Lost in translation

Translation is no easy job.

My boss at the VNU gave me a textbook of International Political Economy to translate into Vietnamese. At first, I thought: "I've read this. I've studied the subject. It shouldn't be too hard for me to translate it". And I was wrong. As it turned out, both of my English and Vietnamese are not good enough to do the job. And I obviously know little about the subject (Believe it or not, I might teach an introductory course on IPE in the fall for college students!!!).

That worries me. IPE is relatively new in Vietnam - so far it has only been taught at 2 universities nationwide. There is a huge shortage for textbooks, let alone good ones on the subject. So future Vietnamese IPE students might well have no choice but to read the textbook that I've translated. And they would find it boring, or worse, confusing. My boss would fire me for ruining the future of Vietnamese IPE. Oh boy.

The irrational part of me would say: Blame it on the chemo, since it is a perfect excuse for almost everything now. But the chemo can only make you tired, it cannot turn you into a bad translator. And the truth is: I am simply a bad translator.

So I guess that I have to spend time restudying both languages. And continuing this translation project might be the only way to do it.