A Report On The Localized Translation Of "New York City CDBG-DR Action Plan"

Recently, as the economic globalization and the localization of multi-nationalenterprises develop more and more quickly, the requirements for language serviceindustry grow higher and higher. Consequently, the language service industry inChina starts to bloom in an explosive way, but problems such as translation quality,operation procedures and translators’ codes of ethics regain people’s closeattention.The paper mainly discusses the English-Chinese translation of New York CityCDBG-DR Action Plan, which is a large project with76,000words in total and21days in duration. A detailed description and case analysis of the localizedtranslation of this project has been made with the methods of analysis andexemplification. With the application of Hans Vermeer’s Skopos theory, the reportgenerally covers three aspects, i.e., in a large scale localized translation project,the translators’ comprehension of the project background, the professionalknowledge and the teamwork spirit as well as the professional quality.The paper first briefly introduces the project, the translation procedures andthe necessary preparations. Then it describes how the style of the target texts isdetermined based on the content and the target customers. Due to the project’sfeatures, the primary problem for the translation team is how to deal with theabbreviations and the unity of proper nouns. Besides, some standards for thetranslators include: the notes and additions of the necessary information in thetexts, the reorganization of complicated sentences and the conformity of thetranslation with the original text.The paper indicates that in a large localized translation project, the translatorsshould not only fully comprehend the project and employ proper translationstrategies and techniques according to the content, but also teamwork with othersand follow the Standard Operating Procedures of localized translation with thecustomers’ requirements as their highest guiding principle. The author hopes thispaper can be helpful in the studies of large project operation in localization serviceindustry and the assurance of the translation quality.