If you want to be a qualified translator, and you are still a business English translator, what do you need to know? Business English translation requires the translator to have a wealth of business theory and business practice knowledge. In order to improve the translation quality, the translator must have a certain degree of self condition. So what are the translation skills for business English?
Business English is a specialized English that involves a wide range of professions and forms its own stylistic characteristics. It requires proper and precise word selection, polite language, and clear meaning. Therefore, business English translation must have certain translation skills to reflect its practical effects in business communication.
First, the translator must have good Chinese skills.
Many people tend to ignore this point, thinking that Chinese is their mother tongue, and it is more than enough to deal with problems in translation with their original background. However, in the actual translation process, for a word or a sentence pattern, after thinking hard for a long time, no satisfactory result was obtained. Sometimes it’s hard to figure it out and feel that it is not ideal. It can be seen that the ability to express and understand Chinese directly affects the quality of translation. It is very important for translation to work hard to learn Chinese and lay a good foundation in Chinese.
Secondly, English language skills must be strong.
Comprehensive grammar knowledge and a large vocabulary are indispensable. If there is only a large vocabulary, but no good knowledge of English grammar. In the process of translation, the translator’s understanding must be full of errors, and the head is wrong. Therefore, we need to improve the accuracy of English sentence understanding in English-Chinese translation and the accuracy of Chinese-English expression in Chinese-English translation.
Third, knowledge should be broad.
To do this well in business English translation, it is necessary to master theoretical knowledge such as business theory and trade practice and trade practical experience. At the same time, the translator must have a wealth of encyclopedic knowledge, not familiar with astronomy, geography, ancient and modern Chinese and foreign, but must also understand some of the basic knowledge. Without a certain amount of common sense, no matter how high a translator’s language level is, he cannot do a good job of translation.
1, a word with multiple meanings
The same word, due to different contexts, can have very different meanings. Try the following examples:
1. They cannot obtain credit at all in the trade.
Their business reputation is gone.
2. They have opened the covering credit with the Bank of China,London.
They have opened the relevant letter of credit from the Bank of China in London.
The above two sentences credit have different meanings.
2, part of speech translation
Part-of-speech translation is a common translation technique in international business translation. There are common translations between nouns and verbs, prepositions and verbs.
1. The mutual translation of nouns and verbs:
Before the payment of these tariffs, the imported goods will bein the custody of the customs.
Before the customs duties are paid, the imported goods shall be kept by the customs. (Due to grammatical restrictions, only the noun form is used, but when translated into Chinese, “payment” is translated as “交”)
2. Mutual translation of prepositions and verbs: In many cases, when a preposition is translated into a verb, it needs to be extended based on the context and specifically translated. Such as:
We should advise you to get in touch with them for your requirements.
suggest that you get in touch with them to negotiate the purchase of the required goods.
3, word meaning extension
In business English translation, sometimes it is difficult to find the appropriate and specific contextual meanings of certain words in the dictionary. For example, the translation is often unclear and even leads to misunderstanding. In this case, it needs to be further extended from the inherent basic meaning of the word according to the context and logical relationship. E.g:
The arrivals do not conform to the sample.
If the meaning of the word arrival is directly put into the translation, it obviously cannot express the meaning of the original text correctly, so further extension is needed.
4, increase and decrease of word size
In the practice of business English translation, the increase and decrease of word volume is also a very important translation technique. During the translation process, according to the original context, logical relationship, and the syntactic characteristics and expression habits of the target language, sometimes the original text surface does not appear but the actual content already contains words during translation, or the original text does not need to be expressed in the target language. .
1. Add words
According to the specific context, it is necessary to organize and provide verbs, adjectives, nouns or other parts of speech, but when to add what kind of words can be just right without exceeding a certain limit, it requires practice and accumulation in the long-term translation process. Such as:
All cash bonus shall be subject to income tax.
All cash dividends are subject to income tax. (According to Chinese writing habits, add verbs)
2. Word reduction
The word-reduction translation method can make the translation concise and concise, and change the cumbersome, procrastinated or inconsistent writing habits caused by verbatim translation in translation, and even ambiguity. Such as:
On condition that you sign this receipt, I will pay the money.
You sign the receipt and I will pay.
5. Translation of common terms in business English
Business English translation contains a large number of vocabulary, so accurate use of common vocabulary is very important in translation. As a business English translator, it is necessary to master these common words, compound words and abbreviations with business meaning.
For example, the price commonly used term FOB, CIF has its specific professional content, and CWO order payment; B/L bill of lading; L/C letter of credit; COD cash on delivery; WPA water damage insurance; blue chip blue chip stocks, blue chip stocks; bad Bad debts, etc. In short, business English translation cannot be confined to form. On the premise of ensuring that the amount of information in the original text is transmitted to the target text to the maximum extent, the translator can use the translated language flexibly to achieve the maximum level of semantic information, style information, and stylistic information. Equivalent, and business English translation should follow the professional language of business. Therefore, business English translators are required to master a large number of professional vocabulary and translation skills.
Regardless of the skills, the premise is to strive to accumulate knowledge, whether it is basic knowledge or strengthening knowledge, we must work hard to learn. To become an English translator, the road is difficult and tortuous, which is obvious. When we decide to take this path, we must go all out. The editor of Hujiang hopes that everyone can understand this truth.
