STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN TOURIST MATERIALS INTO ENGLISH

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to provide fundamental background knowledge for those who are in favor of translation of culture-specific items in tourist materials and encourage more researchers to investigate further into related studies as well. To be more specific, it focuses on two sub-projects. The first one is to examine how professional translators rendered Vietnamese culture-specific items in tourist materials into English. The second one is to find out which strategies should be used when translating Vietnamese culture-specific items in tourist materials. The objects of the study are 200 culture-specific items found in tourist materials. Utilizing the framework of translation procedures suggested by Newmark, the findings show that 3 major strategies (single translation procedures, couplets and triplets) were used in translating these proper names and common expressions. Among those three strategies, couplets are preferable when it comes to translating culture-specific items. To be exact, the strategy Translation using Transference & Synonymy is most used by translators when rendering Vietnamese destinations into English.