Three student translators from Singapore's CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School. [Photo/cctss.org]

"Literary works for children should be given to children to translate. Children can see a different world adults can't." In August 2017, Zhou Yunyi, an expert at the Chinese Culture Translation and Studies Support Network English Experts' Committee, proposed the publishing house undergo a brave experiment: encouraging 12 Singaporean students with no experience in translation to translate a children's book.

The third-grade girls at Singapore's CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School have received bilingual education from an early age. Among them, Wu Qixuan, He Xuening, Wang Yuning were assigned to be translators for the children's book See the Rainbow after the Rain, and a memorable experience in translation began.

Wu Qixuan: We should pay attention to details when translating

The Singapore CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School has always attached great importance to Chinese learning and education. In its early days, the school belonged to Singapore's "Chinese School" program, which encouraged emphasis on bilingual education in both Chinese and English. Now it is known as a Special Assistance Plan school. The school also set up "Bi-cultural Studies Programs, requiring students to take additional courses, such as Chinese, translation and culture-related classes. In February 2017, the school offered an interpretation course for the first time.

Wu Qixuan, now a Secondary 3 student - equivalent to Grade 3 of junior middle school in China - at Singapore CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School, has always been interested in translating. Encouraged by teachers and students, she finally decided to seize the opportunity and make an attempt to translate the book.

An illustration from  See the Rainbow after the Rain. [Photo/cctss.org]

The front cover of  See the Rainbow after the Rain. [Photo/cctss.org]

"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.

"The biggest problem we encountered was that we often had different ideas about how to translate a sentence or a word. Therefore, we found ourselves in heated discussions over which to choose," Wang said. "As we are typically very busy anyway, we learned to make full use of our spare time, listen carefully to each other's views and avoid wasting precious time. Finally, we achieved the end result through effective discussion and overcoming difficulties.

"Before this, I didn't expect it would take so much effort to translate a children's book. We had to be very sensitive with our choice of words and, more importantly, have an interest in language so as to be able to properly translate the meaning of the story."

The translation of  See the Rainbow after the Rain. [Photo/cctss.org]

He Xuening: Books offer us another kind of life experience

The three girls are different in character but share the same hobby - reading. Wu Qixuan likes detective fiction, Wang Yuning prefers prose and He Xuening enjoys novels. Speaking on her hobbies, He Xuening said, "When I am immersed in the world of a story's characters, it's like experiencing another kind of life!"

"I like the ending best, because the two characters in the story work together to do their parts for the environment and make a resolution that rainbows should appear in the sky again. The ending is very beautiful and touches me very much," He said. "It also reminds me all of us have the capability to create a better future for the earth, but we first need to know how to cherish it. Though there are just one or two short sentences to end the book, they've left me with a deep impression.

"I've learned a lot from this experience and will savor all of it. Translation is not an easy job, and it is a process of continuous learning."