A Project Report On The Translation Of Documents Used For Applying For Foreign Schools

With the development of globalization as well as the gradual deepening of cultural communication and cooperation between nations, studying abroad has become an irreversible trend in today’s Chinese society. By now, China has become the biggest exporter of overseas students all over the world. Different from the relatively simple way of Gaokao(college entrance examination) for Chinese universities to recruit students, applicants who wish to study abroad should hand in a set of documents for their application, including CV (Curriculum Vitae), PS (Personal Statement), Letter of Recommendation, etc. These documents often become challenges for Chinese students because most of them don’t have high levels of self-presentation. Therefore, some students tend to ask overseas study agencies for help. They provide Chinese version of these documents, then the agencies would translate them into English. Therefore, a new category of translation was born:translation of documents used for applying for foreign schools. Compared with traditional translation, this new type of translation has distinct feature, which would be discussed in the following chapters.Although there is an intense interest in studying abroad, researches about translation of documents used for applying for foreign schools are still very few. The author of this project report had translated many of these documents while working as an intern in a local overseas study agency, therefore had accumulated enough first-hand data to do research. This thesis will analyze concrete examples, discuss the difficulties during the translating procedure and summarize specific translation skills under the guidance of Translational Writing theory.