A Report On E-C Translation Of Courseware Used For Advanced Aviation Management Master Program Of Tsinghua University

With the rapid development of economic globalization and commercialization, frequent international exchange demands more language service than ever. The demands also become more diversified and more complicated. The language service work now usually includes different procedures and its big scale requires teamwork. The change in language service industry requires a new generation of professional translators who have consolidated bilingual basis, broad cultural and technical knowledge and good management skills.This report analyzes the English-Chinese translation of courseware used for advanced aviation management master program of Tsinghua University. This translation project has as much as 26 743 words and is required to be finished within 11 days. Its content contains much professional aviation knowledge such as aviation management, airport management, airplane manufacturing management and air traffic control. Based on Trados, a dedicated computer-aided translation (CAT) software, I organize a three-person team to work on the project. Analyzing the project procedures, typical translation cases and strengths and weaknesses of Trados utilization, the report aims to discuss three main problems:how the project procedures go in small translation team; how to avoid translationese by flexibly applying translation skills; the strengths and weaknesses of utilizing CAT platforms like Trados during small team cooperation.The author reports the translation project in the order of pre-translation, while-translation and post-translation. In the first phase, the team defines the type of source text and determines the translation strategy according to specific translation function and purpose. Meanwhile, the team technically prepares for applying Trados as platform and allocates the work reasonably in line with workload, time and teammates’characteristics. In the second phase, the author presents case study to show the utilization of word meaning selection and extension, parts of speech transformation, word order adjustment, sentence integration and splitting in an attempt to avoid translationese. The case studies also represent how to improve text cohesion through substitution, reference and other skills. In the last phase, the team draws lessons through the summary and analysis of the whole project and integrates and establishes final translation memory and terminology database. Great priority is given to strengths and weaknesses analysis of utilizing Trados in the project.We can conclude from the report that the translation work requires the translators of not only consolidated bilingual basis and flexible translation skills, but also of comprehensive professional qualities, including information search skills, fast leaning ability, clear logical analysis, encyclopedic knowledge, CAT tools utilization, acquaintance with project management knowledge, etc. Moreover, translators should treat translation activities as a complete project involving many parties and carefully finish every procedure perfectly. Learning to manage translation project also means cultivating ourselves as professional translators. The author hopes the report can provide experiences and references for translators in terms of the management of small translation team and the utilization of CAT tools.