Internship Report for Book Translation Name: GULIQIANTE, Connie Student ID: 50914346 Date: 28 July 2009 My internship experiences start from the snapshot task for "SIZE" magazine practically. But there wasn't a definite contract at that time, I just took over from one of my friend and photographed modern persons on the street to show the trend of fashion in Hong Kong. I have got the joy of meeting different kinds of people, talking to them and recording their sparkling moments. And speaking of my very first internship, I'm honored to translate an architectural book called "World Architecture in China" for Joint Publishing. I'm always looking for some jobs that are interrelated with the field of culture, a thorough student majored in liberal arts like me has many thoughts on written words. Since I'm from mainland China and not at home in Cantonese. It seems a little bit hard for me to find a suitable work. I tried to contact several publishers and also thought about a few local media organizations. However the resumes I sent were never to be seen or heard of again. I grew a little discouraged on my own exploring road. Fortunately, I got a great support from Yue Jin, our tutor of Portfolio and Practicum course. As a test, I translated about 1,200 words for the book called "Sense of Place" in Chinese. The First Chapter talks about urban changes during the period of being under British colonial rule. The topic ranges over the respect of history, it's what I have learned for many years, so I can do my job with facility. It's a pleasant process for me even though I didn't get this job at the end. I obtained experience through practice and when 1 I was notified from Yue Jin they would give me another chance to translate the book "World Architecture in China" that I mentioned in the first paragraph, I grasped this time and passed the trial part. Architecture is more like a category of science and engineering. At the beginning, I was quite unsure about whether I was competent enough to be its translator. Therefore, I have consulted a number of architectural books and information from the network to understand the technical terms (the main reason is to find out the corresponding translation in Chinese) , related architects, contractors, social context they faced, etc. Although it spent quite some time to do the "homework", it was worth when I started my journey of translation. After I received the email from Anne Lee, Assistant Editor in chief from Joint Publishing and nine typescripts, 30,111 English words for me to translate on May 6th, I knew I had to design a detailed timetable to arrange the work and other activities. I used the coming two weeks to read the book roughly and commence data collection before I came back to Beijing. From May 25th to July 10th, it's my working period. I decided to start with translating five pages per day during the first week, since I was still not familiar with author's style and attempted to get into the language situation. The First Chapter "Forerunners" has 13 pages, it's about the earliest developers' building project at their concessions in China. I spent four days to finish this part. The Chinese translation finally runs to 17 pages. Later, I increased the pages I planned to translate every day gradually, regarded one chapter as a unit, accomplished one target, there would be a day for rest and also syntactic check. Excluding special arrangements, the time leaves to translation work is pressing as well. Sometimes, I went out for more than one day, it became very important to map out next step. I believe if you read a work written in English, you will sure to 2 improve your English in the uptake, to say nothing of translating an English book into Chinese. From the one who took long to understand and translate only one sentence to the one who would finish the whole paragraph in a short time and ensure the quality of translation, it all happened in less than two months. During the process of research, I knew more about construction, those famous names: internationally celebrated architects like I.M.Pei, Tadao Ando, Norman Foster and Paul Andreu built the most impressive landmarks on the territory of China, and also like Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron and Zaha Hadid, a new generation of global stars created their careers with those amazing iconic buildings. Who can say architecture is not art? I find the extreme beauty in the shapes of skyscrapers and a fount of wisdom that are shown from architects' design. An idea that I'm eager to travel around the city I have lived for more than 18 years strikes me, I'd like to see the great changes in Beijing and feel the modern art of my surroundings. It's an unforgettable trip without walking out of my home. I have learned the development of foreign architecture in China over recent years. It widens my knowledge of this industry and builds up a plentiful materials and inspirations for me to create my own artworks. Speaking of the communication part, it's a pity that my translation internship is doomed to be lonely. It's a one man job, the only communication happened is between the editor from Joint Publishing and myself. In may, Anne got in touch with me by sending email. We spent some time to discuss the working hours, specific requirements and contract items. And the appendix part will be translated by the author. Without communication, the division of work will never be carried out, and it may cause a waste of time (wasteful duplication of translation) or a delay of the progress (e.g. nobody is responsible for the appendix part). Even though it didn't like the mode I experienced 3 in CCTV's internship, people sat together and discussed the topics they did or they're about to report, from this relative independent, I also learned how to express my ideas and questions accurately to the contacts of the publisher by words (whether in email or other Internet chatting tools, such as MSN or QQ). I have improved my skill of asking questions and demand politely. The better thing is, I even make a friend with one of their editors (who is in charge of the book "World Architecture in China"), we hope to see each other in Taiwan after this September and I know more about the duties and working contents as an editor. The book will take part in a book fair in Frankfurt. It's the first but very important step I made in this field, the staff from CCTV would like to consider me to do some translation jobs for them as well. Having such an experience like this, I think it means a lot for my further work. All kinds of internship opportunities are enriched my summer vacation. I think I understand much more better about the meaning of working, the responsibility for the family, society, especially myself. Thanks to this course, I get to know how to write a CV, how to present myself in front of other people, how to build my own database and how to find a job. Now I feel quite sure about my bright future. 4