ABSTRACT
Translation in economic field has been an attractive part for many researchers;
business idiom translation, however, has not been addressed properly due to its
complexity and inevitable challenges. Concerning business idiom translation, the
thesis focuses on the study of students’ capacity of recognizing business idioms,
outstanding problems that the students encounter while translating business idioms
then analysis will reveal the strategies that may be employed for better translations.
The book “Speak business English like an American” by Amy Gillett is
chosen as a major data collection for research reference. Concurrently, 30 responses
for a survey prepared by the researcher will also provide valuable statistics and truth
for finding out facts on different issues relating to students’ business idiom
translations. The result has shown that almost students claim that they can recognize
business idioms when reading business news and magazines However, a small test
points out their incapacity of perfectly recognizing all given idioms. Besides, their
understanding of business idioms is still limited due to the major problems like the
difficulties in equivalent expression, the lack of economic background knowledge
and other problems in context and naturalness of specific idioms. Analysis also gives
answer to the question on the most common strategy applied in business idiom
translation – paraphrase. With different intentions of the translator, the translation
will exploit different strategies which will be lately discussed in detail. Translating
business idioms is now a popular task to all translators and economists as well.
Therefore, being aware of economic knowledge and linguistic competence is of great
importance in producing successful works of business idiom translation.
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Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1: Demonstration of research process
Figure 2: Frequency of encountering with business idioms among surveyed students
Figure 3: Surveyed students’ ability of understanding business idioms
Figure 4: Major problems as perceived by students
Table 1: Statistics in survey results

convinced impossible for translators to use accurate Vietnamese terms to express
English business idioms without strategically tackling these complex combinations of
words and sentences.
These aforementioned motivations have therefore inspired the implementation
of this study. Specific area chosen for the study is impressive idiomatic expressions
extracted from 67 – page book named Speak Business English like American by Amy
Gillett. This will be carried out with the title:
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“English – Vietnamese translation of business idioms in the book Speak
Business English like an American by Amy Gillett”
1.2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study is carried out with the aim to provide learners with fundamental
knowledge in translating idiomatic expression of business terms, especially in the
base of listed business fields in Speak Business English like an American. With
thoroughly investigation into different aspects in studying specific business idioms,
the research would find out the procedures and strategies frequently used by the
translators in conveying idiomatic expressions from English into Vietnamese.
Moreover, implications for further English – Vietnamese translation in specific
business idioms will be suggested.
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To achieve these aforementioned goals, the study will deal with the following
questions:
1. What are the common problems in translating specific
business idioms as perceived by surveyed students?
2. What translation strategies are used to convey the
meaning of specific business idioms?
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Each idiom translation has its own specific challenges to translators to handle
with; various solutions therefore are offered. Nevertheless, limited time and capacity
has narrowed the thesis scope to emphasize on studying, analyzing and suggesting

Chapter 1: Literature review
Chapter 2: Methodology
Chapter 3: Findings and discussion
Part 3: Conclusion
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY
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Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. PREVIOUS STUDIES
In English, many linguists did research on idioms such as Ammer, Cowie et
al., Cruse, Fernando, Warren and so on. In Vietnamese, there have also been a lot of
authors whose studies generally related to idioms such as Duong Ngoc Dung and
Ninh Hung, Tran Phong Giao, Hoang Van Hanh, Nguyen Luong Van Dang and so
on. Among them, “Idiom Organiser” by Jon Wright (2002) is widely used by learners
all over the world. In his well-known book, idioms are clarified and organized by
metaphor, topics and key words, which are practically useful to all idiom learners.
For English dictionaries, a very famous one that catches concerns of all
scholars and learners is so-named “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by
Christine Ammer. In this dictionary, the author lists idioms currently used in
American English and arranges them into alphabetical categories. He also explains
their meanings and clarifies them by examples. Besides, “Oxford Learner’s
Dictionary of English Idioms” by Helen Warren - a comprehensive dictionary
tackling general idiomatic expressions in current English also gives examples and
explanations of unusual features of grammar and usage. Another is “Oxford
Dictionary of Idioms” by Judith Siefring which provides learners with updated
idioms including clear explanations in typical contexts. “Cambridge Dictionary of
American Idioms” by Paul Heacock gives clear and understandable illustrations on
each idiom as well as their origins
Besides, huge numbers of Vietnamese and English idioms can be found in
many books, magazines of other authors and there has been quite a lot of MA
thesises on various aspects of English and Vietnamese idioms. Up to now, there have

By launching the of “equivalent in different”, Jackobson (cited in Bassnett
1980: 39) keeps the point of view that translation can always be carried out
regardless of the cultural or grammatical differences between the S and T text.
Whenever the translator cannot find an exact equivalent to a specific SL,
“terminology may be qualified and amplified by loan words or loan translations,
neologisms or semantic shift”.
Armstrong (2005:45) shares the same ideas with Jackobson, “full equivalence
is rare”; however, nearest possible equivalent should be found out and considered.
Different authors and writers have introduced different approaches to
translation equivalence. For a translator, awareness of equivalence plays a crucial
role. The translator are required to understand the characteristics of each equivalence
type in order to utilize it appropriately, especially in technical translation of such
texts as literary texts, cultural texts, medical texts The issue of equivalence is
especially important when it comes to translation revision and quality assessment.
Because a good translation not only satisfies the requirement of meaning but also
other requirements, like styles, communicative value or aesthetic effects…
1.2.3. Non-equivalence in Translation
Non-equivalence in translation is often met due to the differences between the
SL and the TL at cultural, grammatical, lexical or stylistic levels.
According to Baker (1992), non equivalence may be at the level of word or
above word level including translating idioms and collocations. Non equivalence at
word level can occur because of the absence in the target culture of a relevant
situational feature that is conceptually lexicalized for the source language text
(Bassnett, 1980:39). The existence of non-equivalence usually is above word level as
words always do not occur on their own, but “almost occur on the company of other
words” (Baker, 1992:46). Sometimes, a single word does not make sense until it is in
a combination with others to create a full expression of an idea. Namely, as Johnson
(1975) cited, the great pest of speech is frequently of translation. No book was ever
turned from one language into another, without imparting something of its nature
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naturalness in translation. Meanwhile, modulation offers a variation in the message
when it is translated into a target language due to a change in point of view. It could
be in the way of talking about one part to mean another, discussing positive side to
double negate it or, using the passive form to express the active one.
Cultural equivalence is a more complex procedure in which a SL cultural
word or expression is translated by a TL cultural word considered equivalent to it, for
example, the expression “as cool as a cucumber” in English can be translated by
“lạnh như tiền” in Vietnamese, or many other ways based on preferred measurements
in different countries. Also, functional equivalence is the replacement of cultural
word with a cultural-free expression in a translation. This procedure is appreciated as
“the most accurate way of […] deculturalising a cultural word” (p.83). Newmark also
introduced descriptive equivalence as a procedure which allows translator to explain
or paraphrase the words in the target language. This procedure shares something in
common with free translation.
1.3. IDIOMS AND TRANSLATION
1.3.1. Definition of idioms
One of the most complicated but luring part of English in use is that of idioms.
Idioms are still frequently used in various contexts, from daily life conversations and
business meetings to highly formal written format. Learners apply idiomatic
expressions into their speech to make it more native-like, but this requires of deep
competence of English and may easily lead to misusage. Severely, idiom recognition
always gets the most confusing. Questions raised around idioms have been a
mountain; however, in the easiest way, “an idiom is a kind of complex lexical item. It
is a phrase whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the morphemes
it comprises” (Langacher: 1968:79). Idioms are characterized as “a fixed group of
words with a special meaning that cannot be guessed from the combination of the
actual words used” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1981). For
instance, on every Thanksgiving occasion, it is extremely easy to catch sight of
“Black Friday Specials” advertisement which is an accurate and popular idiom, not
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obligatory component the adequacy of style, i.e. the right choice of stylistic means
and devices of the target language to substitute for those observed in the source text.
The style, or the way of writing, of a particular SL text may pose different
problems for the translator. One of these problems is fronting, in which a word, a
phrase or a clause is stated at the beginning of a sentence in an unusual way. For
instance, “suicide he committed” instead of “he committed suicide”. The purpose
behind such a fronting is to emphasize on the fronted word, or to draw attention to its
importance to the meaning of the whole sentence.
Other stylistic problems may include parallelism, ambiguity, redundancy, and
nominalization vs. verbalization (Ghazala, 1995:18-24).
3. Cultural Problems
A variety of problems come to be long-lasting and enormous issues in cross-
cultural translation as “the greater the gap between the source and target culture, the
more serious difficulty would be”. (Yowelly and Lataiwish, 2000:107). English and
Vietnamese translation involves two totally different cultures (the Western and the
Oriental cultures), which supply a favorable background for such cultural problems.
Cultural problems may include geographical, religious, social and linguistic ones.
4. Lexical Problems
Baker (1992) has paid great contributions in identifying common problems in
translating non-equivalence. In terms of lexical problems, one case is when the SL
word is semantically complex, i.e, when one word is complex in its lexical meaning,
it results in translation problems. Besides, The SL may poses a wide variety of
specific terms (hyponyms) that drive the translators into confusing situations when
making a right word-choice.
Also regarding non equivalence, difficulties in translating may be due to the
differences in fixed and idiomatic expressions between SL and TL. This poses
numerous challenges for translator, especially when the author intends to refer to
both literal and figurative meanings of an expression (Huyen N. T., 2011)
1.3.3. Translation strategies
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a. Congruence (identical at word level)
b. Equivalence (differing at word level)
2. SL Idioms matched by other TL lexemes:
a. Single-word matches
b. Formula (non metaphorical multi-word matches)
c. Free form (encyclopedic renderings) (Gottlieb 1997, p.319)
Another scholar, Bo Svensen, suggests other four categories for translating
idioms:
1. Idioms with identical metaphors in SL and TL
2. Idioms with related metaphors
3. Idioms with different metaphors
4. SL idioms with no metaphorical counterparts.
(Gottlieb 1997, p.319)
In the work In Other Words (1992), Mona Baker points out four following
strategies for translating idiomatic expressions:
1) using an idiom with the same meaning and form,
2) using an idiom with the similar meaning but different form,
3) paraphrasing,
4) by omission.
In conclusion, knowledge of translation and idioms definition, obstacles in the
process of translating specific business idioms above mentioned would effectively
support this research as a strong theoretical background and make the outcome of the
research more reliable.
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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY
This part gives a concise presentation on research subjects, research
instruments. In addition, phrases in the research process will be clearly indicated.
2.1. SELECTION OF SUBJECTS
The dominant research samples are excerpts from the book titled Speak

March to 20
th
March,
2013.
After concluding out the common problems that learners encounter in
recognizing and understanding business idioms, solutions will be revealed by
suggested strategies for translating.
2.3. RESEARCH PROCESS
Two stages of research process are conducted alternately. In the very
beginning step, responses for the research’s surveys are carefully classified,
examined and reported in detailed percentage charts and summarized conclusion of
students’ difficulties in translating business idioms.
Moving to the second stage, research subjects are chosen, analyzed and
investigated by the researcher to find out the most applicable and useful strategies.
This phase brings out the findings of the researcher to put them into a comparative
scale with other authentic and reliable sources.
As an illustration, the diagram below will give a more descriptive outline for
research process:
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Figure 1: Demonstration of research process
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY
Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This most important part of the study reveals findings from the results of
student survey together with the researchers’ inferences with different reliable
sources.
3.1. RESULTS FROM THE SURVEY
Student survey as the first instrument investigated to find out common
problems and difficulties among students when translating business idioms,
especially the ones studied in the book “Speak Business English like an American”

- We are losing a lot of business to your competition.
- Yes, our competition is eating our lunch.
- We may be at a loss if we don’t bail the sales department out.”
Four business idiomatic expressions are found in this conversation, “to lose
business to your competition”, “our competition is eating our lunch”, “at a loss”,
“bail the sales department out”. Nevertheless, collecting all their answers for
identifying business idioms occurred in the conversation, it comes to the fact that
students are not really sure about their ability to recognize business idioms. Results
showed that only 2 students were able to point out four applied idiomatic
expressions. Almost the rest (14 students) found out three out of four business
idioms. The next equal group consists of 11 students who underlined two business
idioms in the whole provided conversation. Amazing result also tells that three
students left only could indicate only one idiom. Overall result for the survey
question 1 is provided in the table below:
17
Can recognize
business idioms
28 No. of idioms was
found
No. of students
1 2
Cannot recognize

business idioms
2 2 14
3 11
4 3
Table 1: Statistics in survey results
Regarding the quantity of idioms found in the conversation, the figures cannot
tell about the real ability of surveyed students in recognizing business idioms. The

understanding business idioms. A majority of surveyed students (65%) claimed that
they sometimes understand the business idioms that they coped with. The group that
rarely understands business idioms accounts for a smaller proportion (27%). No case
dares to affirm their absolute understanding of business idioms while to a surprise,
8% of surveyed students really do not understand the business idioms that they have
just pointed out.
Therefore, in order to help students themselves give the explanation to their
failure to make out the meaning of business idioms they met, I provide the fourth
survey question – “What is your biggest problem in translating business idioms?”
Answers have been collected then according to them; I have been completing reports
on their problems when translating, which will be presented in detail in the next part.
3.1.2. The outstanding problems that students face.
The question of outstanding problems that students face in translating business
idioms is investigated through the survey question 4 – “What is your biggest problem
in translating business idioms?” The results are revealed as following:
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Figure 4: Major problems as perceived by students
The survey targets to students studying both majors, English Translating and
Interpreting and Economics. Therefore, their knowledge and skills confirm the
truthfulness of their shares regarding the actual problems they perceived during their
interaction with business materials. As the chart showing that different students meet
different challenges in translating business idioms. Among various listed difficulties,
difficult equivalent expression and lack of economic background knowledge are the
two most common problems coming up to 38% and 35% surveyed students
respectively put a thumb up for the selection. Different expressions due to the
mismatch between SL and TL are always big problem for all languages’ translators
and interpreters. The next vote belongs to the option of “lack of materials to
compare” with 11% answers. Although the extending networks have offered a
myriad of search tools for students, this “lack of materials” is still understandable as
the information provided widely on the Web is almost untrusted and multisided. The

figurative meaning of business idioms. Fraile Vicente (2005) has successfully
proved this through this research in which he collected two groups of conceptual
metaphors that can be used to describe the conceptual structure of economics and the
meaning of its idioms. These metaphors empower the economists to vary the extent
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