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HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

INTERNSHIP REPORT
Bachelor of Translation and Interpretation

Intern’s name: VO THANH LAM

Student ID: 42.01.751.111
Instructor: Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung
Organization: Gia Dinh Education Publishing
Service Joint Stock Company
Department: Editorial Department of
Foreign Languages
Supervisor: Ms. Tran Thi Cam Van
Internship date: From September 20th to November
29th, 2018

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Title Page
Chapter 1: Concrete experience ....................................................................... 2
Chapter 2: Reflection......................................................................................... 3
Chapter 3: Conceptualization ........................................................................... 4
Appendix
About Gia Dinh Education Publishing Service Joint Stock Company
Diary/Journal
Reference
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CHAPTER 1: CONCRETE EXPERIENCE

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The first step of the experiential learning process is concrete experience. According to David Kolb’s
learning circle, concrete experience is a new experience or situation which is encountered, or a
reinterpretation of an existing experiences.
On our very first days in Gia Dinh Education Publishing Service Joint Stock Company, me and my
teammates were introduced about the company’s works as well as making acquaintance of the
company’s staffs. After a meeting to begin our internship course, we were introduced to Ms. Tran Thi
Cam Van, the head of Editorial Department of Foreign Languages. Firstly, she showed us some
completed documents which was translated and edited carefully by the department’s staffs. Then, Ms
Cam Van show us each part of the department and the producing process to make every document. That
was also the first time we had a chance to approach an actual translation working environment.
The department’s staffs then gave us some raw materials from many translators. We learned a way to
highlight the mistakes, that was by circling and add a replacement next to each of them. This was also a
very new experience in translating materials that we were learned.
That was the first time we were in a professional working environment, so the feeling of anxious was
inevitable. We all know that any mistake will lead to unexpected result, especially for our course. So we
had to extremely concentrate on whatever we did to ensure the working quality. We also had to ask our
supervisor to check whenever we received any task.
Moreover, although we interned in team, but whenever we received a material to observe and
learn its translation method, we had to divide it and each of us would have to research a part of the
whole material. That was the reason of individual pressure. This was a problem we had to overcome to
be better in work. That was why the internship played an indispensable part for my future career.
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CHAPTER 2: REFLECTION
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The next step in the experiential learning process is reflective observation (or reflection). According to
David Kolb, this step is especially important to any inconsistencies between experience and
understanding.
During our internship course in Gia Dinh Education Publishing Service Joint Stock Company, we had
chance to observe the translation process of some foreign-language documents and then compare it to
the completed version which was translated and edited carefully by the Editorial Department of Foreign
Languages’ staffs. Then we found out some new experience in our mature, especially in translating
some particular documents from the source language into the target language.
Below is some experience we achieved during our working process.
In the first 8 weeks, we were assigned to research a book about geography named “California Science
Grade 5 Interactive Text” by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. This is a book specialized in many fields of
science. Before beginning our task, the supervisor asked us to find out some background information
about each science field, so that we would have less difficulties while working with the book.
- While working with the book, there were some new and hard words or phrases or sentences relating to
many different science fields, including physicals, whether, human’s body construction, … We had to
both read it and found out information about the text at the same time so as to ensure the work’s
accuracy.
For example:
In chapter 2: Plant Structures and Functions:
- Phloem: tissue that moves food (sugar) from the leaves to other parts of a plant
➔ Mạch rây là tế bào vận chuyển các chất dinh dưỡng (như đường) từ phiến lá đến các bộ phận
khác của cây.
- Seed plants that produce flowers are called angiosperms. Seed plants that do not produce
flowers are called gymnosperms.
➔ Thực vật có hạt mà phát triển ra hoa thì gọi là thực vật hạt kín. Thực vật có hạt mà không phát
triển ra hoa thì gọi là thực vật hạt trần.
Because this is a science book, so that the translators had to translated any words or phrases
absolutely correct with its scientific meaning. Any mistake, even the smallest, will affect the
accuracy of the translations.
- Moreover, this is a science book. It means it shouldn’t be included any expressive factor. This will
make the translation become less specialized and convincing.
- We also come across some words, which had its meaning in the document different from its familiar
meaning we usually use. We saw that the translators had to search the meaning of those words or
phrases on some reliable sources, and chose the most appropriate meaning and applied it to their
translations.
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For example
In chapter 5: Earth’s Weather:
- The meeting place between two air masses is called a front.
➔ Điểm giao nhau giữa hai khối khí gọi là biên.
In normal cases, the word “front” means “the part or side of something that faces forward”. But in
this context, this word means “the line that divides two countries or areas”. Not only in this situation,
but also in any other one, the translators had to read and understand the meaning of the whole
sentences carefully, as well as apply the relative knowledge about the current topic. By doing so, they
could choose the appropriate words in the target language to transfer fully the author’s intention.
At the end of this 8 weeks, we were given a chance to observe the translation process of another kind of
book. That is a geography book named “Earth – Our home: Full Geographic”. This is also a
specialized book like “California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text”, but its main topic is just about
geography, so Ms Cam Van told us that this book should be translated by a way which is not so difficult
to understand.
- The most distinctive characteristic of geography books is a large number of associations’
abbreviations. This is another point the translators had to pay in attention to ensure the translation’s
accuracy. They had to transfer completely the associations’ name from the source language to the target
language.
For example
In chapter 6: The Tourism Industry, page 64
- UNWTO: World Tourism Organization
➔ Tổ chức Du lịch Thế giới
- SNEC: Singapore National Eye Center
➔ Trung tâm mắt Quốc gia Singapore
In the last 2 weeks, we received another task. That was working with another book named “The life
skills handbook - Macmillan English”. Generally, this book is not so hard to translate, but Ms Cam
Van noticed us that this book is used mainly for primary students, so she advised us that if we have
chance to translate it later, we should avoid using too specialized words so that students could
understand the book more easily, while ensure the contents of the document.
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CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUALISATION
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The next step in the David Kolb’s learning circle is abstract conceptualisation (conceptualisation). This
is the reflections give rises to a new idea, or modification of an existing abstract concept the person has
learned from their experience.
During our team’s internship course, we had many chances to review knowledge about our mature
(especially, that is translation). We also had to connect our learned knowledge to the practical tasks to
ensure these following criteria:
- After our internship course, we could achieve knowledge by applying experiential learning.
- Any task we receive should be appropriated to our mature: translation and interpretation. And
almost our task involved in translation.
- Apply already available experience learned in class while doing tasks, so as to improve our
translation level gradually and make our translations become more accuracy.
- Apply achieved experience during internship course back to class, so as to build a basement to
develope new experience.
Finally, after our interning process, I can list out some experience we have achieved relating to my
lesson in class:
- Master your reading comprehensive skills: We can improve our reading skills by approach many
kinds of document of different subjects.
- Cultivate the cultural knowledge in both languages: Because the source language’s cultural
environment is usually different from that of the target language, so we all have to improve our
cultural knowledge of both languages so as to ensure the accuracy of the translation and make it
easier to understand to the reader.
- Select words or phrases’ meaning base on the context of the document: There are some words in
some contexts whose meaning is different form its common meaning. We have to base on the
context and understand throughout its content to choose an appropriate words or phrases in our
translation.
- Select words or phrases’ structure base on the readership: You would have chance to translate
many kinds of document for many different readerships. So that choosing suitable words and
sentences’ structure according to the age, the social class, the academic level, … of the readers is
a necessary thing to do whenever you translate a document.
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Beside that, I have achieved some more practical experience after my internship course. Working
environment is totally different from study environment. I did have to be flexible and clever in the
relationships with other colleagues as well as listen carefully to the instructions of the supervisor so as to
complete my work better. This internship course made me become more mature, more confident and
more pro-active. This will also a solid foundation for my future work.
Once again, I would like to express my thanks to the whole-hearted help from my supervisor, Ms. Tran
Thi Cam Van, my teammates and especially my teacher Nguyen Thanh Tung. I am very grateful for
having an opportunity to work with all of you and gain valuable experience.
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APPENDIX
ABOUT GIA DINH EDUCATION PUBLISHING SERVICE JOINT STOCK
COMPANY
Name: Gia Dinh Education Publishing Service Joint Stock Company
Address: 231 Nguyen Van Cu St., Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Writing, editing, translating books serving teaching and learning purposes for a wide range of faculties
and levels in schools nationwide are core missions of Gia Dinh Education Publishing Service Joint
Stock Company.
Belonging to Vietnam Education Publishing House, an organization with more than 50 years
specializing in publishing course books, author team in Gia Dinh Education Publishing Service Joint
Stock Company has a great deal of valuable experience in this field and gain honored achievements,
which has contributed a lot to the development of Vietnam education in general and Southern provinces’
one in particular.
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DIARY/JOURNAL
Week 1 (September 20 – September 26)
Chapter 1: Structure of living things of the book California Science Grade 5
Interactive Text - Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 2 (September 27 – October 3)
Chapter 2: Plant structure and functions of the book California Science Grade 5
Interactive Text - Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 3 (October 4 – October 10)
Chapter 3: Human body systems of the book California Science Grade 5 Interactive
Text - Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 4 (October 11 – October 17)
Chapter 4: Earth’s water of the book California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text -
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 5 (October 18 – October 24)
Chapter 5: Earth’s weather of the book California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text -
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 6 (October 25 – October 31)
Chapter 6: The solar system of the book California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text -
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 7 (November 1 – November 7)
Chapter 7: Types of matter of the book California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text -
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Week 8 (November 8 – November 14)
Chapter 1: Changes in matter of the book California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text
- Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Earth: Our home: Full Geogeaphy/Chapter 6 & 7
Week 9 (November 15 – November 21)
The first half of the book The life skills handbook - Macmillan English
Week 10 (November 22 – November 28)
The second half of the book The life skills handbook - Macmillan English
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REFERENCE
1. California Science Grade 5 Interactive Text - Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Link pdf: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DW9X4Mk4NJULYK-7CH7Pph0qoCQhMnbo
2. The life skills handbook - Macmillan English
Link pdf:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4ZnRHIryw_hSVluZHpMYms4Q0oxWS1xeHdMbzZuV2
0wZnEw
3. Earth – Our Home: Full Geographic
Introduction on Google:
https://books.google.com.vn/books/about/Earth.html?id=doGotgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y