After a simple rebirth

Fu Ying's university life went smoothly because of her self-discipline and hard work, and the results of all the competitions she participated in were good, but Fu Ying also participated in competitions with not so satisfactory outcomes.

When he was a junior, Gao Xin invited Fu Ying to participate in an English translation competition together. This competition is held every year. The two of them went to watch it last year. Anyone can sign up regardless of their year, but the overall strength is still stronger in the senior grades, especially in the paragraph translation round.

The great thing about a university is that the top student in the school will usually go on to participate in higher-level competitions. For example, the top student in this competition will represent the school in provincial college competitions and the National College Students' English Translation Competition, and will have won second prizes in both competitions, which is very valuable.

Gao Xin also made an appointment with Fu Ying in advance to participate in her junior year.

Early on, they had already understood the competition process and registration methods.

But when they were in their junior year, the teacher in charge was replaced. This is not the point. The point is that the selection method is different.

This year's preliminary round was postponed, and they suddenly notified us to prepare for the preliminary round selection. Fu Ying only found out about it after her English listening teacher recommended that all those who studied English should sign up and try.

However, no specific notice was issued, so Fu Ying and Gao Xin could only ask Chen Danhong to find out. She was already the vice president of the Student Union, and it would be easier to get things done with her connections.

Chen Danhong gave them some bad news. The competition notice should be sent out soon. The preliminary round would start in a week and the final would be in another week.

Time is tight but it’s okay. After all, English translation competition depends on accumulation and is by no means a quick success.

The problem is that this year there must be three people, and each group must have both male and female students. The competition process is to submit the registration form and then go to the preliminary round. There are two items in the preliminary round. The first is that the group sings an English song for 2-3 minutes, and the second is that each group gives a one-minute self-introduction in English.

These requirements seem normal, but when put together they all seem unreasonable.

English competitions over the years have been mainly based on translation, including Chinese-English and English-Chinese translations, with no gender or talent requirements.

It's not a talent show or a speech contest, so why do we have to sing?

So Fu Ying and Gao Xin had to find a boy to make up the numbers, and they also had to prepare songs and self-introductions.

The candidate was recommended by Gao Xin. He was a boy in her class who was very good at speaking. Fu Ying also knew him. The two majors had overlapping courses, and the listening teacher required every student to go on stage and demonstrate their hobbies once, and also to make their own PPT.

Fu Ying remembered that he liked heavy metal bands. He was tall and strong, wore glasses, and spoke very slowly, but his English pronunciation and intonation were very standard.

Gao Xin was in his class, so she went to ask for advice, and the boy agreed.

The three of them discussed talent several times. Fu Ying's opinion was that it would be better to do something different. Everyone was singing, so it was important to stand out from the many teams.

The boy's name was Shen Ze. He said he could play the guitar, so it was decided that he would play the guitar accompaniment while Fu Ying and Gao Xin sang.

It took a long time to choose the song, and finally Shen Ze chose the song "wake me up" from his playlist.

After listening to the whole song, Fu Ying suggested that Shen Ze play first, and it would be more appropriate for him to sing first, and then Fu Ying and Gao Xin would sing a section each, and finally sing together. This way, everyone can sing solo and there can also be a group chorus.

Then everyone wrote a self-introduction. Fu Ying also suggested making a template for the self-introduction, something like "Everyone is Fu Ying who loves playing the guitar, but I love singing English songs even more." It wasn't too new, but it would enhance the impression of their group and increase their chances of reaching the finals.

Before the preliminary round, Chen Danhong from the internal department told Fu Ying and her group that out of the fifteen participating teams, only the top three would be selected to compete in the finals. The seniors did not participate this year, so there was only the group of juniors consisting of Gao Xin and Fu Ying.

Fu Ying and Gao Xin were very surprised. In previous years, it was like a fight between gods. There were at least three groups in each grade of junior and senior year. It can be said that those who entered the finals were very strong. What happened this year? Was it because the competition was changed?

Moreover, this year, the participating teams are not divided by whether they are English majors or not.

Fu Ying and her friends were even more confused. If the competition was conducted regardless of major, there would probably be two bad results. One was that all those who studied English would be eliminated, which would be very embarrassing. The other was that only those who studied English would be left, and the other teams would be left as runners-up, which would not look good either.

Even if you don't understand, you still have to participate in the competition.

The preliminary round was held in an empty classroom. The middle was left empty and three tables were placed there to serve as seats for the three judges, who were teachers majoring in English.

Others just watched from the sidelines, there was no dedicated audience seats.

The corners of Fu Ying's mouth twitched, and the more he looked at her, the more unorthodox she looked.

They were drawn to be the fifth to go on stage, and the previous group finished their performances quickly.

They stood in the middle of the classroom, Shen Ze sat on a stool and played the guitar, while Fu Ying and Gao Xin stood behind.

The song was performed smoothly, and Shen Ze introduced himself to Fu Ying, and then to Gao Xin.

Fu Ying felt relieved when she saw the judges’ sincere smiles.

They did not leave after the performance, but stayed to watch the other groups. One group temporarily withdrew, leaving only fourteen groups.

How should I put it? Actually, I really can't feel any difference in level between this kind of talent and self-introduction. Just looking at the talent, everyone is good, and they all sang English songs together.

Not to mention English majors, as long as you practice hard, you can get pretty good at it.

When the finalists were announced, Fu Ying's face turned black.

This result seems to be nothing, but it is a big deal.

The first one is a freshman majoring in English. I heard from the staff that the prettiest girl studied abroad and her spoken English is very standard.

Fu Ying wanted to curse. Does studying abroad mean you are good at English? And this is a translation competition, not an oral competition. Isn't the oral standard the most important? The most important thing is, how can you tell the quality of a self-introduction? You can tell the tone of voice in a self-introduction, but it's not the decisive factor!

The second person was not an English major, and from what I heard from people around me, they said that the three of them were not majoring in the same major.

Fu Ying... What, you're giving me a consolation prize?

The third one is a sophomore. I didn’t say much, just that sophomores are at a higher level.

The three juniors Fu Ying, Gao Xin, and Shen Ze, who are supposedly at a higher level? What does that mean?

What’s even more infuriating is that three of their juniors ranked fourth, which seems to indicate that they still have the ability, but failed to enter the finals.

The judges were looking at the results with their backs to Fu Ying and the others, and they were discussing the results.

Fu Ying didn’t know what they were thinking, she thought it was quite ridiculous.

I started taking translation classes in my junior year. Some translation techniques need to be mastered before I can understand them better. Then I was speechless when I asked freshmen and sophomores who didn’t understand much to take the classes.

Fu Ying originally wanted to argue about the result of the competition, but she was too lazy to care and decided not to participate in the final.

The interpretation teacher also lamented in class that it was reasonable and moral for juniors to be in the same group, but he didn't say anything more.

But they still went to watch the final, and Fu Ying watched the game coldly.

There were three tables on the stage, and each person was given a piece of paper and a pen to take shorthand notes.

The competition is divided into three stages, and after finishing one stage, you move on to the next group.

The first stage is word translation, which should be taken from the interpretation question bank, because the questions are all about what you learn in the third year.

For example, one of the translations is gross domestic product, abbreviated as GDP in English, and the full name is Gross Domestic Product.

But the group that drew the word was a freshman, and none of the three people on the stage could write it, and the boy who was responsible for answering the question couldn't answer it either. Not to mention those who studied abroad, even those in China didn't know either.

After seeing this, Fu Ying no longer had any expectations for the outcome of this competition. No matter who came first, the value of the title would probably be just that.

Sure enough, the translation of the following paragraphs is even more incoherent and illogical.

The translation process that Fu Ying envisioned is to see the paragraph that needs to be translated on the big screen, grasp the key words and write them down. It is best to directly write the language that needs to be translated, and then organize the logic. Translation is not just translation, it tests short-term memory, and it is also about organizing the content from words to sentences.

Among the three groups, the non-professional group translated the most and most accurately, and the best contestant was also a girl from that group.

When the awards ceremony was going on, Fu Ying and Gao Xin left without even looking back.

Fu Ying didn't pay any more attention to this incident, but she didn't hear that the school achieved any good results in such competitions.

In addition to this competition focusing on interpretation, there is also a long-text translation competition in English.

This competition is generally not held on a large scale on campus because the requirements are relatively high. Only juniors and seniors participate in the competition, and the school then selects outstanding works and submits them to the provincial level and then to the national level.

Holding back their anger from the previous competition, Fu Ying and Gao Xin spent half a month translating the article required this time, which was related to tea culture.

This is a personal battle. The translation content is basically the same. It depends on the details. It will definitely not work if it is directly translated by a machine. A professional will know it at a glance.

This type of translation emphasizes faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, and uses one's own ingenuity to create a difference.

When Fu Ying was translating, she also referred to the machine translation, but she paid great attention to one detail, that is, after she translated it into English, she translated it back into Chinese herself, and she kept thinking about whether she could still express the original meaning of the Chinese text.

A common mistake many people make when translating is to just translate it blindly. However, if you don't read the Chinese and just try to understand the English purely, it will be very strange. Even someone who knows a little English can see the awkwardness, let alone asking a native English speaker to understand it.

She is not the only one who thinks so, after all, there are so many people with profound cultural background.

In the end, her and Gao Xin's translation works both won first prizes at the provincial level, and she won second prize at the national level, while Gao Xin won third prize.

Their instructors are all interpreters, so the teacher also won the title of excellent instructor.

The teacher called them to her office and asked them if they wanted to pursue graduate studies after their senior year. They could apply for her graduate program, and she would supervise four or five graduate students. Although she could not give them two places, both of them were very outstanding and had a great advantage in being admitted.

Gao Xin doesn't want to pursue a master's degree, but Fu Ying hasn't made up her mind yet.

The teacher also advised Gao Xin to learn more applied English. This time she failed a little bit because of the influence of Gao Xin's study of business English. Some of the parts she handled might not have caught the judges' attention.

The two said goodbye to their teacher and let the matter go.

After her name and grades were announced on the school radio, Fu Ying felt relieved. It was better to complain after all.