景区标识语英文翻译失误

旅游英语学期论文

论文题目：景区标识语英文翻译失误

How to improve student’s communicative

skills when traveling

学生姓名谢一凡

学生学号201107050201430

学生班级2011-2

学科专业英语

学年学期2013-2014

指导教师李亮老师

所在学院语言文化学院

2014年12月15日

摘要

随着对外开放的不断发展，中英双语标识语越来越广泛地显现在城市的各个角落，在中外交流中发挥着极其重要的作用。目前，景区标识语英文翻译的不规范、不准确极大地影响着石河子市对外交流的形象。本研究尝试通过实例剖析石河子市各个景区标识语英文翻译的问题，并有针对性地提出一些规范化建议。

关键词：景区，标识语，中英翻译，分析，石河子市

Abstract

The world is moving forward in an inconceivable speed, and with the development of tourist industry, Chinese-English signs are widely used in every corner of all cities, and play an significant role in communications between Chinese and foreign visitors. And at present, there are still a lot of mistakes and shortcomings among some scenic areas which can dwindle the good impressions in the mind of the foreign visitors. And this paper focus on the translation mistakes of the bilingual scenic signs through the analyses of the scenic areas in Shi Hezi city and gives some suggestions.

Key words: scenic areas; signs; bilingual translation; Shihezi

1.Introduction

As the vehicle of communication, public signs do matter a lot, and the translation of pubic signs can not only effect every aspect among foreign visitors, but also can stand for the figure of a city. For this reason, the veracity of the bilingual public signs play a big role in city modeling, environmental construction and economic development. And in this paper, I will analyse the mistakes of the scenic signs which I found in Shihezi city, and give a reference for standardizing the translation of scenic signs.

2. The major mistakes of the bilingual scenic signs

This year, I visit the major scenic areas in Shihezi city and collected a lot of bilingual scenic signs and found out many problems in the translation of scenic signs.

2.1 Clerical errors

When analyse the bilingual pubic signs, I found some clerical errors.

2.1.1 Wrong capital and small letter

Such as: NO Smoking And Firing In The Tourism Area

Rengong lake

2.1.2 Wrong lexical collocation

There are three versions of NON-RECYCLABLE:

NON-RECYCLABLE, NO-RECYCLABLE, NOT-RECYCLABLE.

And obviously, the first one is right.

2.2 The default of the English translation

In some scenic areas, there is not any English translation among the public signs, and some only use pinyin instead of English, which can not deliver the correct connotation to the foreign visitors.

Take “West Park” as an example. I can only see Chinese and pinyin on public signs, such as,

西公园：XI GONG YUAN; 动物园：DONG WU YUAN; 静心亭：JIN XIN TING; 鱼米之乡风情园：

YU MI ZHI XIANG FENG QING YUAN.

Some places even leave out the pinyin. And these kinds of signs can not make foreign visitors understood.

2.3 Choose inappropriate words and neglect the cultural connotation

There are many differences between Chinese and English such as the associative meaning, The established conventions, the shade of meaning and semantics range. So the translator will

make some ridiculous mistakes if he only choose the word according to literal meaning. For instance, 出口：Export.

And cultural factors can not be bypassed when translate the public signs or mistakes will made. And we can see different versions of “toilet” signs in Century Park. Such as Toilet, WC, Washing Room. Although these three words deliver the same meaning, in western country, they are different. WC is old and scruffy, washing room often set in the building, and in scenic areas, toilet is the best choice.

2.4 Use Chinglish

Translation is a skill, an art and a creation, the translators need to be equipped with well language skills and translation skills, not only to pile the words up. However, I found a lot of mistakes in grammar and structure, and most of them are not English at all. Such as：请勿下水，注意安全。

Please do not enter the water, pay attention to your safety.

And this sentence is totally illogical, and the better one is:

Caution: No Swimming.

3. The reflection of the translation mistakes

I believe that the factors which caused these problems can be classified into the following three ways.

3.1 The basic skills of translators are not solid.

One of the standards to judge a good translation is that the translation should conforms to the grammar rules of the target language. And a translator must have plenty of practice before he can translate the signs precisely. But the current status is that some of the translators are so inexperienced that the mistakes can be made.

3.2 The translators neglect the differences between two cultures.

Language is the carrier of culture and it is full of cultural connotations, and these two things go together. If the differences between two cultures are neglected, then the translations will be illogical therefore causing misunderstandings.

3.3 There are too many uneven level of translators.

There are different versions in one translation because the translators are too many and they have no discussion.

4. Conclusion

Shihezi is a sub-prefecture-level city in northern Xinjiang, it is a beautiful place, quiet, clean, and habitable place. And Shihezi has rich tourism resources, therefore the scenic signs are the tools to disseminate the scenic areas and stand for the figure of the city. So it is essential to enhance the quality of the bilingual scenic signs, and we can make full of the intellectual resources to make the scenic signs more appropriate and build a modeling figure.

References

[1].田盛丰.李爱中.计算机网络教学应用研究.广东教育学院学报 .1999,(2)

[2].王才仁.英语教学交际论.本论文由无忧论文网 www.51lunwTourism English论文https://www.360docs.net/doc/3813851325.html, 整理提供