Day 1
Tues. Oct. 25
Intro to the course, self-introductions
Intro to “genre”
Guess-the-genre exercise
Observe advertising slogans
Homework:
➤ Read Syllabus and Course Handbook
The syllabus describes what this course is about; the course handbook explains how class works. I suggest you skim through the syllabus to get an idea of what we’ll be doing, and read the course handbook more carefully to understand my class policies in detail.
➤ TRANSLATE SOME ADVERTISING SLOGANS
In class, we looked at examples of English advertising slogans on posters and made some observations about the conventions of this genre — the type of language that is typically used in them.
Pick three of the Chinese advertising slogans on this handout and write English “translations” of them that fit the conventions of English advertising slogans, unlike the “literal” translations in the handout.
(Note that in reality, if these companies/institutions actually wanted to translate these slogans, they would hire marketing professionals to write new slogans in English to capture the brand image they want to project. This service is called “localization.” What we’re doing is a little different — writing English slogans based on these Chinese slogans that actually sound like advertising slogans in English.)
Put your three new slogans in a Word document and upload them to our SharePoint folder, to the subfolder called “1-Ad slogan translations.”
➤ REad Sheng Keyi Excerpts, write observations
Imagine that someone you know is planning to translate these four passages from《怀乡书》by 盛可以 into English . Write five observations (five sentences that begin with the words “I noticed…”) about these passages that you think would be meaningful for the translator to read — observations that would help them understand something about the text that you think would be important for the English translation to capture.
Write your observations in a Word document and upload them to our SharePoint folder, to the subfolder called “2-Observations on Sheng Keyi.”
➤ Share an interesting passage
Find a text, either English or Chinese, that you’ve translated or that you think ought to be translated, into the other language.
Choose a short passage in that text (~100-200 words / 150-300字 or so) that you think is particularly interesting or difficult to translate. Copy it into a Word document (.docx) and add a note explaining:
Context: What larger text or work did this passage come from?
Reason for translating: If you translated the text yourself, why did you translate it? If you think it ought to be translated, why do you think so, and who might want to read it?
Why is it interesting or difficult? Explain why the passage is interesting from a translation perspective.
Upload your document to our SharePoint folder, to the subfolder titled “3-Share sample passages.”
➤ Supplementary reading
I recommend you read Chapter 6 of David Bellos’ Is That a Fish in Your Ear? This chapter examines the question: What does it mean to be a “native speaker” of a language, and what is the relationship between being a “native speaker” and being a good translator?
As you read, think about these questions: 1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of translating into your native language (what Bellos calls “L1 translation”)? and 2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of translating out of your native language (what Bellos calls “L2 translation”)?
I’ve provided a Chinese translation of this chapter, for ease of skimming, but I make no guarantees about the quality of this translation!