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
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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
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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
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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.
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