Speakers
Description
Localization of media products, especially of games, is becoming increasingly prevalent in promoting a country's culture to the global market. However, the issue of transferring the cultural elements imbued in a product from language to language is still often overlooked. As such, this study is investigating the translation methods used to translate culturally specific items (CSIs) in the game “The Scourge” (Vietnamese name: Tai ương) – a horror game inspired purely by Vietnamese culture. The authors identified the CSIs by combing over the script of the character’s lines, as well as the notes and descriptions of objects and scenery in the game and compiled them into a list for later analysis. Combining Newmark’s classification of translation methods as well as a later version adopted by Davies and the 5 criteria of Ning & Domíguez, the authors then classified each CSI into one of 7 translation methods: preservation, addition, omission, globalization, localization, transformations, and original creation. Overall, 423 CSIs were identified, with preservation and globalization being the most prevalent, while original creation of terms was virtually unused. While a majority of translations managed to convey at least some of the meaning of the source text, there were certain errors which were pointed out and analyzed with greater depth. Despite several limitations, particularly in terms of the novelty of the topic and a lack of pre-existing studies to base off, the study hopes to provide useful insight and inspiration for researchers, developers, as well as translators in localizing their games for a greater audience in the future.
Biography
We are undergraduates of English linguistics who are currently studying at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. During our programme, we have been taught how to conduct research, as well as how to utilize methods to produce a study. This paper is our first work in the research field. We are conducting a study on the translation methods of culture-specific items in media products. In this case, our study focuses on a game as part of our learning. The reason for our choice of this particular topic is twofold. First, the gaming industry is rarely touched upon in the academic field. Second, research on the translation methods, while having been studied under other fields such as literature, film, and other related areas, has seen very limited studies in the field of gaming, which bears tremendous research potential. We are one of the first to conduct research in such a way, and we hope that our research can become an inspiration for future studies. In addition, we hope our research can reach many different target audiences, in particular, the next generation of the translation community and language learners. In participating in this conference, we want to see and learn about other research so we can gain more experience for our future studies. In addition, our group wishes to contribute to the research field by making this study more well-known in the academic field and the public as a whole.
| Affiliate type | University |
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