Strategies for translating Vietnamese culturespecific items in tourist materials into English

g but 
is likely to have a similar impact on the TL readers. However, when translating back into Vietnamese, the 
phrase “nhạc opera cổ điển cung đình” sounds ridiculous and peculiar, which means that the cultural aspect 
of translation is lost when this strategy is employed. 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Paraphrase 
 rồi sẽ có chân chúa đến lập chùa 
ở đây để tụ khí cho bền long mạch. 
 that a Lord would come and build 
a Buddhist pagoda for the 
country's prosperity 
In this example, if translated literally, the phrase will be “For gathering the air for dragon’s pulse”, 
which is ambiguous for TL readers. Therefore, it is clear that the phrase in ST has important implications. 
In Eastern culture, “long mạch” is often used to refer to the status quo of the whole country. Thus, the 
implication of the whole source text is making the country prosperous and raising the standard of citizen’s 
lives. Only by using the strategy paraphrase can the translator decode the implying meaning of the phrase 
and successfully transfer the message to the TL readers. However, paraphrasing the source text into “For 
the country’s prosperity” clearly erase the cultural factors of the original text. 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Shifts Nơi thờ tự các vua chúa đã quá cố Sanctums honoring the cult of deceased Emperors 
In this example, thanks to the phrase “các vua chúa”, we know that there are many emperors. Hence, 
there cannot be a sanctum for all the emperors. Thus, it is understandable to have a change in the form 
(from singular to plural) of the noun “Nơi” into “Sanctums”. 
3.2.2. Couplets 
In reality, tourist materials are closely related to culture. Hence, they are inevitably complicated and 
full of implications. Consequently, there are situations when a single translation procedure is not enough to 
render the SL phrases into TL. Translators thus have to combine two different procedures in order to fulfill 
the meaning. And according to Newmark, this way of translation is called couplets. 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Transference 
combined with 
Synonymy 
Together with the Perfume River, 
Ngu Binh Mount is the second 
invaluable gift endowed by Nature to 
Hue. 
Ngoài ra còn có một cửa phụ thông 
với Trấn Bình Ðài gọi là Thái Bình 
Môn. 
Sau khi Vua Thành Thái bị thực dân 
Pháp đày sang đảo Réunion,  
, Gia Hội, Chợ Dinh, Nam Phổ, 
Bao Vinh, quyện theo mùi thơm của 
các loài hoa xứ Huế. 
Cùng với sông Hương, núi Ngự 
Bình là quà tặng vô giá thứ hai của 
tạo hoá, quyện vào nhau tạo nên vẻ 
sơn thuỷ hữu tình của Huế. 
Besides, the Citadel has an ancillary 
gate connecting the Tran Binh 
Bastion called the Peace Gate. 
After Thanh Thai King was exiled to 
Reunion Island,  
, Gia Hoi, Dinh market, Nam 
Pho, Bao Vinh, mingling with the 
odors of flowers of Hue 
This combo is used when translating phrases which include a proper name and a SL word that has an 
equivalent in TL. In these examples, if the translator uses only transference, the phrases will be rendered as 
“Ngu Binh” and “Tran Binh” “Dinh” which are ambiguous to TL readers. However, when added the word 
“mount”, “bastion” and “market”, it turns out that the target text is more understandable even to those who 
never travel to Vietnam. In the third example, “Island” is undoubtedly the English equivalent of “Đảo”. 
Also, “Réunion”, a French proper noun, was rendered into “Reunion” using Transference (an omission of 
the acute accent). 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Transference 
combined with 
Note 
Thượng Thiện 
Hổ Quyền 
Thuong Thien (the kitchen for the Kings' 
food) 
Ho Quyen (tiger arena) 
This combo is used when translators want to supplement information to phrases with a proper name. 
If a TL audience have never heard about Nguyen dynasty, they cannot get what “Thuong Thien” and “Ho 
Quyen” mean. Therefore, more information related to the SL culture is added in the bracket to explain the 
function of the phrases. 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Transference combined 
with Functional 
equivalent 
 Trên nóc nhà trước chắp 
bằng pháp lam ngũ sắc. 
 on the ridge rests a wine gourd 
decorated with Phap Lam enamel. 
This combo is preferred when dealing with phrases including a proper name that needs meaning 
supplements. The translator can easily transfer “Pháp Lam” into “Phap Lam”. However, as it is obscure to 
TL readers, “Phap Lam” needs to be clarified by using a culture-free word “enamel”, which crosses out the 
bewilderment of TL audience. 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Shifts combined 
with Synonymy 
Cửu Đỉnh The Nine Dynastic Urns 
 This combo is used only when there is a change in the grammar from SL to TL happening to the SL 
phrases which have their equivalents in the TL. In this example, Urn” is the English equivalent of “Đỉnh”. In 
Vietnamese, the plural form of the noun “Đỉnh” is presented by the word “Cửu” which means nine. However, 
in English, the plural form of a noun must be presented by the morpheme -s. It is clear that there was a shift 
in grammar during the translation process. 
3.2.3. Triplets 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Transference 
combined with 
Synonymy and 
Note 
Hiển Lâm Các được xây 
dựng phía trước Thế Miếu, 
Hien Lam Pavilion (Pavilion of the 
Glorious Coming) is situated in the 
center of the Dynastic Temple's 
courtyard,  
 This combo is used when translators want to render SL phrases which include a proper name and a 
word that has its equivalent in TL while adding extra knowledge. In this example, actually, “Hiển Lâm 
Các” can also be translated as “Hien Lam Pavilion”. The translator, however, provides the TL readers with 
more information related to culture of Vietnam by giving the sense of the proper name, which is “Pavilion 
of the Glorious Coming”. 
Strategy Source text (Vietnamese) Target text (English) 
Transference 
combined with 
Synonymy and Shifts 
Lăng Tự Đức 
Lăng Gia Long 
Tomb of Tu Duc 
Tomb of Gia Long 
This combo is used to when translators want to render SL phrases which include a proper name and 
a word that has its equivalent in TL while witnessing a change in the grammar from SL to TL happening to 
the SL phrases. In these aforementioned examples, “tomb”, the English equivalent of “Lăng”, is combined 
with the proper names, namely “Tu Duc” and “Gia Long”. Also, it is obvious that an SL grammatical 
structure does not exist in the TL (there is no such phrase as “Tomb Tu Duc”. The possible options are 
“Tomb of Tu Duc”/ “Tu Duc’s tomb” and “Tomb of Gia Long”/ “Gia Long’s tomb”. Either way, there is 
undoubtedly a change in the grammar happening during the translation process. 
Strategy Source text 
(Vietnamese) 
Target text (English) 
Transference combined 
with Functional 
equivalent and Note 
Châu Ô và Châu Lý the areas of O and Ly (now Quang 
Tri and Thua Thien-Hue provinces) 
 This combination is used when the translators want to generalize the ST with a proper name as well 
as giving further details. This is a clear example. “Châu is a Vietnamese administration term. Therefore, in 
order to generalize, the translator renders it into “the areas”. Moreover, since “Châu Ô” and “Châu Lý” no 
longer exists, the translator gives additional information about these areas to avoid making confusion to TL 
readers. 
4. Conclusions and recommendation 
4.1. Conclusion 
The findings of this study allow these following conclusions to be withdrawn: 
Firstly, nearly all of the strategies proposed by Newmark (11 out of 17) are employed when 
translating CSIs in tourist materials. A single method can be applied in one circumstance, but in some cases, 
two strategies (Couplets) or three strategies (Triplets) are combined during the translation process. Based 
on the findings, most of the CSIs found in the collected data are proper names. They include names of 
people, objects and destinations, and these names are usually kept intact during the translation process 
(Transference). However, when it comes to proper names that have an implying meaning, translators are 
inclined to employ strategies that can decode the message behind that name (Synonymy) when translating. 
Secondly, by using the suggested translation strategies of Newmark, it is found that 9 Single 
translation procedures, 4 Couplets and 3 Triplets are employed to render CSIs in tourist materials. Even 
though the number of single translation procedures is highest, couplets are most preferred when it comes 
to translate CSIs. (with 130 tokens compared to 55 and just 15 for single translation procedures and triplets 
respectively). The strategy “Translation using Transference + Synonymy” is most used with nearly haft of 
the proportion (45%), followed by “Translation using Transference + Note” (15.5%), Synonymy (12%), 
and Transference (6.5%). This proves Newmark’s statement in his book “A textbook of translation” (1988): 
When the translator has to decide whether or not to transfer a word unfamiliar in the target language, 
which in principle should be a SL cultural word whose referent is peculiar to the SL culture, he usually 
complements it with a second translation procedure - the two procedures in harness are referred to as a 
‘couplet’() Needless to say, in principle, the names of SL objects, inventions, devices, processes to be 
imported into the TL community should be creatively, preferably 'authoritatively', translated. (p. 81) 
 Thirdly, at the other end, the strategies “Translation using Paraphrase”, “Translation Cultural 
equivalent” and “Translation using Shifts” share the bottom rank with the frequency of only 0.5%. This 
also conforms to the reluctance of Newmark to list “Paraphrase” as a translation procedure, since the word 
is often used to describe free translation. (1988, p. 91). In addition, since “the main purpose of “Cultural 
Equivalent” is to support or supplement another translation procedure in a couplet” (Newmark, 1988, p. 
83), there is no surprise when this procedure is less preferred. Finally, Newmark (1988) commented that 
“the word order is changed unnecessarily, and it is sometimes more appropriate to translate with a lexical 
synonym, retain the word order and forgo the shifts (transposition) in order to preserve the stress.” (p. 88), 
which explains for translators’ reluctance to employ “shifts” during the translation process. 
 Finally, according to the frequency of occurrence of translation procedures, more target texts are 
translated using foreignization strategies than domestication ones. It is probable that during the translation 
of CSIs, translators incline to sacrifice the readability of the target text for retaining cultural factors of the 
source text. 
4.2. Recommendation 
Newmark (1988) said that translation involves rendering the content of a source text into another 
language in a way that TL readers feel and respond in the same way as SL audience does. Whereas, 
translating a source text into a target text without altering the particular messages is an exceptionally 
troublesome undertaking. Hence, it is undeniable that profound research into translation strategies plays a 
pivotal role in assuring the quality of the translation. 
During translation courses, students as well as teachers should pay more attention to cross-cultural 
communication which provides useful information about how cultural factors affect the translation process. 
In addition, they should be careful when choosing the translation strategies since these strategies are crucial 
in the translation process. Both beginner and expert translators should build up their abilities of translating 
CSIs. In the meantime, they should also learn how to pick words and expressions as well as broaden their 
English vocabulary so as to make proper translations. 
There are still many issues related to the field of translation of Vietnamese tourist destinations in 
tourist materials that need to be explored further: 
 - Further research should focus on other kinds of tourist materials (brochures, magazines, travel 
guide, etc) 
 - Further research should also focus on cultural characteristics of tourist materials in Vietnam. 
 - Further research should focus on cultural aspects and their impacts on tourist materials’ translation 
process. 
References 
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University Press. 
Larson, M.L. (1984). Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language equivalence. Lanham and 
New York: University Press of America, Inc. 
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. London: Prentice Hall. 
Nida, E. (1984). On translation. Beijing: Translation Publishing Corp. 
Nord, C. (1997). Translating as a purposeful activity: Functionalist approaches explained. Manchester: 
St. Jerome. 
Rezaei, M., & Kuhi, D. (2014). Strategies emplyed in translation of tourist guidebooks culture-specific 
items from Persian into English. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(4), 750-757. Doi: 
10.4304/tpls.4.4.750-757. 
Sanning, H. (2010). Lost and found in translating tourist texts: Domesticating, foreignising or 
neutralising approach. Specialised Translation, 13(1), 124-137. 
Venuti, L. (1995). The translator’s invisibility. London: Routledge. 
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NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC DỊCH NHỮNG TỪ NGỮ 
VĂN HÓA TIẾNG VIỆT TRONG TÀI LIỆU DU LỊCH 
SANG TIẾNG ANH 
Tóm tắt: Bài báo này chú trọng vào hai vấn đề: đầu tiên là xem xét cách những chuyên gia dịch những 
từ ngữ văn hóa tiếng Việt trong các tài liệu du lịch sang tiếng Anh, thứ hai là tìm ra những chiến lược 
sử dụng cho quá trình dịch thuật này. Đối tượng nghiên cứu là 200 từ ngữ văn hóa (culture-specific 
items), bao gồm các tên riêng (proper names) và diễn đạt thông thường (common expressions) trong tài 
liệu du lịch trên website ( vietnamtourism.com/en/index.php/tourism/cat/05). Khi sử dụng 
hệ thống phân loại quy trình dịch do Newmark đề xuất, kết quả cho thấy có 3 chiến lược chính đã được 
sử dụng (bao gồm dịch đơn, bộ đôi và bộ ba). Trong số đó, chiến lược bộ đôi được ưu tiên lựa chọn. Cụ 
thể, bộ đôi Chuyển dịch (Transference) và Từ đồng nghĩa (Synonymy) được sử dụng nhiều nhất. 
Từ khóa: Từ ngữ văn hóa, tài liệu du lịch, quy trình dịch, chiến lược dịch