2012年ESL之商务英语 23 Translating a Document

 

Translating a Document 

Francine: Do you know the word in Mcquish for “partnership”? 

Aziz: No, I don’t speak Mcquish. What are you doing? 

Francine: Jim gave me this letter and this document to translate into Mcquish because I speak a little of it, but even with a dictionary and thesaurus, it’s slow going. 

Aziz: Didn’t you tell Jim that? 

Francine: I did, but he still wants me to try because it’s so hard to find a Mcquish-English bilingual. 

Aziz: I’m not surprised. Other than you, I don’t know anyone who speaks Mcquish. 

Francine: Yeah, well, I’m doing my best to translate these documents idiomatically¹ because the literal translation won’t make any sense, but it’s a tough job. I simply don’t know enough business Mcquish to know the equivalent words and phrases. 

Aziz: Can’t you just paraphrase² and convey the general meaning by using a lot of loan words and cognates? 

Francine: I’m trying, but I don’t think it’s turning out the way it’s supposed to. 

Aziz: At least he didn’t ask you to interpret. You’d really be in the hot seat trying to interpret in a meeting or over the phone. 

Francine: Yeah, at least I was spared that experience, at least for now. 

Aziz: I wish I could help you, but the only language I speak, other than English, is gibberish! 

 

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse 

1 idiomatically   

adv.符合语言习惯地；使用惯用语句，惯用地

参考例句：

• The ubiquitous mouse input device is not metaphoric of anything, but rather is learned idiomatically. 无所不在的鼠标输入设备没有任何隐喻；相反，是习惯用法的学习。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Idiomatically speaking, something can be both cool and hot and be equally desirable. 东西不管是凉的，还是热的，只要是令人满意的，我们都可以说“酷”。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

2 paraphrase   

vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义

参考例句：

• You may read the prose paraphrase of this poem.你可以看一下这首诗的散文释义。
• Paraphrase the following sentences or parts of sentences using your own words.用你自己的话解释下面的句子或句子的一部分。