By Shen Xiaoqian

On June 29th, the first academic lecture entitled “How to Be a Good Translator” was given by Xie Qingli, Associate Professor and vice dean of the SFL.

At the beginning, Mr. Xie asked, “Why is translation important to a language student?” After he clarified the importance, he continued with the first part of the lecture, which centered on the qualities a translator should possess. Mr. Xie listed some personal qualities like a strong sense of responsibility, diligence, punctuality and flexibility. He laid special emphasis on responsibility and advised students to practice more. He also told students to develop linguistic competence and broaden extra-linguistic knowledge, both of which needed to be accumulated bit by bit. He quoted a popular remark, “A translator/An interpreter should know something about everything and know everything about something.” Then he pointed out cross-cultural awareness. Students should learn different meanings of a thing or a behavior under various cultural backgrounds, stick to principles of politeness and avoid pragmatic failures.

The second part focused on how to learn translation during the undergraduate years. Five suggestions were given: mastering translating theory, mastering translating skills, developing the language sensitivity, broadening horizon and challenging ourselves. He also gave some specific tips that students should be a diligent and careful learner, be a critical thinker, read a lot and attend lectures.

This lecture helped students understand translation better and arouse their enthusiasm and interest in learning it. The experience that Mr. Xie shared was also very beneficial to the students’ living and learning.