How does communication change in translation? By analyzing news, movies, and fiction, this hands-on paper develops practical skills for translating across Chinese and English.
CHIN250 Practical Chinese adopts a practical approach towards teaching cross-cultural communication through the translation of tourism brochures, films, newspaper headlines, advertising features, music lyrics, fiction, and blogs. This emphasis is on the everyday relevance of the acquired skills and students will develop a portfolio of their translated work.
The paper is taught and assessed in Chinese and English.
Advanced proficiency in Chinese language is required.
Details
How does communication change in translation? Analysis of news, movies and fiction for hands-on development of practical skills for translating across Chinese and English. Advanced Chinese language proficiency required.
| Paper title | Practical Chinese: Chinese/English Translation |
|---|---|
| Paper code | CHIN250 |
| Subject | Chinese |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 2 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD) | $955.05 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 36 points
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Eligibility
- Advanced Chinese language proficiency required.
- Contact
- languages@otago.ac.nz
- Teaching staff
- Paper Structure
In the first half of the paper, lectures will focus on core topics in translation practices, such as semantic and stylistic equivalence, cross-cultural communication, bilingualism and social activism, literary creativity, and changing media culture. Every two weeks students will work on a small exercise to apply what they have learned from the lectures.
The second half of the paper will be devoted to students' individualized projects on Chinese/English translation.
In the weekly tutorials, students will engage in group discussions on the assigned readings with the tutor's guidance, as well as receiving feedback on their assignments.- Teaching Arrangements
One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week, with a mixture of lecturing and discussion-based teaching, in which students will engage with the weekly assigned readings.
- Textbooks
- A list of weekly assigned readings will be made available on Blackboard.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship,
Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Information literacy,
Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this paper will:
- Develop a well-argued position on a translated text
- Evaluate the quality of translated texts
- Apply translation theories to practices
- Handle translation tasks with confidence independently
- Practise translation in real-life situations
