PREFACE

It is undeniable that Translation is both a science and an art and that it is no

easy job at all to produce a satisfactory translation.
And whether he or she likes it or not, the translator is likely to face a
number of realities in his or her translation process.
This book is intended to provide Vietnamese learners of English with
practice in the hope of helping them to deal with their problems translating from
English into Vietnamese and vice versa. It is designed to get them equipped with
topic vocabulary used in a wide range of contexts, groups of words related to
common subject areas, which is believed to be indispensable in deciding whether a
translation is satisfactory or not.
The definitions of the vocabulary items, the example sentences and the
practice texts for translation used in this book are from online sources: Oxford
Learner’s Dictionaries, Oxford Lexico Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English Online, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Collins
Online Dictionary, and news and magazine articles.

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 To the Instructors

Generally speaking, Vietnamese learners of English normally have difficulty

understanding a text in English exactly and expressing their thoughts in English
effectively. The problem may be that they lack a good knowledge of English vocabulary
in general, of how words are used in certain grammatical constructions to create desired
meanings.
You are relied upon to help point out and analyze the grammatical constructions in
which the words are used in this book, when need be, so that the students can express
their thoughts effectively in English and in their mother tongue as well.
And you are also expected to provide the students with necessary translation
techniques and to give them comments on their work in order for them to complete the
tasks successfully.
In addition, you are expected to share your own valuable translation experience,
which is unique and is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

To the Students

Whether you take translation as a career or as a college course, you are to do a

good job of reading a text in one language and then writing it again in another, namely
English and Vietnamese. And in order to read and write effectively, you have no other
choice but to acquire as many words and grammatical constructions as you can and
practice using them as much as possible.
To begin with, comprehension of a word involves more than spelling and saying
it. Understanding a word fully requires you to know what part of speech it belongs to; it
may be used as a noun in one context and as a verb in another. And needless to say, it
also requires you to know exactly how it is used and what it means in each context. In
other words, you are supposed to know the grammatical constructions in which the word
is used to make sense in a certain context. And for the sake of translation, it is
recommended that you find the closest equivalent of the word in the second language.
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 Another recommendation is practicing using the vocabulary and the grammatical
constructions you have learned. It would be a good idea to write a complete sentence with
the word and the grammatical constructions you have just acquired. And for the sake of
translation, you are to render the idea stated in the original sentence into the second
language.
To sum up, in order to have good reading and writing skills, which are the basic
requirements of doing translation, you are supposed to know exactly how a word is used
and what it means in a certain context and practice using it to express a complete thought
in a complete sentence.
Accordingly, this book is designed to give you practice in using words and
grammatical constructions involved, in addition to a bird’s-eye view on translation
theory, to render ideas conveyed in English into Vietnamese and vice versa.
In addition, you are expected to learn more in class about translation techniques
and other stuff concerning sentence translation. Therefore, do not hesitate to put
questions to your instructor when necessary.
And finally, may you get the smell of success in your process of learning language
in general and of learning English in particular, a process which is so hard but so
enjoyable.

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