A Report On Translating Waterfront Operations Manual

Since 2008 Olympic Sailing Game held in Qingdao,Shandong Province,sailing has become a kind of prevalent sport in China.On the one hand,an increasing number of professional Chinese sailing players have come into the international sailing stage;on the other hand,the sport is stepping into the public.In 2016,Chinese Yachting Association announced a free sailing experience plan for over ten thousand primary and middle school students.Sailing and yachting clubs are emerging from different cities.Most of the sailing clubs are hiring managers and trainers from foreign countries,such as Italy and the United Kingdom,which enjoy longstanding maritime traditions.Therefore,English management and operation materials are broadly used in sailing clubs.However,translated Chinese versions of these materials are of vital importance to better the management and operation among Chinese staff.This report is based on the translation practice of“Waterfront Operations Manual”.Several prominent obstructions encountered in the translation practice are discussed in the report.At the lexical level,inaccuracy of polysemous words and phrases and inconsistency of sailing terms are the prominent obstructions.At the syntactic level,translation of long sentences and passive voice are tough tasks.Combining Nida's functional equivalence theory with the translation obstructions,the translator uses several translation solutions accordingly.At the lexical level,the strategy of contextualization is applied to translate polysemous words and glossary tables are made to keep the consistent translation of sailing terms.At the syntactic level,division and reconstruction are applied to translate long sentences while conversion technique is used to transfer passive voice into active voice to ensure fluency.This report shows that the translation of sailing club operation materials should take the reader's reaction into consideration.“Waterfront Operations Manual”is targeted for Chinese sailing club staff,thus different translation techniques are employed to achieve functional equivalence to better the operation and training for the club.