University of Foreign Languages, Hue University

Department of English

_________

CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUES
IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

Cultural factors in translating Fairy Tales

Instructor: Dr. Truong Bach Le

Student:

Hue – 20......
 Abstract

Translation studies and translation criticism, because of the nature and intertwine of
many applied disciplines such as linguistic and literary stylistics, linguistics, semiotics,
pragmatic, aesthetic, psychology and sociology, have attracted and continue to attract
the attention of many researchers. In this context, note that there are different cultural
problems arising from the translation of fairy tales. Relevant methods, the
implementation procedures, etc., should not underestimate the practical aspect, the
combination of theoretical analysis of translation practice with translations developing
further cooperation and communication between researchers and translators. Stated this,
it is a delicate situation for translator to translate fairy tales as most of the readers and
listeners of such educative and instructive texts are children themselves. Adaptations and
using the proper methods of translation is a key to the success of the translator job, as
he/she needs to bear in mind the children’s world and imagination.

For all of these above reasons, this essay tends to explore the cultural factors which
should be paid attention to in translating Fairy Tales from English to Vietnamese and
vice versa
 TABLE OF CONTENT

Abstract Page 2

Table of content Page 3

Chapter I: Introduction Page 4

Chapter II:

2.1 An overview about English Fairy Tales and cultural factors Page 5

2.2. Strategies in translation of these cultural factors from English Page

7

to Vietnamese

Chapter 3:

3.1 An overview about Vietnamese Fairy Tales and cultural factors Page 10

implying in

3.2 Strategies in translation these cultural factors from Vietnamese Page 12

to English

Chapter 4: Conclusion Page 14

Chapter 5: Reference Page 15

1. Introduction

The work of translation could be more suitable for some people than the others, and
people with enough knowledge as well as translation skills might consider the translation
work is more simple that whose knowledge and skills are so poor. However, it is never
easy for people to do the work as “a connector” between not only to texts or languages,
but also two different cultures. Especially for two totally distinctive cultures: English and
Vietnamese. Thus, the most important skill that a translator must have is the ability to
deal with “culture-gaps” in their translation. Beside cultural and specialized knowledge,
they have to be sensitive, quick-minded, creative and more importantly, being capable of
applying what they have had into actual contexts.

The role culture plays in the translation of literary texts can thus never be obliterated. In
this essay, the main focus is on English and Vietnam fairy tales and the cultural factors
implying in each nation fairy tale, then comes to some strategies in translation process
would also be pointed out.

In the process of doing research and translation, the term “culture” is defined as “the
deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, social hierarchies,
religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relationships, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of
generations through individual and group striving.” (Larry A.Samovar & Richard E.
Porter, Understanding Inter-cultural communication: an Introduction and Overview)
2. An overview about cultural factors implying in English fairy tale.

2.1. English Fairy Tale’s cultural factors implying

The fairy tale is an epic genre and can be characterized as fantastic, relieving of reality,
and varying sort of storytelling. Fairy tales differ from myths by lack of the divine
background, and from legends by lack of concrete historical and geographical
information. The main features of fairy tales are spacelessness, timelessness, abolishing
the laws of nature and the laws of causality as a natural matter of fact (e.g.
transformations, talking plants, animals, and things), performance of mythical beings like
giants, dwarfs, dragons (G. Schweikle and I. Schweikle 1990: 292). Nevertheless, there
are certain props in the fairy tales, which can often play an essential part of the
plot, but these props always belong to the culture presented by the fairy tales, e.g., the
culture of every day life, the culture of the society and the state, the courtly culture.
In this way, the props and their names are a piece of evidence of historical authenticity,
following the opinion about the fairy tales as a source of history in the fields of
culture and social life (G. Schweikle and I. Schweikle 1990: 293). In this way,
because of the occurrence of certain props, the English Fairy Tale can be used to build
up knowledge and to create an imagination about the middle ages. Many of the props,
occurring in the fairy tales, are historical things of the culture the culture-bound
words refer to. Furthermore, we have to consider that the English Fairy Tale is an
essential part of the common literary and linguistic heritage of the English language
and culture community. In this sense, a large number of lexical units refer as
culture-bound words to the European common cultural background.

Because of the fact that sometimes certain cultural things and their linguistic
expressions exclusively belong to only one language and culture community,
they can become a specific problem in any kind of language transfer
(Drößiger 2010: 36-37).
From my study, here are possible cultural factors implying in translating English
Fairy Tales to Vietnamese version:

1) The mismatching of lexical items between English and Vietnamese:

Particularly, here is the material culture. Take “drinking items” for example. In
“Little Red Riding Hood” (in Vietnamese- Cô bé quàng khăn đỏ), Little Red Riding
Hood’s mother told her that “here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine”. The item
“bottle of wine” in English is a good one, especially for the health, people usually drink
to make the lunch or the dinner more tasty. However, it is a mismatching item in
Vietnamese, particularly for a grandmother because in Vietnamese, the imagine of a
grandmother with a bottle of wine is very strange and “wine” item in Vietnamese is not
such that positive in comparison with English.

Also, in the “Little Red Riding Hood”, the item “cap” is a mismatching one in
Vietnamese. “Cap” is not so popular in Vietnam at the time of the creation time of the
Fairy Tale, even until now for the elders.

2) The mismatching of lexicon between English and Vietnamese:

In some English Fairy Tales, some words are translated by creating genetic words and in
some others, by creating more specific words.

For example, The word “walk along” in “Little Red Riding Hood” is translated by
creating a more specific word in order to express the way how the Little Red Riding
Hood go in a very Vietnamese way so that the readers could feel closer and more natural.

In the same story, the words “ran straight” or “dead” are translated by creating a
more specific word and add some more words in order to express the negative things
belonging to the wolf because in Vietnamese, the villains are usually described by bad
and positive words.
In “Cinderella”, the word “evil time” in the English version refers to the terrible time of
an event or a person including characteristic such as “bad”, “being forced to do things
that person do not want to do”, but there is no word having such exact meaning in
Vietnamese.

Also in this story, the word “creature” is a general word however, in order to make a
natural Vietnamese version it is translated into a specific animal which is very
familiar to the Vietnamese.

The word “came” is used to describe the act of the birds in English version, however, in
Vietnamese one, the translator use specific word to describe the way how the birds
came

3) The mismatching of “verse” between English and Vietnamese:

In “Cinderella”, there is a short “verse” of the Cinderella call when she calls for the
helps of the birds. In English, it has the alliteration (dish, wish) only but in Vietnamese,
to make the version is much more natural, it is not only need to translate but to adapt to a
Vietnamese popular form (Lục Bát).
2.2. Strategies in translation these cultural factors from English to Vietnamese

In the case of need to handle culture-bound words, Nord suggested to practice an

“explaining translation” (Nord 1993: 226).
However, from the point of view of cognitive linguistics, the presentation of a
foreign language and culture community’s cultural knowledge for a target community
is in focus, in order to communicate that foreign cultural knowledge, without
modifying the conventionalized system of the cultural knowledge in the target
community.

Notwithstanding that there are several models of classification of cultural things and their
names. It is possible, because of the simple structure of narration in fairy tales (Jens
1996: 916), to work out in an inductive way certain categories of cultural things,
which correlate to the essential components of narration in the fairy tales like
characters, location, time, course of action, props of the characters, of location and
actions.

Here are some main strategies to translate:

1) Translate by using another equivalent words based on knowledge of culture –

those are used in the situations when there are mismatching words or concepts in
the target language. The main purpose is to transfer somehow the true description
of this words to the receivers.

For examples:

- “cap” translated as khăn quàng (khăn dung để che đầu)- these two things having
the same use
- “bottle of wine” => bình sữa (uống để cải thiện sức khỏe) - these two things having
the same use

2) Translate by creating more specific words to clearly describe things in

Vietnamese’s attitude as well as make a natural Vietnamese version.

For examples:

“walk along” translated as “đi băng băng”- form + the way of act

“ ran straight” => lẻn vào- form + attitude

“dead” => lăng quay ra chết- form + attitude

3) Translate by creating more general words to describe things in Vietnamese’s

once there is a mismatching or even non-equivalent in lexicon.

For example:

“evil” => khốn khổ- form- general adjective to describe the terrible time

4) Translate by using cultural substitution

“creature” => con ngan- cultural substitution

3. An overview about Vietnamese Fairy Tale’s cultural factors

3.1. About Vietnamese Fairy Tale’s cultural factors

Fairy Tales in the words shares quite many similarities in characters, background,
context, etc. Therefore, Vietnamese Fairy Tales will have same definition as well as
features, as I mentioned above. However, there are still several cultural factors when
you translated a Vietnamese Fairy Tales to English

1) Untranslatability words
Many Vietnamese proper nouns could not be translated because they bring
together the cultural and historical values.

Names of characters in “Tam & Cam Story” are examples. Tam in Vietnamese
refers to a good adjective to describe the quality of a kind of rice while in
opposite, Cam refers to bad quality rice already. However, these are
untranslatability words because we could not explain such that long for the
readers.
Names of places are also another good examples. Most of the place name in
Vietnam relates to events or people in the story, however, we could not translate
since Vietnamese Proper Names of place could not be understood so easily.

For example: Thanh Giang River in “the Magic Crossbow” story (Thanh
Giang is ancient Vietnamese- relating to Chinese)

2) Mismatching items:
 In “Tam & Cam” story, the word “cá bống” is a quite popular one in
Vietnamese; however, it is quite not so familiar to English readers.

Also in the story, the words “thúng” and “ao” are Vietnamese cultural unique
items, therefore, it is quite difficult to find down an exact things in English
because in English Culture, there is nothing call “Thúng”- things of agricultural
countries or “ao”.

At The lengen of the Heavenly King of Phu Dong story, the word “rạ” refers to
a bunch of rice’s husk, and is quite strange for English readers.

“Trầu cánh phượng” is an unique and special food of the Vietnamese culture,
therefore, it is extremely difficult not only for the translators but also for the
readers to understand when it is translated to English.

3) Mismatching of lexicon:

In “Tam & Cam Story”, the word “vàng anh” is a popular imagination in
Vietnamese however, when translating into English it is difficult because the
possibility of using exact name of bird in English is rare.

In “The lengen of the Heavenly King of Phu Dong”, the word “trượng” refers
to a unit of measurement in Asian countries in the past, especially in Vietnam and
China; however, it is quite strange for the English speaking communities.
3.2. Strategies in translation these cultural factors from Vietnamese to English

1) Keeping the Source Language

Keeping the original words in Source Language because there are no equivalent concepts,
which are distinctive features of the culture. This strategy is also used for proper names

For example:

Sông Thanh Giang => Thanh Giang River

Tấm => Tam

Cám => Cam

Gióng => Giong

2) Translating by omission

“Chết như ngả rạ” => burned them down

“trầu cánh phượng giống như của Tấm” => a very peculiar way of Tam

3) Translating by creating general word

“ người cao hơn trượng” => a mighty giant- form

4) Finding an another near equivalent word:

“ cá bống” => small golden fish

4. Conclusion:

In short, culture is an essential part of languages, and on translation in general or in

translating fairy tales in particular, culture factors always have their deep impact and
influences, by both in the way we translate and the way the readers/hearers receive
information. To be skillful in translation techniques and be aware of culture knowledge in
both Source Language and Target Language as well as willing to learn the new things are
compulsory for translators to deal with these non-equivalent factors and produce high
quality translations.
5. References

1. The legend of Heavenly King of Phu Dong- from

http://www.cvlsvhdt.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/web/guest/kien-thuc-lich-su-van-hoa-xa-
hoi1;jsessionid=417196317FF8D638CB1F3006BA323B08?
p_p_id=EXT_ARTICLEVIEW&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_col_id=column-
left&p_p_col_pos=2&p_p_col_count=11&_EXT_ARTICLEVIEW_groupId=10217&_E
XT_ARTICLEVIEW_articleId=33133&_EXT_ARTICLEVIEW_version=1.0&_EXT_A
RTICLEVIEW_redirect=%2Fweb%2Fguest%2Fkien-thuc-lich-su-van-hoa-xa-
hoi1%3Fp_p_id%3DEXT_ARTICLEVIEW%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_col_id
%3Dcolumn-left%26p_p_col_pos%3D2%26p_p_col_count
%3D12%26_EXT_ARTICLEVIEW_groupId
%3D10217%26_EXT_ARTICLEVIEW_articleId
%3D33133%26_EXT_ARTICLEVIEW_version
%3D1.0%26_EXT_ARTICLEVIEW_redirect%3D%252Fweb%252Fguest%252Fhome

2. The story of Tam and Cam from

http://vanhoc.xitrum.net/truyencotich/vietnam/2006/6.html

3. Qing Yang, SOME CULTURAL FACTORS ON ENGLISH-CHINESE

AND CHINESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF BRAND NAMES from

http://www.ugr.es/~feiap/ceiap3/ceiap/capitulos/capitulo38.pdf

4. Sugeng Hariyanto , The Implication of Culture on Translation Theory and Practice

from http://www.translationdirectory.com/article634.htm

5. Ảnh hưởng văn hóa trong dịch thuật from http://diendankienthuc.net/diendan/ky-nang-

tieng-anh/52369-anh-huong-van-hoa-trong-dich-thuat.html
6. Đinh Trọng Lạc (1999), Phong cách học tiếng Việt, Nxb Giáo dục, Hà Nội

7.Trương Viên (2003), Nghiên cứu chuyển ngữ trong tiếng Anh và việc chuyển dịch sang
tiếng Việt, Luận án Tiến sĩ, ĐHKHXH&NV

8. The story of Tam and Cam, from-

http://vanhoc.xitrum.net/truyencotich/vietnam/2006/6.html

9. http://en.vietnam.com/culture/art/fairy-tales/legend-of-the-heavenly-king-of-phu-dong-
phu-dong-thien-vuong.html

10. http://www.grimmstories.com/language.php?grimm=021&l=en&r=vi

11. http://www.grimmstories.com/language.php?grimm=026&l=en&r=vi