Reflections On The Translation Tasks For The3rd Asian Beach Games

The3rdAsian Beach Games was held in Haiyang city of Shandong province inChina in June,2012. I was an intern of translation for this event working in theHeadquarters Hotel where many VIP foreign guests accommodated in charge oftranslating emails, invitations, tips and reminders, hotel reservation forms andaddresses or place names in Haiyang city. In the email translation, many obstaclesemerged because most people in Asia countries and regions speak non-standardEnglish which can be categorized as local variants of English in mutualcommunication. Besides, most Asian people have religious beliefs which require meto choose words and expressions cautiously in the translation so as not to offend them.And readership of the target text is different every time which is another problem. Asfor the address and place name translation, the culture difference of those names andtwo different ways of expression between Chinese and English are the main problemsI need to handle. While in the aspect of tips and reminders translation, there aredifferent formats and unique conventions of tips and reminders in Chinese andEnglish. This is also true of invitation and hotel reservation form translation.Invitation is an official document, thus its form, words and salutation are verydifferent from ordinary materials. According to the functionalist approaches, each textserves its own function. In the translation process, the different function of the texts isan important factor. In addition, analysis of the intratextual and extratextual factors ofthese texts is also of great significance in solving the translation problems. Besides,the experience from other events such as Beijing2008Olympic Games also helpsdeal with those problems. Meanwhile, suggestions and solutions are put forward tosuch fields as MTI education, professional websites, translation companies and gameshost cities and so on.