On The Faithfulness Of The Translation Of English And Chinese Idioms And Inspiration To Teaching

Translation is an activity in which one language is translated into another. It aims at putting all information of the source language into the target language and at the same time achieving the greatest faithfulness to the source language. Idioms constitute the kernel and cream of a language. Chinese and English have abundant and various idioms, which makes themselves more vivid, more succinct and more expressive. But idioms contain a lot of cultural characteristics, which makes it difficult to translate them faithfully. This is always a headache and hard nut to crack for translators and especially for Chinese students. In view of this, this thesis does some research work in translating methods. Besides Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter explains the definitions and the range of idioms. The second chapter discusses the cultural similarities and differences between English and Chinese idioms and their roots. The third chapter deals with the common translating methods of English and Chinese idioms, and it also analyzes some common problems in translating idioms. We think that translators should select different translating methods according to different cultural characteristics so as to achieve the faithfulness. The last chapter discusses some inspiration that these theories give us to teaching. The demonstrations and examples in the above four chapters suggest that the translator must have a deep understanding of the culture of two countries and the features of idioms, then choose the proper translating methods. Under the direction of these correct translation theories and with the help of good translating methods, English teachers can improve the idiom translation ability of students. If students get to know some similarities and especially some differences between English idioms and Chinese idioms, they will understand them better. If they grasp some methods of translating English idioms and Chinese idioms, they will translate idioms correctly.