Practice Report On Nomination File Translation Of The Grand Canal Of China

Property nomination has been popular in recent years and many cultural relics or scenic spots have been approved as the world heritage. Property nomination is helpful in many aspects. It could help improve the protection and management of those scenic spots and promote a healthy, balanced development of them. And it is useful in attracting more foreign tourists, thus changing the tourist market structure. Meanwhile it’s of use in bettering the infrastructure and the tourism services provided. The property nomination of the Chinese Grand Canal was put forward several years ago and the preparation work has continued for several years. In order to improve translation capability, the author has partificipated in many translation tasks and has been involved in the project of file translation for the Grand Canal property nomination. During that project the author has encountered various difficulties in translation and has had to spare no efforts to overcome such difficulties.This report makes an analysis of translation difficulties encountered, and makes a summary of methods used to cope with those difficulties during the project. And it also proposes that some improvements can be made by the translator to improve translation quality and efficiency in the future practice. This thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter1introduces content of the practice, its initiator and commissioner and conducts a detailed analysis of the characteristics of the source text. Chapter2makes a brief introduction to the translation process. It introduces the task assignment process of the project, translation tools used during it, the translation quality control scheme, and the selection of translation tactics by the writer during the process. Chapter3analyses translation difficulties encountered by the writer from three levels:linguistic level, cultural level, and differences in thought pattern between Chinese and English. There’re abundant terminologies, some obscure words and long sentences in the source text. And it is partly vernacular and partly classical in language. That makes the task most challenging to the writer. Meanwhile, it is related to culture of various kinds and requires the translator to own rich reserves of knowledge. Differences in thought pattern between English and Chinese also brings difficulties to the translation. Chapter4provides several ways of coping with those difficulties and describes the writer’s reflection on the translation practice about improvements to be made in the future. With the aid of translation tools, mainly searching engines and dictionaries in this project, some difficulties can be coped with. And by using adequate translation methods, the translator can translate cultural factors more easily. Translation techniques sometimes can also make translation process smoother. Meanwhile, based on factors that cause translation difficulties, the thesis proposes some improvements to be made. The translator should consistently improve her translation capability and logical thinking as well as widen her reserves of knowledge. In the conclusion, the thesis points out that the translator can improve her translation capability and logical thinking as well as expand her knowledge to improve the translation quality and efficiency. And during the process of translation the translator can use a certain translation tools, proper translation methods, and some translation techniques to improve quality and efficiency.