Translation Difficulties And Strategies In Translating From L2 To L3

Translation requires a variety of skills that are acquired through learning,training and experience.While many translators translate into their mother tongue,the competitive market often requires them to translate into their second(L2)or even third(L3)language.This task is very often challenging due to the differences between languages,language competency of the translator or the material itself.What is more,when translating into a language other than their mother tongue,translators often find their work influenced by the transfer from their L1,L2 and so on,happening consciously or unconsciously.Knowing what the translation difficulties are and how to deal with them can help the translator,expert or novice,make adequate pre-translation preparations and avoid or deal with mistakes resulting from cross-linguistic transfer.This research paper is based on a translation of first chapters of Language of Gaming by Astrid Ensslin,where the translator had problems with rendering certain words and sentences into Chinese.The objective of this research is to see if there is a L1/L2 influence on translation in L3 and to identify the resulting transfer and main difficulties(semantic,lexical,cognitive and mental)that translators face when working with two foreign languages.It also aims to propose solutions to the said difficulties.This paper is divided into five chapters.The Introduction presents the background of the research as well as its significance.It also mentions the structure of the thesis.The second chapter discusses the translation process,including pre-translation preparation,translation process itself and finally proofreading and modification.Next part refers to translation difficulties and their causes,and it contains two subsections on L2 and L3 related translation difficulties respectively.The next chapter shows the proposed solutions to the previously mentioned problems.Lastly,Chapter Five offers a summary to this report.