GDUFS President Zhong Weihe: Recent Development and Future Directions of Interpreting and Translatio

From November 18 to 20, 2016, the founding conference of WITTA and International Symposium on Translation in Education and Education in Translation were held in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Famous scholars in the field of interpreting and translation training from home and abroad gathered in GDUFS. With “Translation in Education and Education in Translation” as the theme, the scholars discussed how to promote the further development of interpreting and translation training worldwide based on the broad platform of WITTA.

At the symposium, President Zhong Weihe made a keynote speech titled Recent Development and Future Directions of Interpreting and Translation Training in China’s Mainland. The following text is compiled by an editor of Yeeworld.com according to simultaneous interpreting on the spot.

The next part is the transcript of President Zhong’s speech:

Ladies and gentlemen,

   Good morning!

   The topic of my speech today corresponds to the theme of the symposium. During past years, my colleagues and I have been trying to promote the development of China’s interpreting and translation training.

   Interpreting and translation training in China’s Mainland started in the 1970s when the reform and opening-up policy was just proposed, and has experienced a prodigious development in the 21^st century. During the past several years, rapid education development in China’s Mainland drew more and more attention. Of course I’m not saying that I want to exclude Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, it’s just because they have their own systems. We in fact have a lot in common. But what I’m going to talk about today is the situation in China’s Mainland.

  Next, I’d like to share with you recent development and future directions of interpreting and translation training in China’s Mainland. And I also want to let you know what we have done and what we are going to do.

    Historical Background of Interpreting and Translation in China’s Mainland

   When it comes to interpreting and translation training, we should clearly understand the disciplinary orientation of education in China’s Mainland. Different disciplines are divided into different fields and levels, which may sound quite complicated to some foreign colleagues. According to the latest Disciplines with Doctorate and Master’s Degree and Professional Directory of Postgraduate Training released in 2012, degrees in 13 fields can be awarded in China, including philosophy, economics, law, pedagogy, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, military science and management.

  In fact, in 1997, translation study belonged to the secondary discipline of Foreign Language Studies and Applied Linguistics. In 2012, for the first time, translation studies became one of the 13 secondary disciplines under the first level discipline of Foreign Languages and Literature.

   And next, my question is: Why does the disciplinary orientation of interpreting and translation training is so important for interpreting and translation training in China’s Mainland?

The reason is that different levels of discipline get different financial and policy support from the central government and local government. Only first level disciplines can recruit their teachers and students independently. This is really critical for a complete interpreting and translation training system. Because only by becoming a first level discipline can we perfect our interpreting and translation training and realize our dream of BTI and MTI education.

   Before 1978, in China’s Mainland, no universities or colleges could declare that they had a real professional interpreting and translation training system. At that time, no one explored and studied translation and interpreting as a complete foreign language system. Maybe some of you think that in those days, the demand for professional translators and interpreters was quite low, and that China participated in limited international affairs as the world was dominated by two superpowers and western countries. Therefore, it is natural that few graduate students who studied foreign language(s) in top universities would choose interpreting and/or translation as a career. A substantial part if interpretation and translation catered to political needs, so people believed that as long as one was an excellent language learner, he could interpret and/or translate well and did not need extra professional training.

In fact, the first professional interpreter training school was founded in 1930. The development of translators and interpreters training in China’s Mainland was, as it were, half century behind some western countries. After China’s restoring its lawful seat in the UN, we realized that lots of translators and interpreters were needed to work in the UN, when we truly began to put efforts into the training of translators and interpreters.    

In 1979, translator and interpreter training in China’s Mainland started in former Beijing Foreign Studies University, also known as United Nations Training Programme for Interpreters and Translators, which was jointly promoted by the UN and the Chinese government. I know that some guests here were graduated from that training programme. Language services in the UN are directly linked with the setting of syllabus, teaching examination and recruitment. The Training Programme ran 12 consecutive periods, which was the earliest example of training interpreters and translators for international communication in China’s Mainland. Benefited from the success of the UN program, Graduate School of Translation and Interpreting of BFUS was founded in 1994, and is known as the earliest professional School of interpreting and translation studies. But before that, many universities had already begun cooperating with international partners to launch their own interpreting and translation training programs. For example, in 1993, GDUFS and British Council together set up a training program for interpreters and translators under the project of English Language and Culture. Xiamen University cooperated with Deakin University from 1990 to 1993 to run an experimental class for interpreters training, and jointly launched an experimental class for interpreters training and studies with University of Westminster from 1994 to 1998. I’m very lucky to get my postgraduate degree in University of Westminster.

  Translation studies in China’s Mainland quickly won its academic status. In 1997, we set up the first department of translation studies in GDUFS. Then, SISU, GDUFS and BFSU opened independent PHD programs in translation studies and MA programs in translation studies in 2004, 2007, and 2009 respectively, which further consolidated the academic status of translation studies. In 2012, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council announced Disciplines with Doctorate and Master’s Degree. As I have just mentioned, that document formally established the status of the young sub-discipline and separated English language and literature from linguistics. Since then, interpreting and translation training in China’s Mainland began to change. Just like what Gil had said, it transformed from “academic level” to “professional level”. This kind of transformation has promoted the development of BTI education and MTI education in China.

BTI was established by Ministry of Education of the PRC in 2006, and MTI by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council in 2007. Both BTI and MTI are very important for interpreting and translation training in China’s Mainland, so it is fair to say that those two years are years of great historical significance.

The BTI program, also known as Bachelor Program in Interpreting and Translation, was approved by the Ministry of Education. Fudan University, GDUFS and Hebei Normal University are among the first batch of universities that got the authorization. As of 2016, 233 universities in China have got the right to establish BTI program, with a total of 25,000 students trained. Language pairs of interpreting and translation involves English and Chinese, Russian and Chinese, French and Chinese, Japanese and Chinese, and Korean and Chinese.

In 2007, MTI Program was approved at the 13^th Plenary Session of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. Fifteen universities were authorized to establish MTI courses, including Peking University, BFUS, Fudan University, GDUFS and so on. Currently, 205 universities have the right to recruit MTI students in which the total number has reached 38,000. Language pairs of interpreting and translation involves English and Chinese, French and Chinese, Russian and Chinese, Korean and Chinese, Japanese and Chinese, German and Chinese, Spanish and Chinese, Arabian and Chinese, Thai and Chinese, and its number will continue to increase.

All these statistics demonstrate that China’s interpreting and translation training has attracted unprecedented attention. With the birth of BTI and MTI education, the systematic disciplinary framework of interpreting and translation training in China’s Mainland has already formed, including 3-5 years’ doctorate program and 2-3 years’ MA program, which equals to Master of translation studies. Moreover, there are also 2-2.5 years’ MTI program and 4 years’ BTI program.

MTI program and BTI program specialize in interpreting and translation training, and separate translation from the official traditional language and literature courses, which represent the positive learning of China’s interpreting and translation training from professionalized western training. Giving interpreting and translation the same disciplinary status as that of linguistics and foreign language and literature and institutionalizing interpreting and translation will help to find out the reality and avoid the confusion between language teaching and translation teaching.

BTI and MTI Programs and Training Objectives

   BTI program aims at training graduates with global vision, virtue and honesty, good academic aptitude, bilingual ability, innovative thinking and intercultural communicative competence. Graduates of this program should master relevant language skills, professional ethics, basic theoretical knowledge and interpreting and translation skills. And this program also teaches students how to use translation tools and technologies to master the basic knowledge and operation process in the language service industry. It aims to train students into professionals of cross-cultural communication and language service in fields of foreign affairs, trade, education, culture, science, technology and so on.

MTI program aims at training high-level and practical professional interpreters who are comprehensively developed in morality, intelligence and physique and able to meet the needs of national economy, culture and social development, thus increasing China’s international competitiveness in the era of economic globalization. As for the disciplinary management of BTI and MTI, the National MTI Education Committee was established in March 2007, and had its name changed to China National Committee for MTI Education in 2011. In October, 2010, China National Committee for BTI Education was founded. In 2013, the new ELF Advisory Committee was formed after election, which formulated the National Standards for BTI Educational Quality. In September, 2016, China National Committee for Interpreting and Translation Education was founded, which is responsible for postgraduate education programs.  

Latest Development of Interpreting and Translation Training in China’s Mainland

   For the purpose of promoting the healthy development of interpreting and translation education, the China National Committee for MTI Education released a series of guidelines and standards, including the National Standards for BTI Educational Quality and Guidelines for National MTI Education.

   First, let’s have a look at the National Standards for BTI Educational Quality, which will be released early next year. Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education proposed that the Standards explains the goals of interpreting and translation education from three aspects, including quality, ability and knowledge. As for the quality part, the graduates of this major should have the sense of social responsibility, strong language abilities, sensibility of language, curiosity, enthusiasm for language, creativity, pressure bearing capacity, global vision, humanistic and team spirit and so on. The abilities include language ability, cross-cultural communication ability and translation ability, and here I will not explain them one by one.

Graduates of interpreting and translation major should be able to use basic theories and skills to interpret and translate in an independent or cooperative way, and to use translation technologies and tools to do some general translation tasks. Graduates of this major must have the ability to undertake moderately difficult liaison interpreting, interpreting in cultural communication situations and business meetings as well as moderately conference interpreting. Graduates should be able to do translations of moderate difficulty in the fields of politics, economy, society, culture and science and technology, convey the meaning precisely and use correct terms and choose proper register and translation strategy. As for the demand of knowledge, graduates need to have a multidimensional structure of encyclopedia knowledge, especially need to master knowledge related with language, translation and culture.

Infrastructure Construction of Interpreting and Translation Education

Infrastructure construction is very important to language service. For example, the number of full-time teachers and part-time lecturers should be of fixed ratio, and computer aided translation (CAT) laboratories and simultaneous interpreting laboratories should be built. There are three guidelines for national MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting) education. The first one, also the most important one, is Guidelines for MTI Dissertation, which is designed to assure the quality of MTI education. The second and the third are Guidelines for Qualifications of MTI Lecturers and Guidelines for Qualification of MTI Internship Cooperative Partner. In the Guidelines for MTI Dissertation, there are mainly three types of MTI dissertation formats, including report of important translation internship, practice report of translation, and translation experiment and research report. Internship report of important translation internship further includes project manager internship report, interpreting or translation internship report, and translation or proofreading internship report.

Guidelines for Qualifications of MTI Lecturers stipulates requirements for qualifications of MTI lecturers. Lecturers of translation practice are required to have published works or have translated 2 million words, while lectures of interpreting should have experiences of interpreting in major international conferences. The two kinds of lecturers should have professional ranks and titles of medium or higher levels and qualification certificate of translation proficiency level II or higher level, and should be an advanced member of Translators Association of China.

The MTI lecturers of translation management and technical lessons are required to have working experiences relating to translation project management or translation techniques for more than 5 years. To be exact, they are required to have working experience of managing a translation group with over 20 members or a translation technical team with over 5 members. What is more, they should have managed a translation project dealing with more than 3 million words or an interpreting project with more than 10 clients, and at the same time they should be able to develop CAT tools or master three or more kinds of CAT tools.

Guidelines for Qualification of MTI Internship Cooperative Partner requires that the cooperative partner should own a registered institution with more than 5 years of translation experience, working places of more than 150 square meters, annual revenue of over RMB 2 million, more than 20 full-time employees, five of whom should have professional ranks and titles of medium or higher levels, and qualification certificate of translation proficiency level II or higher level, and should be advanced members of Translators Association of China.

The above-mentioned guidelines are of great importance to the healthy development of interpreting and translation undertaking. In the upcoming future, we will propose more guidelines and program plans.

Future Development Directions of Interpreting and Translation Education in China’s Mainland

In fact, we are preparing for DTI (Doctor of Translation and Interpreting) education proposal, TTIM-8 (Test for Translation and Interpreting Majors level 8), Common Framework for Developing English Language Proficiency in China, training of interpreting and translation & localization management, and proposal of the founding of WITTA.

First of all, let’s look at DTI education proposal. BTI (Bachelor of Translation and Interpreting), MTI and DTI have different training goals. BTI aims to train junior practitioners of language services, MTI, professional practitioners of language services, and DTI, professional managerial personnel, senior practitioners and senior trainers of language services. At present, China has only BTI and MTI.

Interpreting and translation system consists of professional education and academic education. Professional education includes such vocational degrees as BTI, MTI and the upcoming DTI, while academic education comprises Master of Arts in Translation and Doctor of Philosophy in Translation.

Secondly, TTIM-8, that is, Test for Translation and Interpreting Majors. Why TTIM-8? There is no doubt that it is necessary to launch TTIM-8. Nowadays, in China’s mainland, we have already carried out TEM8 (Test for English Majors), TEM-4, CET-4 (College English Test), and CET-6. We call it TEM4, because English majors must take this test in the fourth semester of their university lives and TEM 8 in the eighth semester.

As for students pursuing MTI degree, they also need to take CATTI level II, that is, China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters level II. Then what kind of test can students pursuing BTI degree take? TTIM-8 can be conducted during the seventh semester. Students who sign up for translation proficiency examination are tested related knowledge of translation, translation skills, translation profession, summary writing in the target language, and text translation from English to Chinese and vice versa. Students who sign up for interpreting proficiency examination are tested their ability of listening and comprehension, professional ethnics, dialogue interpreting and consecutive interpreting. Students’ abilities of simultaneous interpreting are not tested, because undergraduate students are not capable enough to do simultaneous interpreting.

The third is Common Framework for English Language Proficiency, a project that is led by Prof. Liu Jianda. Within this framework, the lowest level of translation proficiency is B2 and interpreting proficiency B3. The framework conforms to the National Standards for BTI Education Quality. This is a very challenging job, because we need to rank the translation and interpreting examination.

Now, I would like talk about the rapid development of translation and localization management training in MTI and BTI education.

Let us take GDUFS as an example. In GDUFS, targeted at students of different levels, BTI lessons emphasize the introduction of translation profession and techniques, and basic lessons of CAT are provided in the first semester of the second school year. In the first semester of the first school year, MTI lessons concerning CAT, theories and practice are provided, and translation tool and technique lessons are provided in the first semester of the second school year.

The last one, and the most important one, is the proposal of founding WITTA.

Members of WITTA are from educational institutions, research institutions, academic journals, language services providers, government departments, professional organizations and other relevant translation and interpreting organizations all over the world. Just Prof. Li Defeng, the first Chairman of WITTA, said, WITTA mainly offers a platform for the collaboration of politics, industry, education and research, playing a role in integrating resources of government language policy-making departments, interpreting and translation institutions, language service companies, translation journals and other institutions concerning interpreting and translation. Through improving the translation and interpreting proficiency of its members, WITTA also plays a role in promoting global interpreting and translation education.

Finally, to briefly conclude, joint efforts should be made by people from governments, companies, education and academic circle to create a brighter future for the next generation’s interpreting and translation education. That is all of my speech, thank you very much!