當世界經(jīng)濟日益全球化,各國之間的交流與合作越來越頻繁的時候,世界旅游業(yè)取得了巨大發(fā)展。中國有豐富的旅游資源,如歷史、文化和美麗的風景吸引了越來越多的國際友人來我國觀光。據(jù)世界旅游組織統(tǒng)計,在未來的130年里中國將是最好的旅游目的地。中國旅游業(yè)的未來有很大的前途(金惠康,2006)。進入二十一世紀以來，我國的旅游業(yè)得到了快速的發(fā)展，海外游客的數(shù)量逐年增加，旅游英語的翻譯工作日顯重要，良好的翻譯能夠起到中外游客溝通的橋梁作用，但是不恰當?shù)姆g卻會導致外國游客的誤解，也不利于文化的交流。本文通過搜集近十年來國內(nèi)發(fā)表的相關(guān)dissertation及論著，就我國目前旅游英語翻譯中常見的錯誤，漢英旅游資料的文體特征及對比、旅游翻譯的原則和方法以及漢英旅游翻譯中的文化障礙等問題進行了簡單的羅列，并就存在的問題進行了分析。

 

CONTENTS目錄

 

Acknowledgements........................................................................................................... i

 

Abstract............................................................................................................................. ii

 

摘要.................................................................................................................................. iii

 

1. Introduction................................................................................................................... 1

 

2. The current situation of tourism English translation...................................................... 1

 

2.1 The current situation of tourism English translation............................................. 2

 

2.2 The differences between Chinese culture and western culture in tourism English translation 2

 

3. The features of tourism English..................................................................................... 3

 

3.1 The language used in tourism English.................................................................. 4

 

3.2 The culture involved in tourism English............................................................... 4

 

4. The problems existing in the tourism English translation.............................................. 5

 

4.1 Misnomers............................................................................................................ 6

 

4.2 Basic grammar mistakes....................................................................................... 7#p#分頁標題#e#

 

4.3 Lack of the common sense of the background information................................. 7

 

4.4 Lack of professional knowledge.......................................................................... 9

 

4.5 The chaos of fixed term translation...................................................................... 9

 

5. The causes of mistakes and methods to resolve them................................................... 9

 

5.1 Analysis of causes................................................................................................ 9

 

5.2 Tourism English translation methods................................................................. 10

 

6. Conclusion................................................................................................................... 12

 

Bibliography.................................................................................................................... 13

 

Translation of Tourism English

 

1. Introduction

 

When the world economy turns to be increasingly globalizing, the communications and cooperation between nations is becoming more frequent，and the tourism industry in the world has made a great development. Chinese rich tourism resources such as history, culture and beautiful scenery have attracted more and more international friends to our country for sightseeing. According to the World Tourism Organization, China will be the best tourism destination with about one hundred and thirty million international tourists in 2020. The future of Chinese tourism industry is very promising (金惠康, 2006).The twenty-first century has witnessed Chinese fast development in tourism industry, and the number of overseas tourists has been increased year by year. Good translation is an efficient communication for foreigners to know China; in contrast improper translation will surely cause the misunderstanding. Based on the relevant papers and books in the past ten years, this paper tries to analyze some of common existing problems in tourism translation, and then to make some comparisons between the styles of both Chinese and English tourism texts, and at last simply to list some rules and techniques used in this aspect.

 

 

Although not all foreigners are from English-speaking countries, English, as a world famous language used most commonly as a second language and official language in many parts of the world. Tourism is no exception. As a result the tourism English translation becomes important; it is an effective way for foreigners to know China. However, it is not easy to do so. In many scenic spots, there are so many problems in the tourism English translation, and these mistakes will lead to misunderstanding sometimes and will fail to achieve the function as expected. In order to promote the development of Chinese tourism industry and improve China’s international competition, an in-depth study on tourism English translation is essential. This article mainly talks about the problems in tourism translation and the causes of Chinese cultural differences, and gives some countermeasures for solving tourism English translation obstacles.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

2. The current situation of tourism English translation

 

China is abundant in tourism resources. It has truly a solid foundation for the development of tourism industry. Since China's accession to WTO, China's tourism industry as well as the various tourism-related industries has accelerated its pace in the development of China's tourism industry.

 

2.1 The current situation of tourism English translation

 

Tourism industry has existed in China for almost 88 years since the foundation of first travel agency in 1923 and China has the advantage of developing tourism industry. The tourism resources of China are very rich, but China does not enjoy the high international reputation in world tourism industry, most foreigners only know Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. For the foreigners, there are two ways to understand Chinese tourism resources, one is the tourism text, and other is from the internet information. In the recent years, more and more English tourism introduction and guidebooks of big cities and famous scenic spots are published. However, most of the materials are translated by translation companies and students. As a result, many mistakes can be found in the English translation. Thus, to improve tourism English translation is important.

 

2.2 The differences between Chinese culture and western culture in tourism English translation

 

Cultural similarities and cultural universals form a basis for mutual understanding; however, cultural differences do exist everywhere between different cultures. Chinese culture and western culture belong to different culture systems, during the long history, Chinese nation and western nations have formed their own cultural, thinking patterns and habits. Generally speaking, customs and habits belong to the institutional aspect of culture, but they are also reflected in other aspects of culture. Even the material aspect of culture can reflect some customs and habits.

 

For instance, “Daughter’s Wine”【女兒紅】 and “Scholar’s Wine” 【狀元紅】are names for Shaoxing Rice Wine. Simply rendering女兒紅 as “Daughter’s Wine” and狀元紅 as “Scholar’s Wine” would puzzle the English receptors who don’t know the ancient Shaoxing customs: A jar of this wine was buried under the ground when a daughter was born into a family. On the day the daughter became a bride, the jar was dug out and the wine in it was used to welcome the guests. Hence the name “Daughter’s Wine”. If a boy was born, his parents expected him to become Number One Scholar, and they also buried a jar of this wine underground. When the boy passed the highest imperial examination, they dug out the jar and celebrated it with the wine. That is why the wine has been called “Scholar’s Wine”. In translating the two Chinese names of the wine into English, the translator has to provide the cultural information about the customs, thus not only making it easier for the English-speaking people to understand the names, but also letting them know something of Chinese culture ( http://wenku.baidu.com/view/9b9939c34028915f804dc2a0.html ).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Another example, in traditional Chinese culture, “bat” is auspicious, we can see its image in many old buildings and brick carvings. But in the western culture, “bat” is a symbol of evil. If we do not tell overseas tourists the culture background, they would refuse to receive the tourist spot (丁欣, 2010).

 

In addition, the language styles of Chinese and English are apparently different. Chinese people like to extend their meaning by hypotaxis, but English pay more attention to parataxis. The language used in Chinese tourism introduction is always beautiful. Many rhetoric ways applied in the tourism material introduction, such as the analogy and the metonymy, the comparison and the exaggeration, the irony and double meaning, parallelism and relapse, antithesis and comparison and so on. Four character structure is widely used in the introduction, for instance, Ping hu qiu yue(平湖秋月), Duan qiao can xue(斷橋殘雪)and qu yuan feng he(曲院風荷). When the tourists hear the beautiful names, they always can not say but to think. While English language speakers focuse on the syntax structure which can express meaning exactly by using simple words. In Chinese-English translation, if we translate the materials word by word, foreigners would feel wordy. So translation of tourist materials should be done in a cultural perspective way, cultural factors are the first elements to be considered.

 

3. The features of tourism English

 

Identifying the features of the object studied is always necessary when we work on it. The distinctive features of tourism English distinguish it from the other varieties of English. From the lexical and grammatical point of view, the exterior features of tourism English will be made clear, and from the point of view of courtesy, style and culture, the underlying ones will be exposed.

 

3.1 The language used in tourism English

 

The language used in tourism English is beautiful. Great tourism resources should be introduced with perfect language. Tourists can get a better understanding and remember the culture by exact and beautiful language. Therefore, tourism English expression emphasizes on rhetoric and language skill.

 

First of all, people nowadays are always sensitive to everything, they need a good atmosphere to feel, and such the atmosphere is also the tourism English aimed to create. Such as we use the sentence “Kunming is a charming place where spring hovers all year round and flowers of all sorts bloom in a riot of color” to describe the beautiful scenery of Kunming. Words “hover” and “riot” represent people’s rich sense of aesthetic feeling. Secondly, beautiful language style is also what the tourists like to enjoy. To master elegant language style requires high language skill which can reflect our deep understanding of polite language, literature language and language form. For example, one scenic spot in Shenzhen is described as a world of plants and flowers, a window both for a glimpse of great change in China and for her rich resources in tourism. Welcome to Splendid China.”(“錦繡中華”堪稱是花的世界、綠的世界;更是一覽中國的歷史之窗,旅游之窗。歡迎您來“錦繡中華”。)(陳白穎, 2003). The language of this advertisement is fluent, persuasive, and tourists can feel cordial. Although there are no profound words and it is just an ordinary sentence, it has received the purpose of symbolic significance and meaning and can also practically cause audience’s desire for knowing everything of the scenic spot. Therefore, appropriate tourism English is not only a process to master a language, but also a kind of intelligence training and aesthetic accomplishment.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

3.2 The culture involved in tourism English

 

When language study is concerned with tourism English translation, culture should be inevitably considered since both are closely tied up with each other. Translation is an activity in which the exchange of two cultures takes place. Apart from bilingual competence, which has always been regarded as an essential requirement for translators, intercultural consciousness is a must for translators. This is particularly true of the translation of tourist materials. Tourist materials offer not only the basic information of a place, but its cultural background as well. If translators are not familiar with the discrepancies between two cultures, it would be impossible for them to achieve an efficient and appropriate communication through translation. Therefore, it is necessary to make some study of the cultural discrepancies from the angle of translation. For example：

 

蘇州—東方威尼斯

 

以風景秀麗的園林、古典雅致的建筑及精美的絲綢刺繡馳譽世界的蘇州，中國“魚米之鄉(xiāng)”的美名。順其大運河及脈絡(luò)分明的水道而下，仿佛置身于詩般的寧靜，擁有浪漫的情懷，引發(fā)思古幽情。

 

Suzhou City —The Venice of China

 

World-famous for its scenic gardens, classic Chinese architecture, and exquisite silk embroidery, Suzhou—China’s “ Land of Milk and Honey” —recaptures the dignified elegance of an era gone-by. You may experience poetic tranquility and a twinge of romantic nostalgia while drifting along the city’s Grand Canal and crisscross waterways (陳剛, 2009).

 

Foreign visitors will immediately associate a beautiful and romantic scene with Suzhou which is a city of water with rippling water, with various of ships shuttling back and forth in the river when they first see the word "Venice". Using this culture concept to introduce Chinese water city Suzhou is a kind of substitution. “Land of Milk and Honey” is also a culture concept in English language, it means products are cornucopian, in Chinese it is 魚米之鄉(xiāng). The two of them can substitute each other. If translators are familiar with these culture concepts, their translations will make tourists understand more easily.

 

4. The problems existing in the tourism English translation

 

Nowadays in China, the translation quality of tourist materials is not so desirable. A glance at these seemingly beautiful English publications will surely shock you when you find so many errors in them. Generally speaking, these errors can be grouped under misnomers, basic grammar mistakes, lack of the common sense of the background information, lack of professional knowledge, the chaos of fixed term translation.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

4.1 Misnomers.

 

To get a correct understanding, choose proper words is the basic requirement in Chinese-English translation. As an English translator, the basic skill one must possess is the ability of choosing best words according to tourism English expression when facing a series of English synonymous words. So translators must collect tourism English words in their daily life and familiar with the usage of them. If we choose words without thinking and ignore their professional meanings and context of the chosen words, it will surely cause mistakes. For example:

 

生態(tài)旅游的理念由來已久。它源于美國歷經(jīng)150年的野生動物和環(huán)境保 護運動，并且在梭羅、繆爾的著述以及之前的佛教等哲學思想的影響下發(fā)展得更為迅速，它是對古老的資源管理概念的一種新的應(yīng)用。

 

The ideas behind ecotourism are not new. Rooted in conservation and the environmental movements in the United States over the past 150 years and spurred by the writing of Thoreau, Muir, and before them, Buddhist and other philosophical ideologies — ecotourism is a new application for an age-old concept of stewardship (張春柏, 2009).

 

In addition to the problems of understanding and logic which are difficult for ordinary readers to find in the translation, here we also need to pay special attention to the problem of the diction. First of all, “be rooted in” itself means “having as its origin”. 《朗文當代英語大辭典》(薩默斯, 2005). Second, “to spur” means “to make sth. happen faster or sooner”《牛津高階英漢雙解詞典》(霍恩比，2004). Third, “stewardship” always means “管理員、服務(wù)員、籌備人的職位和職責”, but from the whole passage, this word means management in macro abstract. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (10th Edition) points out that one of the meaning “managing of something; esp: the careful and responsible management of something…<~of our natural resources>”. From this we can extend to the meaning of “資源管理”.

 

4.2 Basic grammar mistakes

 

Many tourist materials are translated word by word and sentence by sentence. Therefore, the translation may be lexically and grammatically wrong after careful check, but it often suffers pragmatic errors, which are caused by inadequate solutions to pragmatic translation problems such as a lack of readership-orientation. “The translator has to take account of the fact that a piece of information that might be ‘trivial’ to the source text recipient, because of his source-cultural background knowledge, may be unknown to the target text recipient because of his target-cultural background knowledge or vice versa” (Nord, 2001).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Grammar mistakes including misunderstanding on grammatical relations and the semantic errors, it is easy to make some mistakes in translation. This has links with the translators’ English ability. Grammar is the most basic part of language, and we should avoid making mistakes grammartically. Grammar mistakes can make foreign tourists have a dramatic effect on basic impression of the scenic. For example: the original translation of "華山以峰稱奇" is “Mountain Hua is surprised for its peaks”, we can see that the translators was not familiar with the use of adjective words formed by V-Ed and V-ing.

 

V-ed adjective expresses the state or feeling of the subject itself, such as "我很吃驚" (I am quite surprised.). But V-ing form means the subject makes others produce status or feeling. For example, "這本書令人覺得吃驚" (This book is surprising.). The original meaning of the translation became "華山很驚奇", it is completely wrong. It is should be translated into “Mountain Hua is surprising for its peaks”.

 

4.3 Lack of the common sense of the background information

 

One of the distinctive features of tourist materials is that they involve an unusual large number of knowledge ranging from religion to philosophy, from garden architectures to ethnic customs, from historical allusions to ancient tales, from poems to couplets. Almost all aspects of our life are included in them (李紅霞,2008). So the translator is required to be equipped with a rich accumulation of knowledge. To acquire every aspect of knowledge is impossible, but what the translator must do is learn as much as possible and, if necessary, consult experts or resort to dictionaries to get the correct information so as to produce a satisfying translation. Any subjective assumption will often result in misunderstanding on the part of translators and erroneous comprehension on the part of readers.

 

Sometimes, the translator’s relevant knowledge of background information and terminologies is not enough, if he could not be aware of his own shortcomings, or he just does not want to consult dictionaries or some other materials, mistakes are always made by such attitude.

 

One of the typical examples is the translation of “曲院風荷”(Qu’Yuan’Feng’He), which is one of the most famous scenery in the West Lake area in Hangzhou. As far as the author has seen, there are five versions of its translation

 

(1) Lotus in the Breeze at the Crooked Courtyard

 

(2) Lotus Swaying in the Breeze at Quyuan Garden

 

(3) Breeze-Caressed Lotus in Yeast Courtyard

 

(4) Breeze-Ruffled Lotus in the Winding Courtyard#p#分頁標題#e#

 

(5) Windy Lotus in the Winding Courtyard

 

The name “曲院風荷” consists of two parts:“曲院” and“風荷”. How to understand them respectively is the key issue of this translation.

 

Usually the meaning of “曲” is “not straight or level, twisted, bent” in the dictionary. eg.“曲徑通幽”means “a winding path leads to a quiet seclusion”. Versions(1), (4) and (5) are similar in translating the word “曲” into “crooked” or “winding”. In Version (2), “曲”is simply transliterated as pinyin “Qu” without any explanation or endnote, thus an irresponsible translation, for it has little practical help in understanding. Only Version (3) differs from other translations by understanding “曲” as “ distiller’s yeast”(酒曲),which gives a correct meaning of “曲”.

 

Actually there is a legend behind the origin of the name. In the Southern Song Dynasty, “曲院” was an official vinery located on the bank of the West Lake where many lotuses were planted. In summer breeze, the air was scented with the delicate fragrance of lotuses intermingled with the tasteful bouquet of wine, hence the name. According to this story, only Version (3) embodies the original cultural connotations and is regarded as the best one ( http://wenku.baidu.com/view/9b9939c34028915f804dc2a0.html)

 

4.4 Lack of professional knowledge

 

Because of the lack of professional knowledge, the translator doesn't really understand the original meaning, and if translators try to translate without consulting materials, it may lead to misunderstanding. For example: if "奇特的石英砂巖大峰林地質(zhì)地貌" was translated into “quartzite sandstone land form”, it has almost no geological professional features by simplification. In fact every word in the original sentence represents the unique of zhangjiajie forest park, we can not delete them. So we’d better to translate is as “the unusual geologic landforms of fantastic quartzite sandstone hoodoos”.

 

4.5 The chaos of fixed term translation

 

Some fixed terms rendered at random would cause inconvenience for cultural exchange and communication. As they do not often read professional books and consult English materials, they will feel difficult to translate the special terms, and that will cause the chaos of fixed term translation easily.

 

For instance, “東江游” translated mechanically into “East river travel”, but in fact we often use “cruise” to describe water activities in ordinary circumstances. So the proper translation is “East river cruise” (曾艷平, 2010).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

5. The causes of mistakes and methods to resolve them

 

5.1 Analysis of causes

 

The main reasons that cause problems in tourism English translation are as follows:

 

(1) Major problems: Many people think that as long as a person who has studied English can do translation, but they are not aware of the professionalism on translation. A good translator must equip himself / herself with basic professional translation theories and methods, the authentic English expression, and certain translation experience. But in order to save money, time and energy sometimes, some travel agencies, hotels and some other tourism companies are not serious and just find someone who learns some English to do the translation work. In this case, a lot of problems will be produced.

 

(2) Cultural differences: language is the carrier of culture. We should take culture into consideration when we translate tourism English. Tourism English consists of many respects of knowledge such as history, geography, law and religion, folk custom, literature and art. It’s no doubt that it is difficult to translate.

 

5.2 Tourism English translation methods

 

Tourism English translation is served for tourism industry and tourists. So the application of translation skills must be closely associated with tourism. Tourists, market and the economic benefit, all of these should be taken into consideration. The translator must accumulate a large number of English parallel texts, study frequently used words and sentences that English authors use in similar situation and imitate them in order to translate as good as natives. There are many translation skills used in tourism English and I’d like to introduce three kinds of useful skills in tourism English translation.

 

5.2.1 Domestication

 

As the differences between English culture and Chinese culture, sometimes we feel difficult to understand, even misunderstand the translation made by literal translation. Then it is necessary to use similar words which have their own distinct cultural features in the target language. Domestication skills are often used to handle idioms and allusions in the source language.

 

Examples:

 

西施：Chinese Cleopatra

 

月下老人：Chinese Cupid(陳剛，2004).

 

As we know Cleopatra and Cupid are household names for westerners, they are used to introduce “西施” and “月下老人” to foreigners who may find much easier to understand, so domestication used here is very effective.

 

5.2.2 Alienation

 

Tourism materials contain many cultural factors, such as historical figures, allusions and anecdotes. Plenty of culture-specific words are involved in them, and all of them are the essence of traditional Chinese culture and civilization and the fruits of Chinese nation’s wisdom for thousands of years. Alienation method is good for introducing Chinese culture, which also corresponds with tourists’ aspiration for “cultural differences”.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Examples:

 

西施：Xi Shi, name of a famous beauty in the late Spring and Autumn Period

 

月下老人：God who unites man and woman in marriage (吳景榮，程鎮(zhèn)球, 2000).

 

Most of foreign tourists greatly want to learn Chinese culture, therefore, alienation is a good way in the introduction of Chinese culture, if foreigners have already known some culture background. Such as we can translate“月下老人” into “the Old Man under the Moon” (background information is needed).

 

5.2.3 Negation

 

Because of the different ways of thinking, positive expressions in English may be presented in an opposite way by Chinese language. And some negative expressions in English may be conveyed in a positive way in Chinese.

 

Examples:

 

(樂山大佛景區(qū))“禁止停步” Keep moving(陳小慰, 2006).

 

Negative imperative sentence always makes people feel uncomfortable, although we can see it everywhere in China, foreign tourists will feel unpleasant by literal translation. It seems to assume that they are lack of social self-restraint, and this will greatly reduce their desire for sightseeing. A friendly reminder is easier for them to accept.

 

6. Conclusion

 

Tourism English serves as a bridge between Chinese culture and foreign culture. The practicability of tourism translation is very wide, while its requirements are also highly demanding. The translators need to be familiar with the difference of structure between the two languages at least, so that they don't get bogged down in the Chinese version of the words and textual structure in the process of translation. At same time, the translator should also know the differences and the similarities between the eastern and western culture. The function of tourism English is to introduce our scenic spots and Chinese culture to tourists, and thus, much efforts should be made and better work should be done in this aspect.

 

Bibliography

 

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陳剛 .旅游英漢互譯教程[M].上海：上海外語教育出版社.2009.

 

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Acknowledgements

 

Looking back to my four years of college life, I got so much from my teachers and friends. In the process of paper writing, I met a lot of problems, whether in the theoretical study stage, or in the topic selection, material check, research proposal, my mentor gave me a lot of meticulous guidance and help. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor professor, associate Liu for his guidance and advice during my studies. His dedication to research has inspired me to work harder in the course of uniting the paper. I am grateful for the time and attention he has generously given to me.

 

At the same time, I want to thank all the teachers teaching in Huangshan University, because they not only taught me professional knowledge but also taught me how to deal relationship with others. Then I also want to thank my classmates for helping me a lot in studying and daily life during the four years. And my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving consideration and great confidence in me all through these years.

 

Finally, I want to thank all the teachers and professors for taking time off from busy schedule to review my paper.