By Shen Xiaoqian

The School of Foreign Languages held 4 academic lectures for the sophomores of English and Japanese majors in the trimester of 2012. The topics of the lectures ranged from language, translation, to philosophy. Through the lectures, students’ horizons were broadened and their enthusiasm in learning was aroused. After listening to the lectures, students were required to do more research on the topics covered and finally write 3 reports, which was a good opportunity for students to train their academic writing. A summary of the 4 lectures is as follows.

Lecture 1: How to Be a Good Translator

By Xie Qingli, an associate professor of the SFL

Mr. Xie shared much of his real-life experience in translation and listed many appropriate examples, which helped students know what is required of a translator and how to learn translation during the undergraduate years.

Lecture 2: How to Learn a Foreign Language from the Perspective of Japanese Learning

By Yang Quren, a professor from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Prof. Yang Quren pointed out a series of problems in Japanese learning and listed the corresponding solutions. His remark, “Knowledge could never be ‘in the red’, nor could it be ‘returned’ to anyone,” benefited both the Japanese majors and the English majors.

Lecture 3: The Spirit of Criticism and Innovation of Western Philosophy

By Yang Shoukan, a professor from BNU

Prof. Yang Shoukan talked about the progress of criticism and innovation of western philosophy and indicated the western philosophers’ persistent pursuit of truth. He also pointed out linguistic analysis was an important part of philosophy and expressed its charm by saying “It is not people saying words but the words expressing people.”

Lecture 4: The Relationship between Language and Translation

By Huang Guowen, a professor from Sun Yat-sen University

Prof. Huang Guowen gave the final lecture vividly and humorously. He clarified the meaning of context by means of three cartoons and exemplified the culture behind the language by the contrast of two letters. He pointed out translation was translating the meaning and a translator should try to integrate the function, form, context, among many other factors in translation.