国内手机制造商官方网页英译的本地化研究

论文总字数：30492字

摘 要

根据美国市场调查机构IC Insights的调查数据显示，中国手机品牌华为2018年在全球市场发行了超过1.53亿部手机，Oppo和Vivo在海外市场总共发行了2.132亿部智能手机。在国内手机品牌海外推广的过程中，如何赢得海外消费者信任，以及如何提高品牌影响力都是十分重要的课题。手机制造商的官方网站是一个手机品牌树立形象的重要渠道，官网给消费者带来的是对此品牌的第一印象，官网的设计跟广告相比可以给消费者带来更直观的印象。对于国内手机品牌来讲，官网英译中各类信息的本地化处理，就成了重中之重。手机制造商官方网站在源语言版本向目标语言版本的转换过程中应遵循相应的本地化标准，让官网最终呈现出的内容更符合国外消费者文化。

本研究以国内手机品牌华为的官网英译版为素材，重点选取网站上P30和Mate X两个型号的手机广告文案以及功能介绍为研究对象，旨在分析华为官网在英译的过程中是如何对这些信息进行本地化处理的。通过对中文版和英译版的案例分析，总结归纳出本地化翻译过程中使用的翻译策略以及所遵循的本地化翻译原则。

研究表明，华为官网在P30和MateX两个型号的手机广告文案及功能介绍的英译中使用了一定的本地化策略，结合相关翻译策略和翻译方法，基本实现了英译的本地化要求。因此，华为作为国内最大手机厂商，其官网英译的本地化经验在一定程度上可以为整个行业提供许多有用经验。

关键词：本地化；本地化翻译；官网英译

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments i

English Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Abbreviations iv

Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1Research Background 1

1.2The significance of research 1

1.3Research procedures 2

Chapter Two Literature Review 3

2.1Translation within GILT framework 3

2.2Risks in translation and localization 4

2.3 studies abroad ..................................................................................................... 5

2.4 studies at home ................................................................................................. ..6

Chapter Three An analysis of translation cases 7

3.1 Advertising Slogans 7

3.2The Introduction of product features.....................................................................9

Chapter Four Conclusion 12

4.1Summary 12

4.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 13

References 14

Chapter One Introduction

1.1Research Background

With the development of economic globalization, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have gradually stepped out of the country and entered the global market. According to the data from IC Insights, a US market research firm, HUAWEI sold more than 153 million mobile phones to the world in 2018. OPPO and Vivo sold 213.2 million of phones in the world market. Therefore, they need to face the problem about how to integrate into the foreign cultures, how to win the trust of overseas consumers and how to improve their brand influence in the world market.

The official website of the mobile phone makers is an important channel to win international fame. The official website gives consumers the first impression of the brand. For Chinese mobile phone brands, localization strategy is the first job to be done. A wrong localization strategy will create a strange feeling to foreign consumers, which will eventually lead to consumers' distrust.

Therefore, before establishing a website, the engineers and translators should work together, coming up with an efficient localization strategy. I chose HUAWEI as an example to analyze its localization strategy because HUAWEI is the biggest phone manufacturer in China and it's also a leader of oversea market in China. By learning the localization strategy of HUAWEI, other Chinese phone makers will do better in the future.

All the Chinese phone companies will face challenges and competition in the global market. It's so necessary to carry on more researches on localization. Besides, only theoretical studies are not enough for today's global competition. We need more case studies to gain more experience. Then the Chinese companies will be stronger enough in the global market.

1.2The Significance of Research

The purpose of localization is to satisfy the users from different cultures. The writes create the content in source language when designing the website. The translators write the texts in target language and satisfy the readers from different countries. Every step of establishing a website needs the guide of localization strategy. The phone companies should learn how to use localization theory in real case and develop their own strategies. Phone is not a software or an operation manual. Therefore, the localization research of phone is still a task for all the Chinese phone companies. The experience of the China's biggest phone company will be useful for all the phone companies in China.

1.3 Research procedures

With the development of our global market, all the products are able to be transferred to different countries. Therefore, to impress the local consumer, starting the localization of products will be the prime job of all the companies that want to explore bigger overseas market.

In this paper, I will concentrate on the introduction of phones in the English version, including advertisement slogans and introductions of features. I chose the English versions designed for United Kingdom. The English version has similar design with Chinese version of typesetting, color, form and images. So, I will concentrated on the slogans and features on the website, and analyze how HUAWEI uses the localization strategy to translate advertising slogans and the introduction of product features. I used two phone models, P30 and Mate X as examples. I will put the information into tables and do the research.

In localization industry, translation is not just the process of "finding the source text--translation--translation acceptance"(Wang 2015). It becomes an important part of GILT industry. Therefore, every step of GILT is related to the success of translation. I will follow the process of "Internationalization---localization--- translation (Wang 2015)" to analyze the English version.

For the first step, I will focus on the "Internationalization". Internationalization means that one company makes its product easy to be remade in order to attract consumers from different countries. Therefore, it is related to the original version of the website. I will look at the Chinese version and find techniques and rules that the writers use to make it easy for translators to do translation.

For the second step, I will focus on the "localization and translation". By analyzing the English version, I will find out what kind of words the translators use and the structure of the words. And then I will find out how translators make the translation attractive to local people.

The last step is to find out how the translators avoid the risks in translation. Pym (2004) divides the risks into different levels and summarizes different strategies for avoiding risks according to specific situations: 1) generalization; 2) contacting consumers to clarify specific meanings; 3) performing literal translation; 4) not translating, retaining the original text; 5) Skip without translation. I will analyze the strategies translators use to avoid the risk.

The method I use in this paper is text analyze. I will use the resource I find on the Website to conclude rules and techniques, so that I can conclude the localization strategies adopted by HUAWEI's writing team and translation team.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Translation within GILT framework

Localization is a service that is connected to the economic environment. In today's global market, the target language society won't accept products from foreign countries passively. Therefore, localization will be the best choice for the adaptation of the foreign products in the target language society.

Localization has become a major part of today's translation industry, which is called "GILT" industry. GILT means "Globalization, Internationalization, localization, translation." It can also be called as "Localization Industry".

According to Iwona (2007), "Globalization" means: If one company wants to open an oversea market and makes its products suit for global markets, this process is called Globalization. The product can be a social project, a market strategy, a website or a software. "Internationalization" means one company makes its product easy to be remade in order to attract consumers from different countries. So, when the product is designed to be International, all the elements related its culture which is hard to be understood by foreign country will be deleted or changed into other forms. In the industry of software, Internationalization is regarded as the process of designing a product based on English and American culture. The international software has easy grammar so that it can be easily translated to other language and be accepted by other consumers. "Localization" is the process of making a product adapted to the culture and language in different market in the world. The product will have some change of its advertisement material and operation manual before entering another country's market. This process is also called "the marriage of language and technology". That's because in localization industry, language is connected to technology. Translators is not only deal with language, but also deal with the look and type setting of language. Translation is an important part. This is the final step that makes all the things happen based on the "GILT".

The content of localization is complex. Localization objects are software, online help, websites, product manuals and other technical documents, e-learning materials, film and television media works and many other texts. Traditional translation basically continues the three-step process of "finding the original text – translation – translation acceptance", but the localization translation is based on "Internationalization –localization – translation – type setting – publishing" (Lu 2015).

2.2 Risks in translation and Localization

Translation is a high-risk activity, especially for the translation in Localization industry because localization is related to the business. In the source language, there may be some information that is not important and always be ignored by readers. But, in the translation, the information in the target language that is not important might cause misunderstanding to local people because of different culture and social environment. Even if some companies have good localization strategies of their product, they still need to avoid the risks.

Pym (2004) introduces the concept of "risk" into translation studies. In cross-cultural translation, translators should make more researches about the consumers to minimize risks. "Risk management is an economic term derived after the Second World War. It refers to using the method of checking against the possible occurrence of risks"(Dai, Huang, 1998: 252). “Risk” may lead to a failure in business. Pym believes that translators should be aware of the risk in translation activities. The most basic requirement is that the benefits are greater than the cost. The degree of risk varies, so translators should use different translation strategies. Pym divides the risks into different levels and summarizes different strategies for avoiding risks according to specific situations: 1) generalization; 2) contacting consumers to clarify specific meanings; 3) performing literal translation; 4) not translating, retaining the original text; 5) Skip without translation. For example, in Spanish, “convalidacion” and “homologacio” can both be translated into “accreditation”. But those two Spanish words have different definition in Spanish. If the exchange students read the translation of English, they may misunderstand the meaning and make mistakes. Therefore, this is a high risk translation. Translators need to choose the "literalism" or "non-translation".

2.3 Studies abroad

In China's biggest academic website HowNet, there are 3172 papers whose titles include "localization". In the mean time, there are 207283 papers have title with "translation". The total value of global translation service was 38.4 billion dollars in 2013 and has kept climbing in the next few years. However，the researches about localization is not enough for the development for localization industry.

Ireland is the first country in the world doing the research about professional localization work. In 1997. Ireland established the Localization Research Center. The journal "Localization Focus" published a series of localization findings.

America and Europe is the biggest market of software localization, so that they are interested in the research of localization. In 2001, Heather Maxwell Chandler's book The Game Localization Handbook is a professional book of electric game, writing about the localization of games thoroughly (Chandler, 2004). Dunne in KSU published Perspectives on Localization in 2016 and published Translation and localization Project Management in focus on the localization. LISA also carried on some researches about localization standard, making some standard like TMX, TBX, SRX.

2.4 Studies at home

According to Zhang Ying (2011), there are three main types of researches about the localized translation within the framework of GILT. They are: The research of the industry and technology of Localization; The education of localized translation；The research of the theory of localized translation.

According to Zhang Ying (2011), in 21century, with the global development of the internet, the localization service will be a big part of translation service. In her paper, she introduces the research of localization abroad, including the industry of localization services, technique analysis, education and the impact that the localized translate caused to traditional industry.

Wang amp; Tan (2012) analyzes the meaning, differences and connection of "GILT" – the most important terms in localization, avoiding the misunderstanding in different researches.

In Wang's paper (2009), she thinks localization is an important part of the globalization of big companies. This paper aims to re-construct the translation job in target language society based on the analysis of localization industry.

Cui (2013) thinks that localization in a new thing to language service. Compare with the development of localization market, the research of localization doesn't develop well. His paper focuses on the characteristic of localization.

Chapter Three An analysis of Translation Cases

In this chapter, I picked two phone models, Mate X and P30 Pro from HUAWEI as examples to analyze how advertising slogans and product features are translated to cater to target consumers within GILT framework.

3.1 Advertising Slogans

The translation of advertising slogan is different from traditional translation. Translators won't strictly follow source language. It is called "Transcreation" (Lu 2015). According to Peter Newmark's text theory, the translation in localization industry should ensure the "availability" in the target language market. Translators should follow the principle of "reader first" and make sure that the readers of both source language and target language have similar reading experience.

Here are the examples of slogans.

Table 1: slogan translation of Mate X and P30 Pro

Firstly, I need to concentrate on the structure. Every slogan in the table have one or two phrases. If one slogan contains two phrases, the number of the words in both phrases will be the same or at most has three more words in one phrase. Therefore, all the Chinese slogan is strictly antithetical, so that it makes the slogan really powerful to the Chinese consumers. This kind of expression is common in Chinese. In the mean time, we can find that, although all the Chinese slogans have the same unique Chinese structure, it won’t cause the difficulties in translation. That's because, first, in every slogan, it has only one key information about the phone, which is easy to be identified by the translators and do the translation. For example, these two slogans "一骑绝尘，源自核心"and"像素重生，夜色尽现" express two pieces of information, which are "Fast speed of system" and "evolution of pixel". And the two phrases in one slogan have different function. One phrase tells the information about the function and another phrase uses the dramatic word to attract consumers, like"颠覆传统束缚""笑容绽放".

Besides, there aren't words in Chinese culture that is hard to be translated into English. To create a great impact of the advertisement, Chinese companies usually use some powerful words, for example, "龙""凤凰""麒麟""龙腾虎跃",etc. But these objects have no counterparts in UK's culture. Therefore, we can see, the translators avoid word-for-word translation. The only object HUAWEI uses is "horse" in the slogan :"一骑绝尘，源自核心" because “horse” is not a mutually exclusive cultural image. So, HUAWEI did a good job in the process "internationalization". While using the Chinese words and structure to give deep impression to Chinese consumers, the slogans are easy to be translated and changed as they have clear information and won't have Chinese words that will cause misunderstanding in UK's culture.

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