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Problems with translating in learning English

Ngô Vũ

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#1
I have found a great effort from a few dedicated moderators of this site in translating science news into Vietnamese for other readers. This is a very helpful way to motivate readers to appreciate science and stimulate their curiosity in scientific endeavors. This approach seems helpful especially for freshman-level university students. However, it is an ineffective method in the long run if one wants to develop a talented pool of future scientists who can access and comprehend scientific information as comfortably as their international peers.

Translating scientific information into one’s native language is disadvantageous in many ways. First, the process is time consuming. Not only does the translator need to be knowledgable about the scientific subjects, she also requires an excellent translating skill, which only obtained through mastering of both languages. Second, translating is an imprecise process. Scientific knowledge is exploding in today’s speed of discoveries. Many novel scientific concepts and terminologies are constantly created and exceeding the capacity of traditional vocabularies. The inaccuracy becomes more pronounced when translating into a language that is limited in describing more advanced scientific establishment. Last and most importantly, translating science into one’s own language creates dependency on the process and hampers the ability to learn a new language, especially English, an official language of modern biology. Without a necessary English skill, the ability to catch up with the world’s rich scientific literature and an opportunity to communicate with and contribute to the scientific community will be severely delayed.

Although I do not oppose the dedicated efforts in translating documents since this activity is still useful for some new students, I especially encourage many of you who already possessed some good English skills to expand them further. I want to emphasize on persistent practice in reading, writing and even thinking in English for your biology subjects. I hope that with enough encouragement and motivation from this site, many of you will multiply this attitude of English learning to your peers, classmates, and your universities. The widespread expansion of such English study in biology is necessary for building scientific capacity for Vietnam as other countries in the region like Singapore and India have successfullly done it for quite some time ago.

How to do it? Practice! Some of you are very good at math, physics, or chemistry. Do you remember how you have studied so that you become so good at taking tests or very good at explaning clearly to your peers on these subjects? I am sure that you have read so many books on the subjects and read them very carefully. You even did almost all homeworks, exercises, and problems relating to these subjects. Another important thing is that you found these subjects so exciting that you did not mind ignoring other pleasurable distractions. If you can find the same motivation in learning biology in English, I am certain that you will find it rewarding later.

What am I going to do? I will try to post some easy short paragraphs of biology literature and would like you to participate and discuss them as if you are using your native language. I expect some rough start but with enough enthusiasm, I hope you will enjoy.
 
Just one word: agree!
maybe we can look to our neighbour and see how they fare in this matter. The Chinese doesn't even use the alphabet like us.
Though i still suggest improve your overall English at the same time. Being able to talk about science with a foreigner but unable to talk with him/her about life, love...etc can be frustrating.
 
It's really difficult to me when I translate english into vietnamese
Last lunar year my teacher give my class 64 pages english abt some information in science, fertilization... and I really have stress with them. All in english and I don't know how to "eat" it. First my vocabulary is so low and I don't know how to express that idea in vietnamese (my point in litterature is terrible). Can u show me how can I translate in vietnamese? It's drive me crazy :cry:
What am I going to do? I will try to post some easy short paragraphs of biology literature and would like you to participate and discuss them as if you are using your native language. I expect some rough start but with enough enthusiasm, I hope you will enjoy.
I'm so happy to hear that and I hope to participate and discuss with u. :D
 
cái vụ dịch ANH -VIỆt thì tui chỉ có 1 quan điểm thế này:

- tại sao khi 1 ông thầy bà cô đưa ta 1 câu tiếng Việt bắt ta dịch sang tiếng Anh, ta è cổ ra dịch rồi chỉnh rồi sửa cho phù hợp với văn phạm tiếng ANH, thế nhưng 1 câu từ tiếng ANH sang Việt nam ta cứ "trung thành" với cấu trúc ngữ pháp English, mà quên đi hay cố tình vứt ngữ pháp Tiếng việt, dịch từng chữ một rồi bảo sao kô dịch được.

Đọc-hiểu rồi viết bằng ngữ pháp tiếng Việt. Đó là cách tui dùng để dịch bài English. Cảm thấy rất thỏai mái. Thiếu volcabulary, giở từ điển ra. Chứ thiếu căn bản ngữ pháp Vnese .... học lại thôi.
 
Không biết mọi người thế nào, chứ mình đọc cái tiêu đề " Problems with translating in learning English" nó cứ lạ lạ thế nào ấy ?8)
 
Bunhia said:
Không biết mọi người thế nào, chứ mình đọc cái tiêu đề " Problems with translating in learning English" nó cứ lạ lạ thế nào ấy  8)
Yes, me 2, but just take it easy, our purpose is how to improve our abilities in English. The way you look at other people and say they are making some error drives you and other to be shy and less open. That is one major reason hampers you on the way to improve your English. Just think why many of you improve your communication skills just after a short time attending an E class with native speaker. Is that because of a chance to practice or because of the generous help and encouragement from your native speaker? Does any native speaker criticize you when you say something grammatically incorrect, why you, not a native speaker, are trying to judge other people? Look at you, how long have you been studying E academically at school, you might get absolutely right result in grammar test, but do you make sure that you have no error on you paper. Why Vietnamese student ranks in very low position in the region with poor E abilities. Is there any way to improve the situation? I absolutely agree with tuchau. I also got some difficulties when trying to translate some paper from E to VNese for other people. I find that E is a scientific language, it lose its beauty and correct when you try to translate in to another language. Why we have to try to translate or depending on other people to understand an update paper? Should we be more open and try to practice more often to improve our poor abilities so that we can keep up with update knowledge and information. Does that make sense?
 

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