nations. It takes place in various areas such as economy, technology, environment, culture, and society. The most remarkable area in globalizing period is economy. In this area, the globalization is of necessity to foster the international and national economic integration. To facilitate the integrating process, a global language – English is an efficient and indispensable means to seek the common voice among nations. Therefore, learning English all over the world recently has been of great popularity. As it has become increasingly aware that general English courses frequently which focus on grammar, structure do not meet learners’ or employers’ wants and needs. English should be specified and intensive in certain fields. Therefore, from the early 1960s, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to be one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today. With the globalization of trade and economy and the continuing increase of international communication in various fields, the demand for English for Specific Purposes is expanding, especially in countries where English is taught as a foreign language. That is the true case in Vietnam; ESP has shown a slow but definite growth over the past few years. Its development is reflected in an increasing number of courses offered to students. Especially, increasing interest has been spurred since Vietnam opened its doors and recently entered WTO (2007) with a lot of wellpaid job opportunities for English competent employees. This has led to a rapid demand for English courses aimed at specific disciplines, e.g. English for Economics, in place of the traditional General English ones. As one of the leading universities in language training, ULIS – VNU has applied English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course for the last 10 years, aiming at improving students’ skill in using English as a tool to work in an international working environment and to comprehend technology transference. The course has been applied for seniors whose English competence is upperintermediate. Their four skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking are nearly accomplished. The coursebook was written by Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thom, a professor in ULIS. This book consists of eight chapters; each chapter presents an economic topic. The texts give general background on economics’ items and definitions. Besides, reading texts are followed by different exercises related to the text. The fist type of exercise is definitions matching; the second type is multiple choices on text information. Translating exercises are also given to help students to apply the new knowledge. The objectives of the course are providing students with a great deal of terminology, enhancing students’ ability in translating economic materials, building student’s knowledge of grammar, etc. The objectives to achieve are variable; however, the most desirable aim of students in learning and teachers in teaching this course is the acquisition of terminologies. As stated in the data analysis of Tran (2009) 70% teachers pay attention to teach terms, and 65% students want to learn terms in ESP course. Due to the fact that term really plays an essential role in distinguishing ESP from other language branches, and forming the ESP course. As Robinson (1991, p.4) claims “It may often be thought that a characteristic or even a critical feature of ESP is that a course should involve specialist language (especially terminology) and content”. However, the proper attention has not been paid to this issue; students encounter many difficulties in approaching terminology in the course, which could be considered a major motivation to this study.
ABSTRACT Translation in economic field has been an attractive part for many researchers; business idiom translation, however, has not been addressed properly due to its complexity and inevitable challenges Concerning business idiom translation, the thesis focuses on the study of students’ capacity of recognizing business idioms, outstanding problems that the students encounter while translating business idioms then analysis will reveal the strategies that may be employed for better translations The book “Speak business English like an American” by Amy Gillett is chosen as a major data collection for research reference Concurrently, 30 responses for a survey prepared by the researcher will also provide valuable statistics and truth for finding out facts on different issues relating to students’ business idiom translations The result has shown that almost students claim that they can recognize business idioms when reading business news and magazines However, a small test points out their incapacity of perfectly recognizing all given idioms Besides, their understanding of business idioms is still limited due to the major problems like the difficulties in equivalent expression, the lack of economic background knowledge and other problems in context and naturalness of specific idioms Analysis also gives answer to the question on the most common strategy applied in business idiom translation – paraphrase With different intentions of the translator, the translation will exploit different strategies which will be lately discussed in detail Translating business idioms is now a popular task to all translators and economists as well Therefore, being aware of economic knowledge and linguistic competence is of great importance in producing successful works of business idiom translation i Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Demonstration of research process Figure 2: Frequency of encountering with business idioms among surveyed students Figure 3: Surveyed students’ ability of understanding business idioms Figure 4: Major problems as perceived by students Table 1: Statistics in survey results Table 2: Students’ translations for given business idioms in translation practice test ii Table 3: Suggested translation for given business idioms in the translation practice test Table 4: Proportion of translation strategies applied by surveyed students LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL TL ST TT ULIS VNU Source Language Target Language Source Text Target text University of Languages and International Studies Vietnam National University iii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE It goes without saying that linguistic constructions like business idioms are involved with metaphors and based on associations of meaning that have not been sufficiently studied yet It stands to the reason that translating idioms appears to be the most difficult task, from identifying an idiom, making it out and distinguishing idiomatic from non-idiomatic usage Therefore, mastering idiomatic understanding is in the urgent need for anyone being fond of making better use of native-like English expressions Especially in business related filed, concise sentences are conventionally appreciated Nevertheless, in the context of broader integration and corporation, business discussions dyed with cultural colors are inevitable; hence specialized idiomatic expressions are applied as a common phenomenon Additionally, day-by-day translators have chances to convey big volume of articles from well-known magazines all over the greatest financial cities around the world The common trend is an amazing number of idioms that always occurs in even the shortest article in any business publication – The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, CNN Money and so on It is convinced impossible for translators to use accurate Vietnamese terms to express English business idioms without strategically tackling these complex combinations of words and sentences These aforementioned motivations have therefore inspired the implementation of this study Specific area chosen for the study is impressive idiomatic expressions extracted from 67 – page book named Speak Business English like American by Amy Gillett This will be carried out with the title: “English – Vietnamese translation of business idioms in the book Speak Business English like an American by Amy Gillett” 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The study is carried out with the aim to provide learners with fundamental knowledge in translating idiomatic expression of business terms, especially in the base of listed business fields in Speak Business English like an American With thoroughly investigation into different aspects in studying specific business idioms, the research would find out the procedures and strategies frequently used by the translators in conveying idiomatic expressions from English into Vietnamese Moreover, implications for further English – Vietnamese translation in specific business idioms will be suggested 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS To achieve these aforementioned goals, the study will deal with the following questions: What are the common problems in translating specific business idioms as perceived by surveyed students? What translation strategies are used to convey the meaning of specific business idioms? 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY Each idiom translation has its own specific challenges to translators to handle with; various solutions therefore are offered Nevertheless, limited time and capacity has narrowed the thesis scope to emphasize on studying, analyzing and suggesting translations to business idioms discovered in the book “Speak business English like an American” In addition, aspects to investigate into the business idiom area are broad; hence, the thesis would pay special attention to analysis of translation problems and procedures which are applied in translating those selected idioms 1.5 METHODS OF THE STUDY In this study, quantitative method in the form of survey questionnaires is much resorted to All the considerations and conclusions are mainly based on the data analysis and references The collected data will be analyzed in comparing and contrasting techniques to find out the problems that learners cope with in translating specific business idioms relating to many business fields as mentioned in the sample book Besides, discussion with the supervisor, colleagues, personal experience, and material studying from previous researches, newspapers and magazines are also significant contributions to the study 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY To begin with, the study, as stated, aims to support students of translation major in particular and anyone who shares the same interest in idiom translation With careful analysis of the findings in the research, students will be provided with the most common knowledge around the issues of recognizing problems in their business idioms translation Secondly, learners can figure out techniques and strategies that can be exploited and applied into their future translation practices Last but not least, the study will play the role as a motivation tool for English users who desire to better their English – Vietnamese interchange skills through a concise list of business idioms that can be discovered in the book “Speak Business English like an American” 1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Development of the study Chapter 1: Literature review Chapter 2: Methodology Chapter 3: Findings and discussion Part 3: Conclusion PART 2: DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 PREVIOUS STUDIES In English, many linguists did research on idioms such as Ammer, Cowie et al., Cruse, Fernando, Warren and so on In Vietnamese, there have also been a lot of authors whose studies generally related to idioms such as Duong Ngoc Dung and Ninh Hung, Tran Phong Giao, Hoang Van Hanh, Nguyen Luong Van Dang and so on Among them, “Idiom Organiser” by Jon Wright (2002) is widely used by learners all over the world In his well-known book, idioms are clarified and organized by metaphor, topics and key words, which are practically useful to all idiom learners For English dictionaries, a very famous one that catches concerns of all scholars and learners is so-named “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Christine Ammer In this dictionary, the author lists idioms currently used in American English and arranges them into alphabetical categories He also explains their meanings and clarifies them by examples Besides, “Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of English Idioms” by Helen Warren - a comprehensive dictionary tackling general idiomatic expressions in current English also gives examples and explanations of unusual features of grammar and usage Another is “Oxford Dictionary of Idioms” by Judith Siefring which provides learners with updated idioms including clear explanations in typical contexts “Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms” by Paul Heacock gives clear and understandable illustrations on each idiom as well as their origins Besides, huge numbers of Vietnamese and English idioms can be found in many books, magazines of other authors and there has been quite a lot of MA thesises on various aspects of English and Vietnamese idioms Up to now, there have also been roughly 100 M.A theses done in various aspects of idioms in Vietnam However, there is no evidence that any research on investigating the topic of my thesis has been carried out completely so far 1.2 TRANSLATION 1.2.1 Definition of Translation Translation studies have witnessed rapid growth particularly over the past decades, a myriad of studies have defined the term translation According to Nida and Taber (1982:12), “translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language (SL) message firstly, in terms of meaning and secondly, in terms of style” In their definition, Nida and Taber pointed out the major bases of translation which involves two languages, the source language (SL) and the target one (TL), and it can be oral or written; however, it is the context dependent and equivalence is one of the most vital elements Translation also is a work, “a craft” (Peter Newmark, 2006), in which the original message must be remained exactly the same in the target text thanks to the creature work of the artists – the translators A good work highlights the achievements of both linguistic and artistic effects 1.2.2 Equivalence in translation Equivalence is probably the most controversial issue discussed in translation theory In the simplest way, equivalence can be clarified as a term used to describe the nature and the extent of the relationship between the SL and TL text Different scholars gave different access to understanding of equivalence in translation: Baker (1992) studied form-based equivalence i.e equivalence at grammatical levels (word, sentence then text level), Nida (1964 – 1969) introduced function-based equivalence (dynamic and formal equivalence), and Koller (1990) emphasized the necessity of meaning-based equivalence (denotative, connotative, pragmatic and formal equivalence) Each approach presents hard-tackling challenges for translators By launching the of “equivalent in different”, Jackobson (cited in Bassnett 1980: 39) keeps the point of view that translation can always be carried out regardless of the cultural or grammatical differences between the S and T text Whenever the translator cannot find an exact equivalent to a specific SL, “terminology may be qualified and amplified by loan words or loan translations, neologisms or semantic shift” Armstrong (2005:45) shares the same ideas with Jackobson, “full equivalence is rare”; however, nearest possible equivalent should be found out and considered Different authors and writers have introduced different approaches to translation equivalence For a translator, awareness of equivalence plays a crucial role The translator are required to understand the characteristics of each equivalence type in order to utilize it appropriately, especially in technical translation of such texts as literary texts, cultural texts, medical texts The issue of equivalence is especially important when it comes to translation revision and quality assessment Because a good translation not only satisfies the requirement of meaning but also other requirements, like styles, communicative value or aesthetic effects… 1.2.3 Non-equivalence in Translation Non-equivalence in translation is often met due to the differences between the SL and the TL at cultural, grammatical, lexical or stylistic levels According to Baker (1992), non equivalence may be at the level of word or above word level including translating idioms and collocations Non equivalence at word level can occur because of the absence in the target culture of a relevant situational feature that is conceptually lexicalized for the source language text (Bassnett, 1980:39) The existence of non-equivalence usually is above word level as words always not occur on their own, but “almost occur on the company of other words” (Baker, 1992:46) Sometimes, a single word does not make sense until it is in a combination with others to create a full expression of an idea Namely, as Johnson (1975) cited, the great pest of speech is frequently of translation No book was ever turned from one language into another, without imparting something of its nature idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehensive innovation, single words may enter by thousands and the fabric of the tongue continue the same, but new phraseology changes much once; it alters not the single stories of the building, but the order of the columns (Baker, 2001:46) Non-equivalence above word level faces with concepts or ideas expressed by metaphors, collocations and idioms then this study’s task is to deal with translating idioms in a specialized field 1.2.4 Translation procedures Classifications of translation procedures have been cleared out by numerous researchers such as Nida (by changes of order, omissions, structure, addition), Vinay and Darbelnet (by loan, calque, literal translation, transposition, modulation, total syntagmatic change, adaption) However, Peter Newmark, as far as I am concerned, made greatest contribution in clarifying different translation procedures applied in sentences and smaller units of language like words, phrases and idioms His work of “A textbook of translation” has introduced eight typical translation procedures including transference, naturalization, through translation, shift/ transposition, modulation, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent and descriptive equivalent If transference procedure is applied, a SL word will be directly taken into the TL text without any small change or simple translation, this word therefore will be called as a “loan word” This procedure is most suitable for cultural, new technical terms, or proper names to create certain stylistic effects, for example, modernity or unique Naturalization “succeeds transference and adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation” (Peter Newmark), i.e the way to pronounce a word is used to denote its concept in the TL Next, through translation is the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations, the components of compounds, and often applies to translation of regionally or internationally organized names Shift or transposition appears to be a level-up process relating to the change in the grammar/ part of speech This is due to the difference in preferred equivalent grammatical structure between the two languages and also to the goal of performing Cutting-edge Why mess success? (to) get companies Very modern; using the latest Tối tân technologies with Why start doing things differently Sao phải bàn bàn when the way we’re doing them vào? with now has been working? the To pay attention to what’s going on Để tâm/ cảnh giác program right now; to be alert to what’s Cash cow happening now A product, service or business Cây khế vàng / gà division that generates a lot of cash đẻ trứng vàng for the company, without requiring Real dog Me-too products much investment A bad product; a commercial failure Sản phẩm thất bại Products that are extremely similar Sản phẩm nhái to another company’s products; copies (to) leapfrog one’s To make competitors a product technologically that superior is Bỏ xa đối thủ to competitors’’ products NOTE: Leapfrog is a popular children’s game in which one child bends down and another jumps over (to) beef up At a premium him or her To improve, to add to Cải thiện At a high price; at a relatively high Tại mức giá cao price (to) get buy-in (from) To get agreement or approval from Xin chấp thuận (to be) on the same To be in agreement; when Cùng hội thuyền/ page everybody has the latest information on what’s going on NOTE: This expression is overused 54 You will likely hear it, but you may not want to use it Part 6: DISCUSSING GOOD RESULTS Record-breaking Better than ever before; exceeding Vượt kỷ lục Through the roof all previous results Very high; higher than expected Kudos to Vượt trần I’d like to give credit to; Is like to Chúc mừng Vượt xa mong đợi/ acknowledge NOTE: Kudos is the Greek word A pat on the pack Guerrila marketing for “praise” Credit; recognize; praise Chúc mừng Innovative methods to sell products; Tiếp thị du kích non-traditional advertising methods or promotion of (it also can be seen as a that terminology in deliver good results with minimal Marketing) spending NOTE: The word “guerrilla” refers to carrying on a war using independent bands of soldiers, who tend to use very aggressive and non(to) dream up traditional tactics to win battles To think up something creative or Sáng tạo unusual; to come up with an (to) drum original idea; to invent up To create business; to find new Thúc đẩy kinh doanh business customers (to) sign on new To enlist new customers; to get Tìm kiếm khách hàng customers (or customers to open an account or 55 members) (to) pan out take a membership To succeed; to bring the desired Đạt thành công results mong đợi (to) think outside the To think creatively; to think in a Suy nghĩ sáng tạo box new and different way NOTE: This phrase refers to a puzzle used by consultants in the 1970s and 19800s to solve it, you must connect nine dots, using four straight lines drawn continuously Your pen must never leave the paper (The only solution to this puzzle is to draw lines outside the border of the box Therefore, you must “think outside the box” to (to) share the credit solve the puzzle) To acknowledge someone else’s Chúc contribution; to share mừng chiến with thắng / Chia sẻ thành somebody else recognition for a job công ( a ) run ones money well done Strong competition Cạnh tranh khốc liệt ORIGIN: This term comes from horse racing The idea is that one enjoys watching the horse race even if one doesn’t win money Part 7: DISCUSSING BAD RESULTS (to) face the music To admit that there’s a problem; to Đối mặt với thử thách deal with an unpleasant situation 56 In deep trouble No wonder Market share realistically Having a serious problem; in crisis Bị khủng hoảng It’s not surprising that Không ngạc nhiên The percentage of sales a company Thị phần has in relation to its competitors for a product or product line NOTE: Here are the verbs most frequently associated with the phrase market share: (to) gain market share: to increase one’s share of the market (to) lose market share To decrease one’s share of the Mất thị phần market NOTE: (to) steal market share (from): to take sales away from a competitor (to) get to the bottom To figure out what’s going on; to Truy gốc of something On top of trends find out what’s causing a problem vấn đề Modern; aware and responding to Đang thịnh hành Eating one’s lunch the latest tastes Taking away one’s business (to) cash in on manh áo To make money on; to benefit Kiếm lợi từ Cướp miếng cơm financially from (to) bring a product To introduce or launch a new Tung sản phẩm to market (to) run in place product To not make any progress; to be Khơng cải thiện stuck; to remain in the same place for a long period of time (to) clean house To fire a lot of employees Sa thải hàng loạt New blood New employees Nhân viên You took the words I completely agree with you; I was Hoàn toàn đồng ý 57 right out of my just going to say that mouth! Part 8: DISCUSSING A DIFFICULT DECISION Back and forth on an Repeatedly changing one’s mind Bàn tán lại/ xào tới issue about something; having trouble xào lui vấn đề Of two minds settling on an opinion or decision Conflicted; having conflicting ideas Phân vân/ Lưỡng lự Tough call about something A difficult decisions; something Quyết định khó khăn Wishy-washy difficult to predict Ineffective; lacking will-power; Tốn cơng vơ ích indecisive; incapable of making (to) bite the bullet clear decisions To make a difficult or painful Ngậm đắng nuốt cay/ decision; to take a difficult step Nhẫn nhục chịu đựng ORIGIN: This idiom comes from the military During the Civil War in the US, doctors sometimes ran out of whiskey for killing the pain A bullet would be put in the wounded soldier’s mouth during surgery He would “bite the bullet” to distract him from the pain and keep him quiet so the doctor could (to) test the waters his work in peace To try something out before Thử phản ứng trước/ committing to it; to see what the Khảo sát phản ứng response or outcome will be an 58 intended action The best of both A situation or product that offers Hổ hai núi worlds two very different advantages at the same time (to) put a stake in the To take the first step; to make a big Vạn khởi đầu nan ground move to get something started; to make a commitment Good call Good decision Quyết định sáng suốt (to) live to regret a To feel bad later about one’s Hối hận muộn màng decision My gut tells me decision I have a strong feeling that; my Có linh cảm intuition tells me NOTE: The “gut” is both intestines and stomach and also the innermost emotional response Part 9: DEALING WITH A DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER A far cry from Different than; not at all like; much Còn xa (to) go all out (to) mince words less than To make a big effort; to try hard Dốc sức To control one’s language so as to Ăn nói chừng mực Pretty penny be polite A lot of money; too much money vô số cải (when referring to the cost of (to) deliver something) To meet expectations or Có thể làm được/ Có requirements of a task, project, or thể hồn thành xuất job sắc (to) pull out all the To use all one’s resources to get Dụng toàn lực / Vắt stops something done; to try very hard ORIGIN: This expression comes 59 kiệt sức lực để làm from the world of music To increase the volume of a pipe organ, organists pull out stop (levers that control the volume) (to) pull the wool To deceive someone over one’s eyes Lừa đảo ORIGIN: In the 17th and 18th century, men sometimes wore wigs The “wool” refers to the wig (made of wool) Pulling the wool over the Where to begin? eyes made it impossible to see There is so much to say, I have to Không biết think about where to start (usually đâu used when you’re about to complain and you want to stress that there’s a (t0) get right lot to complain about) on To take care of something Chú ý kịp thời something (to) mess around immediately To waste time; to spend time with Lãng phí (to be) swamped no particular purpose or goal To have too much work to do; to be Bù đầu bù óc extremely busy (to) make it up to To something to compensate you Bù đắp you for your trouble Part 10: DISCUSSING A DIFFICULT REQUEST (to) kick off To start something, such as a Cú mở meeting or a project NOTE: You will also see the phrase “kick-off meeting,” meaning the 60 first meeting to get ac new project started (to) need something To have no need for something, to Khơng mong muốn like a hole in the have no desire for something head Out of one’s mind Crazy; having unrealistic thoughts Suy nghĩ không tưởng or ideas (to) take a crack at To try something something (to) roll Cố gắng làm SYNOMYM: to have a go at up something ones To get ready to start something; to sleeves prepare to something (to) give it one’s best To make one’s best effort to get Cố shot something done; to try to something, even though you’re not Nothing sure if you’ll be successful ventured, If you don’t try to something, Khơng cố gắng nothing gained Can-do attitude you’ll never succeed khơng có thành cơng A positive way of looking at things; Dám nghĩ dám làm an optimistic perspective; a positive Child’s play attitude An easy task bigwig kẹo / trẻ biết Very important person; person in Người quan trọng / đầu Dễ bỡn/ dễ ăn charge não SYNONYM: head honcho; big cheese; VIP (very important person) ORIGIN: This term comesx from “big wig” – the large wigs that English men wore in the 17th and 18th centuries Men 61 of great importance wore the biggest wigs Out of touch with Unrealistic; not aware of what’s Phi thực tế reality really going on 62 APPENDIX Image of the book “Speak business English like an American” by Amy Gillett 63 Book Description Publication Date: September 1, 2010 Speak Business English Like an American is the bestselling book & audio CD set designed to help you succeed on the job whatever you're doing, wherever you're working The set is great for self-study, with dozens of helpful exercises to reinforce the material It's also a wonderful supplemental text that's in use in universities across the USA American English speakers use many phrases and expressions on the job If you don't know these expressions, you are left out of the conversation This book & CD will help you speak business English like an American quickly and confidently Once you have the knack, no one can take it away from you With this book and CD, your career will benefit for years to come You will learn the idioms & expressions that you hear at work What your colleagues and coworkers, your customers or clients really mean? How can you use these expressions too? Language is always changing and business English changes especially fast That's why we've explained the most up-to-date expressions today's business English Now you will be able to use these expressions, too People will marvel at your command of English The description of the book is retrieved at Amazon.com on 15 th April, 2013 64 ... Chậm tiến 17 Người theo sau tốc độ 18 Người thích ứng nhanh 19 Kẻ ăn theo may mắn 20 Kẻ nhạy bén 21 Kẻ ăn theo (khôn ngoan) Người bắt chước nhanh Học lỏm nhanh Những người theo sau Người ăn trộm... nhanh chóng Kẻ học mót nhanh nhạy 22 Tăng trưởng kinh doanh Thúc đẩy kinh doanh lately Do you have any ideas for Tăng cường hoạt động buôn drumming up business? bán Nỗ lực phát triển kinh doanh... Cải thiện tình hình kinh doanh Tăng doanh số/ doanh thu 23 Kích cầu tiêu dùng / mua 25 sắm 24 Hâm nóng thị trường Khuấy động thị trường 25 Thu hút khách hàng 26 Duy trì kinh doanh 27 Quảng bá sản