An interview with student translators from Singapore

"I had thought translation was simple before translating this book. But in doing the work, I found it is not an easy task," Wu said. "Due to the tedious translation process, it's necessary to pay attention to many details at once and ensure the translation accurately conveys the meaning of the original text.

"We encountered many challenges translating this book. First, we needed to spend a great deal of time and energy finding and thinking about the most appropriate word choices in order to ensure the translation is loyal to the original text. In addition, the three of us have different understandings of elements of the book's content, and so only through repeated discussion were we able to achieve a consensus and complete the translation.

"This experience really opened my eyes and benefited me a lot. I'm also very grateful to the publishing house for giving us this learning opportunity. I not only experienced the process of personally translating a book, but also now have a deeper understanding of the skills involved in translation."

Wang Yuning: We should have a great interest in language in order to translate

Speaking on her reasons for participating in the translation, Wang Yuning said, "I have always been interested in language-related matters and I want to know more about translation." So when the teacher introduced this opportunity to everyone, Wang decided to challenge herself in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding.

"Our process involved us equally dividing the workload. Each person was responsible for translating one part. After finishing the translation, we made appointments to discuss the translations together and checked each other's work to ensure that the final book's language was flowing and fluent, and there were no loopholes in the story. In this way, we could accomplish the task more effectively and also ensure the final translation was of a high quality.