A Study of English on Chinese Goods Package 对中国商品包装上英语的研究.doc

a study of english on chinese goods package广东外语外贸大学商务英语本科毕业论文( 2009 届 )论文题目 a study of english on chinese goods package （英文） 论文题目 对中国商品包装上英语的研究（中文） 专 业学院 广东外语外贸大学商务英语准考证号班级自考xxxxxxxxxxxx作者姓名指导老师 xxx xxx完稿时间 2009-05-08成绩 优秀a study of english on chinese goods packagexxxabstractalong with chinas access to the wto, foreign trade has developed rapidly, more and more china products find their way in the international market in order to satisfy multilateral needs of the foreign consumers. during this process, the english description on the goods package plays a great role. but there are still many translation problems. this paper explores and studies the english description on the goods package, and points out the three major problems with examples. in the end it puts forward three suggestions so as to revise and standardize the english description on goods package, which can make it easy to get information from it and build up the image of chinese goods. and this is very important to the development of chinas foreign trade. key words: chinese goods package；english description；translation problems对中国商品包装上英语的研究xxx摘要随着中国加入世界贸易组织，对外贸易发展迅速，越来越多的中国商品进入际市场，满足国外消费者多方面的需要。在此过程中，商品包装上的英文说明就起到了很大作用。本文结合实际，对中国商品包装上的英语文字说明进行探讨研究，指出从中文翻译到英文时的主要的三大问题，并通过实际例子进行说明。最后提出三个建议，希望借此修正和规范对商品包装上的英文说明，使国外消费都更容易从中获得各种信息，建立中国商品形象，促进中国对外贸易的发展。关键词：中国商品包装；英文说明；翻译错误 contents1. introduction12. three major translation problems for english on chinese goods package12.1 wording12.1.1 literal translation12.1.2 misinterpretation22.1.3 improper wording22.2 grammar32.2.1 word order32.2.2 proper names32.3. style42.3.1 poor choice of words42.3.2 wrong choice of words43. three suggestions for english translation on chinese goods package53.1 professional translation53.2 reference to import goods63.3 standardization64. conclusion6works cited88 a study of english on chinese goods package guangdong university of foreign studies 2009 chen xumututor: professor xxx1. introductionnowadays, international trade and multinational companies have a further development with the international economic globalization. as chinas opening up to the outside world and entering wto in 2001, the foreign trade has developed rapidly. in the process, the english description, as one of the most important accessories, has a great contribution. package can identify the contents and assist in selling the product (王冬梅, 马爽 2005); there are several major parts on the goods package, such as name of product, specification and quantity, ingredient, place of origin, usage method, production date, factory address etc. this paper is to study and research the english on chinese goods package with examples. and found that there are many shortcomings. among them, there are three major problems; then propose three suggestions for english translation on chinese goods package.2. three major translation problems for english on chinese goods packagetranslation theory defines translation as “a complex action designed to achieve a particular purpose” (nord 2001, 13 page). the purpose of translation in english on chinese goods package is to transfer message about the goods to the international consumers. about the translation for description in english on chinese goods package, there are three major problems: wording, grammar, and style. 2.1 wording wording is the tool in which something is expressed in words, especially written ones. good wording can always make people impressed. on the contrary, improper wording confuses consumers so as to influence the sales volume of the products. thats why it is very important to english translation for description on chinese goods package. 2.1.1 literal translation“kaifeng is the food”, this is a sentence shown on the package of “poria cake”, a special product of beijing, produced by beijing yushiyuan food co., ltd., which is well known as chinas time-honored brand. grammatically, its a correct sentence without any error. but in this case, obviously its a poor-wording one. seemingly, “kaifeng” is a product name of food, but actually, its name of the city in china, which totally has nothing to do with food in this case. this sentence is shown to inform the consumers the way to have. it doesnt make any sense if taken as a product name of food. according to the original chinese words, this sentence means “you can have it after opening the package/bag/seal”, which says the product is edible, no need to be processed, no need to be cut, even no need to be cooked. based on the original chinese meaning, it should be translated into “ready to be served”. like “kaifeng is the food” (have the same meaning), “kai feng ji shi” is printed on the package of “fisher fish-a chinese export food. its a phrase directly in chinese phonetic alphabet, not english at all. how can the foreign consumers understand what it is talking about? there is another translation for “kai feng ji shi”- “open it and help yourself, please”. maybe the translator feels complacent on his idiomatic translation-“help yourself”. but actually, in terms of “open it and help yourself, please”, the consumers can open and take the goods without paying money in a supermarket or food stores. in english-speaking countries, people may regard “help yourself” as that the goods is sample and free to taste. the above three translations to certain extent confuse consumers, lead to the consequence of poor sales volumes of products. “ready to be served” is the best translation to them. during the process of translation, its necessary to express correct meaning instead of literal translation2.1.2 misinterpretation “face powder”, people may think of some foundation make-up when they hear and see it. but actually, its not. in the composition list, on the package of “wu di bread”, there is “face powder”, which should be flour. if a kind of bread with face powder that sounds like foundation make-up, how it can be a well-sold product. not only in the composition, there is another mistake in the factory address, too-“tiger door”. it sounds like a good noun, but according to the chinese description on package, it should be a name of town of chinahumen. when the consumers read it, they cant find the corresponding name of the city in china. obviously it confused people. “face powder” and “tiger door” should be respectively one-word in english, but translated by dividing into two words from the chinese character of “flour” and “humen”. this is literal word-for-word translation. 2.1.3 improper wordsin daily life, its common to see “produce of china” on commoditys package. but it is mistranslation. although “dynasty dry red wine” is very famous both internal and external, it has this mistake, too. in terms of the meaning of the words, “produce” is a verb (to create or manufacture) and a noun (a process), and “product” is a result of the process. so the correct one should be “ product of china”. actually in supermarket there are many import commodities that the package marked “product of malaysia”, “product of california, usa”, “product of italy” and so on. why is there still wrong translation such as moutai is the most famous liquor in china and one of the three most famous brands of liquor in the world. with the worldwide known reputation and countrys image, moutai has this kind of mistake, too. “produce of kweichow moutai co., ltd.”, which can be seen on all the moutai wine, is also an improper wording. “product of”, “made in”, “produced by”, “made by” are the four that most use in these case. “product of” and “made in” is always followed by the country or region of origin, like the name of city, the name of country, etc. they are marked to inform the consumers where the product is made. “produced by”, “made by” is usually followed by the producer or factory. “produced by” is used when the products are wine, candy, cookie, etc. “made by” is used when the products are processed by machinery, like instrument, vessel, etc (陆志濂, 杜朗初, 李伯祥, 蔡永贵 1991, 153 page). in this case, it should be “produced by kweichow moutai co., ltd.”. though its a mistake of one word, the consumers may doubt about how excellent the quality of the wine is if it has this kind of mistake.2.2 grammaraccording to the peterbook, about translation 2006, 43 page “ the second purpose of translation is to transmit knowledge in plain, appropriate and accessible language .” due to so many differences at linguistics level, translation errors are frequently seen because of inadequate translation of language. chinglish is a typical example of linguistic errors in the translation, and chinglish are mostly grammatically incorrect. grammar is a very important part of english, and the same words in different grammatical positions in a sentence can extend different meaning. poor grammar can make consumers confused and misunderstand about the description on the chinese goods package.2.2.1 word orderon the goods package, advertising terms is a common content. long kang is a brand of tinned foods. on its package, its easy to see “comfortable, convenient is we to your commitment”. obviously, there are grammatical errors. “comfortable” and “convenient” are adjectives; “is we to your commitment” has logical and grammatical errors, the nominative and accusative mixed up and turned over. according to the meaning of chinese characters, “comfortable” and “convenient” should be nouns. so the whole advertising terms should be “comfort, convenience is our commitment to you. the advertising terms is a good way to attract consumers, but if its one with poor grammar that confused people or no body can understand, the result is often paradoxical.2.2.2 proper nameson chinese goods package, the country or region of origin is an important factor to foreign consumers. its often used to recognize the quality of products. “jiefang lu, nan jing city” is a part of the factory address on the package of “revolution wine”product of nanjing, china.” “jiefang lu”, according to its corresponding chinese meaning, it is a road named jiefang. actually “lu” is the chinese phonetic alphabet of “road”. so “jiefang lu” is a mistranslation, the correct one should be “jiefang road”. as for “nan jing city”, according to the chinese characters, its a name of city in jiangsu province, china. on chinese export commoditys package, the chinese phonetic alphabets can be used for the name of place, and the chinese phonetic alphabet must be together, not divided. obviously in this case “nanjing” is divided into two words “nan jing”, which is incorrect. so “jiefang lu, nan jing city” should revise to “jiefan road, nanjing city”. 2.3. styleaccording to the different consumers in different countries, we should use different style in the translations of goods description. the name of product is one to the most import thing for goods. its the image of product. a well-translated name of product can draw the attention from foreign customers. the role of language within a culture and the influence of culture on the meanings of words and idioms are so pervasive that scarcely any text can be adequately understood without careful consideration of its culture background (nida. eugen a. 2001). in his translations culture barriers exist; it demands translators attention, because they may result in misunderstandings and even serious dangers. hereby, localized style is a very important method and a very good way to translate the name of products. 2.3.1 poor choice of words“white feather” is a name of pen, which made in shanghai, china. it sale very well internally, but in english-speaking countries, it got a very bad sales status, not because its quality of using, but its quality of the name translation. “white feather” is translated directly from its chinese meaning. what they didnt realize is that in english-speaking countries, when people see or hear “white feather”, they will think of a english idiom “to show the white feather”, which means “to escape”、“to run away”. in this idiom, “white feather” stands for “coward”. obviously, no one would like to buy a “coward” or to be a “coward”; thats why they got a very bad sales volume in english-speaking countries. there is same problem on “fangfang” too. “fangfang” is a lipstick name of chinese export commodity. in china, when people see or hear this word, they will have sweat image in their mind because its normally regarded as a pretty girls name. but actually, there is a word in english- “fang”; it means “a large sharp tooth, especially a canine tooth of a dog or wolf”、 “the tooth of a venomous snake, by which poison is injected”. so, in english-speaking countries, when people see or hear “fangfang”, they will think of “a wild cur” or “a poisoned viper” instead of “a girl wore lipstick”. then its easy to tell that its in a pretty bad sales volume. 2.3.2 wrong choice of wordsthe wrong or inappropriate style of translation is the factor to the poor sales volume while the correct or perfect one can lead to success on sales volume. culture is a major part of the style of translation. translation should vary according to different culture in different countries or regions. “kiss me”, you may think its not that possible to be a name of product, but it is. like “fangfang”, its also a lipstick name of chinese export commodity. although its a new brand, its getting more and more popular in the international market. its chinese name is “qishimei”, a beautiful name in china. if its translated word by word in pronunciation, it will lose the feel of beauty, and that cant make the foreign consumers to pay attention to and draw their desire to buy. on the contrary, “kiss me” is a picturesque and humorous name. lipstick is always related to girls or ladies and kiss. at the same time, to think of the opening culture, “kiss me” is a perfect translation in english-speaking countries. thats why its getting more and more popular.moreover, there are many special products in china. and they have special names with chinese characteristics. they are difficult to translate. at this point, localized style is the perfect way. like “red star zhenpin ergoutou”, made by beijing red star co., ltd., an old famous chinese enterprise with resound trademark. its translated by combining the literal translation and transliteration. “red star” is the part of literal translation, translated from the chinese meaning and the logo of this trademark is a big red star. “zhenpin ergoutou” is the part of transliteration, translated from the responding chinese phonetic alphabet. “ergougou” is a special noun of wine in chinese, having more than 800 years traditional history. “mapo tofu”, traditionally, is a course, but now it is a tinned food as well, produced by chuan wei. at the beginning, its translated as “bean curd made by a pock-marked woman”, which heard a little frightened. now, “mapo tofu” is the official name of this course. actually its translated by transliteration. “tofu” is the special product of chinese; and its special name is unique. “mapo tofu” is vivid and easy to remember for foreign consumers. these two names of goods remain the chinese characteristics in translation. this makes a great contribution for chinese goods entering to the international market. 3. three suggestions for english translation on chinese goods packagethe purpose of english description on goods package is to draw attention from consumer, to illustrate the good quality, to bring out the desire to buy. therefore, its required simple but accurate and reliable words to be easy to understand as to make the consumers to pay attention and give them the unforgettable first impression (周金奎 1996, 309 page). but from above examples, its easy to see that the level of english translation in description on domestic goods package is not high. the major problems are: 1) improper wording; 2) poor grammar; 3) wrong style. below please see the three suggestions for this.3.1 professional translationthese errors have great relationship with the english testing methods and the english language teaching for test in recent years. this testing and teaching methods is unable to lay a solid foundation in english for students, and this is not conducive to train the translation ability. also, from above examples, the translator doesnt even master the english grammar. in addition, the graduates of english major only know the knowledge of english but have no idea on other specialized field. this is the factor that its difficult for them to translate the english description on goods package. the majority of graduates who are weak in english translation, are basically not qualified to do this translation work. given the circumstances, we should pass the translation work to the experienced english translator with professional skills instead of the ones who only know english knowledge. 3.2 reference to import goods in the process of translation, its required to be accurate, and consistent with the customary expression. we should start to collect the english description of some same kind of goods as a reference. in peacetime we should also pay more attention to the accumulation of information. refer to the english description on the import foreign goods package in the methods of expression and wording, so that the english description of goods can really play the due role; we can avoid a lot of mistranslation. meanwhile, we should ask the native customers for reconfirmation to ensure the translation is compliant with the habit of each others expression.3.3 standardizationgoods description is the appearance of the product. the quality of their translation