College of Arts held a lecture titled Examples and Analysis of the Misunderstanding of English and Chinese Words in Translation at Room 358, Art and Science Building at 9 o'clock on the morning of Dec. 2nd. The lecture was hosted by Xing Sanzhou, editor-in-chief of the magazine English World (The Commercial Press) and Sun Daman, Deputy dean of College of Arts. Chun Liu, director of Postgraduate Teaching Management Department and some MTI postgraduates attended the lecture.
At the beginning of the lecture, Xing put forward the view that “people have different views on whether the translation is good or not, but the answer is basically the same on whether the translation is correct or not.” The high Chinese language level can only guarantee that the translation is smooth and conform to the Chinese expression habits; however, it cannot guarantee an accurate translation. The accuracy depends mainly on the translator's attitude, English ability and his knowledge. Xing pointed out:“The misunderstanding of words is the most frequent aspects of wrong translation. In addition, the other aspects, for instance, the understanding of grammar and sentence structure, the correlation between the beginning and ending of the composition and translation norms can lead to wrong translation.”Subsequently, based on his years of translation practice, he listed several main factors: translating the special phrases just according to its denotation; just knowing one meaning of a word and ignoring the other; using the fixed meaning of a phrase; being lack of knowledge as well as language level. At the end of the lecture, Xing gave some suggestions and encouraged students to enlarge their outlooks into diverse fields and translate and interpret as more as possible. More importantly, students should dare to face challenges. In the interactive session, Xing answered questions on how to use paper dictionaries and recommended useful electronic dictionaries to the students.
With a large number of examples, Xing suggested that no matter how beautiful the expression is, translation is meaningless without inaccuracy. In his view, a good translator should deliver a translation on the basis of understanding as well as good expression ability. After the lecture, students said that they will be serious about the translation, improve their English and enlarge their knowledge of all fields.
Translators：Yin Jingwen, Fang Zhen
Proofreader: Fu Xiao
Tutor: Fu Xiao
