Translation As Commercial Activities-A Case Study

With vigorous development of globalization, increasingly frequent economic, technological and cultural exchanges between nations have spawned a huge translation service market since the end of the last century. Translation service providers and practitioners are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Translation is now a business, a profession and an industry.On the one hand, translation service is becoming an essential drive for modern social development; on the other hand, its provider, being a new phenomenon, has not gained enough attention from the Translation Studies. How are current translation activities organized? What kind of features do they possess? What are the challenges professional translators usually face during translating? Apart from constraints that can be attributed to text and translation competence, are there extratextual factors including deadline, rate, the availability of relevant information, and so on that can affect translation quality? All these questions deserve attention and explanation from the Translation Studies. Therefore, this thesis, drawing on sociological methodology, sets out from a case study of Chengdu Language Bridge Translation Co., Ltd. to explore constraints of translation process, to describe and analyze how a current translation company achieves balance between quality, efficiency and profit in business environment, by improving on its translation procedures and etc. This thesis then offers some suggestions by incorporating the findings of the Study with status quo of translation pedagogy and calls for integration of theory and practice of Translation Studies.To achieve this goal, this thesis is composed of four chapters, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion.The Introduction provides an overview of translation industry and stresses the necessity and main contents of the Study.Chapters 1 opens with clarification of two key terms: commercial translation and team translation, followed by retrospect of historical translation activities in China. A brief comparison of these activities with current ones is given in this Chapter to highlight the features of the latter. Translation industry is well under way in China. Translation service providers are indispensable translation phenomena that deserve adequate attention, whereas translation studies in this aspect are next to none. Urgency and necessity of this kind of study is then exposed.Chapter 2 begins with an introduction to "translational action model" and a review of workplace studies at home and abroad. Research design of a case study is presented, including the process, subject, methods, purpose and significance.Chapter 3 gives meticulous description of the subject, its development, organizational structure, working environment, and evolution of its translation procedures. On the basis of a questionnaire survey, findings concerning translation process, translator's attitude and competence, training, technology, standard, etc. are presented. The Study tries to view the subject at both the corporate and staff level.Chapter 4 explores constraints of translation process and analyzes the status quo of translation pedagogy in China and current market demand, based on the findings in Chapter 3. Drawing on a professional approach to translator training proposed by Spanish scholars, the author suggested integration of translation pedagogy and professional practice.In the final part, the Conclusion, value and limits of the Study, tendencies of translation industry and further researches are presented.