Các chiến lược áp dụng trong dịch lờI bàI hát nhạc trẻ từ tiếng việt sang tiếng anh

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

STRATEGIES IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE
TEENAGER SONGS INTO ENGLISH

Supervisor: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn
Student: Bùi Thị Mai Hương
Course: QH2011.F1.E19

HANOI – 2015


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ÁP DỤNG TRONG DỊCH LỜI
BÀI HÁT NHẠC TRẺ TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG
TIẾNG ANH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn
Sinh viên: Bùi Thị Mai Hương
Khóa: QH2011.F1.E19

HÀ NỘI – 2015

ACCEPTANCE
I hereby state that I: Bui Thi Mai Huong, QH2011.F1.E19, being a
candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of
the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper
deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited
in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care,
loan or reproduction of the paper.
Hanoi, 2015

Bui Thi Mai Huong


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Ms. Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan, for her precious guidance, valuable
advice as well as her inspriration which were the decisive factors assisting me in
finishing the paper on the right track.
My sincere thanks also go to my foreign interviewees whose great kindness
provided me with useful ideas and information to complete my paper.
I am also grateful to my friends whose helpful advice and comments are
always beside me whenever needed.
Last but not least, I truly appreciate the support and care from my family
and my friends from the beginning to the end of the research.

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ABSTRACT
As music became a thriving industry around the world, the translation of
song lyrics among languages acts as a stimulating tool for the development of the
industry. Following this global trend, Vietnamese translators have also made
remarkable efforts to create English translated versions of Vietnamese songs.
However, the number of translated songs, especially teenager songs, remains
limited while no standard has been established to assess these translations,
therefore hindering the translated songs from appropriate recognition of
audiences. In this paper entitled “STRATEGIES IN TRANSLATING
VIETNAMESE TEENAGER SONGS INTO ENGLISH”, Vietnamese and
English versions of song lyrics were compared and analysed based on
Newmark’s theory of translation methods and procedures and Koller’s theory of
formal equivalence in order to identify strategies frequently employed in the
Vietnamese – English translation of teenager songs and their equivalent effect.
Eight Vietnamese teenager songs were chosen on purpose as the subjects of the
research. Strategies were acknowledged and then sorted out into adaptation and
semantic translation methods. While analysing songs translated by applying
semantic translation method, the researcher pointed out three subclasses of this
method which are omission, addition and paraphrase.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... I
ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................II
TABLE OF CONTENT ....................................................................................... III
LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................. VI
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................. VII

CHAPTER 1........................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale .......................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Research aims and research questions ............................................................. 3
1.3. The significance of the research ...................................................................... 3
1.4. The methods of the research ............................................................................ 3
1.5. The structure of the research ........................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2........................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Theoretical background ................................................................................... 5
2.1.1. Song ............................................................................................................. 5
2.1.2. Translation ................................................................................................... 6
2.2. Translation methods and procedures ............................................................... 7
2.2.1. Translation methods .................................................................................... 7
2.2.2. Translation procedures ................................................................................. 8
2.2.3. Translation of songs ..................................................................................... 9
2.3. Equivalence and Equivalence effect .............................................................. 11
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CHAPTER 3......................................................................................................... 14
3.1. Design of the study ........................................................................................ 14
3.2. Phase one ....................................................................................................... 14
3.2.1. Sample selection ........................................................................................ 14
3.2.2. Data collection procedures ........................................................................ 15
3.2.3. Data analysis procedures ........................................................................... 16
3.3. Phase two ...................................................................................................... 17
3.3.1. Sample selection ........................................................................................ 17
3.3.2. Data collection procedures ........................................................................ 17
3.3.3. Data analysis procedures ........................................................................... 18
CHAPTER 4......................................................................................................... 19
4.1. Research question 1: What strategies are applied in translating Vietnamese

teenager songs into English? ................................................................................ 19
4.1.1. Adaptation ................................................................................................. 19
4.1.2. Semantic translation .................................................................................. 23
4.2. Research question 2: To what extent do the translations of those songs
achieve equivalent effect? .................................................................................... 31
CHAPTER 5......................................................................................................... 34
5.1. Summary of the research ............................................................................... 34
5.2. Limitations of the research ............................................................................ 35
5.3. Suggestions for further research.................................................................... 35
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 36
APPENDICES...................................................................................................... 38

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APPENDIX 1 ....................................................................................................... 38
APPENDIX 2 ....................................................................................................... 48

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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1. The percentage of most commonly used strategies

vi

31

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
SL:

Source language

TL:

Target language

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the problem and rationale, the aims and methods, the
scope, and the significance of the whole paper. Most importantly, the research
questions are identified to serve as a guideline for the study.
1.1. Rationale
Music is always an important part of human’s lives. It cheers people up,
connects strange people, inspires people’s thoughts and improves people’s
health. Similarly, language also plays an essential role in every aspect of people’s
lives. It functions as an effective way of communication, by which people share
their thoughts and feelings, express their desires and raise others’ spirit. When
music and language combine, songs are born and carry all of those values. Like
creating any piece of art, composing a song is a really challenging work. The
artist has to deal with both melodies and lyrics, making them meaningful,
harmonised and ear-catching. To bring those beautiful art pieces to the world,
however, the work of translators in conveying their message from the original
language into another one is even much more demanding. Unlike song writers
producing art freely, song translators create their arts by reproducing the existing

works, which presents numerous difficulties.
Currently when music industry has developed so rapidly around the world,
Vietnamese musicians have also composed countless beautiful songs with sweet
melodies and meaningful lyrics. Nevertheless, these songs just stop at being
known within the country without being popular to the global population. It may
result from the fact that music industry has not been integrated well with
translation industry due to enormous challenges translators may encounter in
song translation. To be particular, in translating a song or text meant to be sung,
apart from the considerations that are common to other kinds of translation, being
cultural references, untranslatability of certain notions, linguistic differences
between the source and the target language, the translator also has to pay
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attention to aspects peculiar to songs, namely rhyme, syllabication, melodic
stress as well as poetic and artistic values. Most of the time, peculiar differences
between the source and the target language make the task really puzzling.
Different word stressing patterns limit the word choice to words that can comply
with the melody of the song. Lexical problems occur frequently. For instance, in
source language, there is an abundance of short and catchy words to say
something, while in the other language the directly translated words are too long
and cumbersome. The original song may employ a play on words, idioms or
might even introduce neologisms, and incorrect words for artistic effects. In
every case, the drive to render meaning faithfully and the drive to preserve
rhythm, melody, and beat seem forever to mutually oppose each other. In the
words of Schleiermacher (1813), "How often […] does one find fidelity to
rhythm and melody caught in irreconcilable conflict with fidelity to dialectic and
grammar." All too often, the translator faced with this daunting dilemma
ultimately makes a choice to favor one at the expense of the other and slips into
what Schleiermacher called "a pertinacious one-sidedness."

As a future translator and music lover, the researcher finds it interesting and
meaningful to study the English translations of Vietnamese songs, specifically
teenager ones. Additionally, because of their typical features, Vietnamese
teenager songs may seriously challenge translators in conveying both their
semantic and aesthetical beauties into English.
In fact, there are several Vietnamese teenager songs translated into English;
nevertheless, researches on comparing and evaluating the quality as well as
equivalent effect of their English versions versus Vietnamese originals have not
been carried out. Therefore, it is necessary to study on this matter to provide a
clear view about translating Vietnamese teenager songs into English, particularly
common strategies used by translators in that process and their effectiveness. The
current research entitled “STRATEGIES IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE
TEENAGER SONGS INTO ENGLISH” is being carried out for the reasons
listed above.
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1.2. Research aims and research questions
The research aims at two main points. The first one is to find out strategies
commonly utilised by translators in their effort to translate teenager songs from
Vietnamese to English. The research will measure the consistency and efficiency
of those strategies by investigating the matter and manner equivalence and
naturalness of translations of some particular Vietnamese teenager songs in
comparison with the original songs. The second target of the research is to form a
basis of appropriate Vietnamese – English song translation strategies.
More specifically, the research is intended to address the following
questions:
1. What strategies are applied in translating Vietnamese teenager songs
into English?
2. To what extent do the translations of those songs achieve equivalent

effect?
1.3. The significance of the research
The research is expected to provide readers with insights into the practice of
translating Vietnamese songs into English in which the strategies employed by
translators in handling the intricacies of semantic and aesthetical features of
teenager songs will be brought to the light and their efficiency will also be
evaluated. Besides contributing to translation theory and give students a brief
understanding of Vietnamese – English translation of teenager songs, the
research is also intended to stimulate further studies on the topic.
1.4. The methods of the research
Sampling
Main research samples are Em trong mắt tôi (How I see you), Bụi phấn
(Chalk dust), Chênh vênh, Vầng trăng khóc (The moon cries), Bài học đầu tiên
(The first lesson), Đường lên đỉnh núi (Road to the mount) and Mái trường mến
yêu (Loving school).

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Data collection procedures
Data were collected mainly in the blog .
Both Vietnamese and English versions of each song’s lyric were collected
so that comparison between target text and source text can be made.
Data analysis procedures
To answer the research questions stated above, data analysis was carried out
with descriptive methodology, assisted with certain instruments. Textual analysis
was applied to identify and compare semantic features of lexicon and syntactic
features of phrases and sentences of the two language versions.
Some interviews with selected foreigners were also conducted to evaluate
the equivalent effect achieved by those songs.

1.5. The structure of the research
The rest of the research consists of the following chapters.
Chapter 2 – Literature Review – introduces the most relevant theoretical
background knowledge on translation, translation methods and procedures, song
translation and equivalence effect.
Chapter 3 – Methodology – provides a detailed description of the methods
utilised to conduct the research.
Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussion – presents the analysis and
comparison of the translated lyrics and original ones of sample songs, thereby
indicating strategies used in these songs translation and their equivalence effect.
Chapter 5 – Conclusion – summaries major findings, limitations of the
research and suggestions for further study.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter demonstrates a conceptual framework of previous studies
pertaining to definition of translation, translation methods and procedures,
typical features of song translation and the significance and matter of
equivalence effect.
2.1. Theoretical background
2.1.1. Song
 Definition
Song, according to Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, is “a short piece
of music with words that people sing”. Similarly, as defined by Duong (2000)
and Nguyen (2001), “song is a text to be sung with melody and musical rhythm.”
To improve the understanding about song, Nguyen (2001) added: “Music is a
form of art; therefore, the text needs to have a literary value, in both form and

content.”
Although these definitions were given from different times and by different
people, they all indicate the existence of two parts in a song: music and words.
They are, in all cases, the integral parts of a song and have close relationship with
each other.
 Characteristics
As mentioned above, each song is characterised by two different languages:
the music language and the word language. In songs, the word language is
embedded in the music language to make it more concrete, enabling all people,
including those without the basic knowledge of music to perceive the content of
the song.

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As Duong (2000) stated, the song wording process is always determined by
three main rules: linguistic rules, poetic rules and musical rules, of which musical
rules are the most essential. However, he also claimed that we cannot only focus
on the musical rules and disclaim the effects of the other rules; otherwise, the
song will be no longer a song in nature but just a means of vocalising melody.
2.1.2. Translation
Translation is a complex concept and many key thinkers have introduced
their definitions.
Most generally, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, translation is
either one among the followings: “the process of changing something that is
written or spoken into another language” or “the process of changing something
into a different form”.
According to the dictionary compiled by Hartman and Stock (1972), the
term ‘translation’ can be defined as the replacement of a representation of a text
in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.

Translation is, in Larson’s (1984) view, studying the lexicon, grammatical
structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language
text, analysing it in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing this
same meaning using lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in
the receptor language and its cultural context.
Nida stated that translation consists of reproducing in the receptor language
the closest natural equivalence of the source language message, firstly in terms of
meaning and secondly in terms of style.
The above definitions are different in expression but all of them share the
similar content: Translation is the transference of a text from one language to
another in which the message and style of the original text are conveyed as
accurately as possible in target language. This accurate or nearest-accurate
conveyance is perceived as equivalence.

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2.2. Translation methods and procedures
2.2.1. Translation methods
The following are the different translation methods proposed by Newmark
(1988):
- Word-for-word translation: preserve the SL word order and translate the
words singly by their most common meanings, out of context.
- Literal translation: convert the SL grammatical constructions to their
nearest equivalents, but again translate the lexical words singly, out of context.
- Faithful translation: produce the precise contextual meaning of the
original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.
- Semantic translation: differ from “faithful translation” only in as far as it
must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text.
- Adaptation: the freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays

(comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL
culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten.
- Free translation: produce the TL text without the style, form, or content of
the original.
- Idiomatic translation: reproduces the “message” of the original but tends
to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialism and idioms where these
do not exist in the original.
- Communicative translation: render the exact contextual meaning of the
original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and
comprehensible to the readership.
In fact, among these eight translation methods proposed by Newmark,
literal translation and adaptation are the ones applied most commonly for
linguistic purposes or in translation of literature, especially song lyric. The reason
is that these methods give their focus on the meaning, message and aesthetic
values in the translation of the original text into target language. Therefore, the

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grammatical structure of the text can be changed as well as the creativity of the
translator as the reproducer of the text is acceptable and sometimes necessary.
2.2.2. Translation procedures
Newmark (1988) mentioned the difference between translation methods and
translation procedures. He wrote that, “While translation methods relate to whole
text, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of
language” (p. 81). He referred to the following procedures of translation:
- Transference: the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text
- Through translation (Loan translation/ Calque): the literal translation of
common collocations, names of organisations, the components of compounds
and perhaps phrases

- Naturalization: the adaptation of a SL word first to normal pronunciation,
then to the normal morphology (word-forms) of the TL
- Cultural equivalent: the translation of a SL cultural word to a TL cultural
word
- Functional equivalent: requiring the use of a cultural-free word,
sometimes with a new specific term
- Descriptive equivalent: translating a cultural SL term by explaining it in
several words
- Synonymy: this procedure is a “near TL equivalent”. Here economy
precedes accuracy.
- Reduction and Expansion: these are imprecise translation procedures,
applied in some cases, particularly in poorly written texts
- Paraphrase: an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment
of the text

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- Compensation: this procedure occurs when loss of meaning in one part of
a sentence is compensated in another part
- Shifts (Transposition): involving a change in the grammar from SL to TL
- Modulation: involving a change in viewpoint, perspective and very often
in category of thought
- Componential analysis: the splitting up of a lexical unit into its sense
components, often one-to-two, -three or –four translations
- Recognized translation: this procedure occurs when the translator
“normally uses the official or the generally accepted translation of any
institutional term.”
- Translation label: an approximate equivalent, sometimes proposed as a
collocation in inverted commas, which may later be accepted

- Couplets: combining two of the above-mentioned procedures for dealing
with a single problem
- Notes: additional information in a translation
The terms “strategy” and “procedure” have not been distinguished clearly
by any translation scholars. In this research, the researcher stands on the point of
view of Kearns (2009) in Routledge Encyclopedia or Translation studies, edited
by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha. He stated that those two terms could be
used interchangeably to describe the ways of translating units smaller than text.
From this point onwards, in this study, the term “strategy” is used.
2.2.3. Translation of songs
According to Low (2006), in art songs, the source texts often have intrinsic
complexity and literary value as poetry, and the words generally receive greater
respect than in other types of song. For those songs that most depend for their
effect on verbal comprehension, good translations are particularly important.
With a sung text, rhymes usually observe the syllable count of the original. This
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is a translation designed to fit the music and to be performed with it. Besides, a
translation has given priority to matching the music, it will be too inaccurate
structurally and semantically to help the singer in untangling the source text. He
also pointed that a line-by-line approach is unduly restrictive: it means that some
of the normal tools of competent translators – tools such as transposition,
modulation, paraphrase, compensation in place – are rendered unavailable,
totally or partially. In the case of song texts, the typical reader of translations is
often a music lover rather than a poetry buff, and maybe ill equipped for teasing
meaning out of an opaque text. Therefore considerations of purpose should affect
the translators' handling of cultural and contextual details. With a singable
original text, making singable translations is a difficult task. One is subject to
huge, multiple constraints imposed by the pre-existing music, because one cannot

ignore the rhythms, the note values, the phrasings or the stresses of the music –
even phrasings and pitch levels may have to be considered and to reduce the
number of short vowel sounds and the clustering of consonants. Ideally, the new
version must sound as if the music had been fitted to it, even though it was
actually composed to fit the original. It is not surprising, then, that many of these
versions are too badly done to be usable, many are so marred by forced rhymes
and unnatural language that performers simply cannot sing them with conviction.
The devising of this kind of singable text presents the translator with fascinating
challenges. The translator is judged on five events: singability, sense,
naturalness, rhythm, and rhyme.
Some of the special difficulties of song translation are explained by Hurtado
(2001) as follows, “The linguistic and musical codes are blended, and, therefore,
the translator needs to subordinate the translation of the linguistic code to the
musical rhythm and to the tonal groups, and establish a synchrony between the
text and the music” (our translation) (p.92).
Haupt (1957) stated that there are two types of popular lyric-song
translations: (1) “those which completely change the original text”; and (2)

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“others which try to reproduce the source text and only make minimal changes
necessitated by musical constraints” (p.228).
In brief, song translation is undoubtedly a challenging job to any translator,
even the most competent ones. A translator, in the process of translating a song
lyric from one language into another language, needs to take five aspects as
singability, sense, naturalness, rhythm, and rhyme into serious consideration. In
fact, the two most frequently used strategies of the translator in this translation
field are either recreating a new version of a song lyric based on the original one
or reproducing the source lyric with few changes within musical constraints.

2.3. Equivalence and Equivalence effect
The concept of equivalence can be said to hold a central position in
translation studies. Nevertheless, it has been a rather controversial one, causing
many heated debates among translators as to its nature, definition and
applicability.
Jakobson (1959), when addressing the thorny problem of equivalence in
meaning between words in different languages, stressed the fact that “there is
ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units” (p. 114). He cited the example
of “cheese” in English by saying that it is not identical to the Russian “syr” – the
concept of cottage cheese not being included in the latter. Jakobson does not
propose that translation is impossible but rather pinpoints the differences in the
structure and terminology of languages.
According to Nida (1964), there are formal equivalence and dynamic
equivalence. In particular, in the former one, the target text resembles very much
the source text in both form and content whereas in the latter one an effort is
made to convey the source text in the target text as naturally as possible. In his
work, Nida gave paramount importance to the notion of “naturalness”. He
claimed that the main aim of “equivalent effect” is to achieve "the closest natural
equivalent to the source language" (Nida, 1964, p.166). Actually, “naturalness”
as a basic key-word in Nida's theory relies on the adaptation of grammar, cultural
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references and lexicon of the ST. It can be argued that Nida privileges the
preservation of the text meaning on its style, since it allows the translator to
create the same equivalent effects.
Departing from Nida's receptor-oriented line, Newmark (1981) felt that the
success of equivalent effect is “illusory” and that “the conflict of loyalties, the
gap between emphasis on source and target language will always remain as the
overriding problem in translation theory and practice” (p.38). Newmark

suggested narrowing the gap by replacing the old terms with those of semantic
and communicative translation which resemble Nida’s formal and dynamic
equivalence respectively. However, Newmark (1981) distanced himself from the
full principle of equivalent effect because effect “is in-operant if the text is out of
target language space and time” (p.69).
Koller (1979: 176-91, quoted by Munday, 2001) devoted a large part of his
research to the examination of the relation between ‘equivalence’ and
‘correspondence’. For the former examines the equivalent items in both the ST
and the TT and it is based on De Saussure's parameter of ‘langue’, while the
latter can be related to contrastive analysis, as a field of comparative linguistics
and is based on the De Saussure's ‘parole’. In an effort to answer the question of
what is equivalent to what, Koller (1979) developed five different types of
equivalence: (a) denotative equivalence involving the extralinguistic content of a
text, (b) connotative equivalence relating to lexical choices, (c) text-normative
equivalence relating to text-types, (d) pragmatic equivalence involving the
receiver of the text or message, and, finally, (e) formal equivalence relating to
the form and aesthetics of the text (p.186-191).
The concept of equivalence has been of particular concern to translation
scholars. Despite various distinguish expressions, equivalence in general is meant
to indicate that source text and target text share some kind of “sameness” or
“correspondence”. The question is as to the kind and degree of sameness which
gave birth to different kinds of equivalence. In the study, the researcher does not
aim at investigating closely the theory of equivalence and equivalence effect but
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use it as a framework for the evaluation of the translation of song lyric,
particularly the research’s selected samples, focusing on the aesthetical
characteristics of song lyrics or formal equivalence, as proposed by Koller, in the
song translation. In addition, three among five events that a song translation is

judged as stated by Low (2006) namely singability, sense and naturalness are
also used as the framework for assessing the translations’ equivalent effect in this
research.
Chapter summary
In this chapter, an overview of song and translation has been provided.
Song can be perceived as a short piece of music with words that people sing and
characterised by music language and word language. Translation is the process of
conveying as accurately as possible the meaning and aesthetics effects of the
source text into the target one. A brief introduction of translation strategies
including eight methods and seventeen procedures of translation proposed by
Peter Newmark also has been offered. At the end of the chapter, theories about
equivalence and equivalence effect are discussed to form a foundation for
assessing the translation of Vietnamese songs chosen as research samples.

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CHAPTER 3
METHODLOGY
The chapter is devoted to the presentation of the methodology of the
research. This includes the research approach, the sample selection, the methods
and the procedures of data collection and data analysis.
3.1. Design of the study
As mentioned above, the research ultimately sought to explore the strategies
employed by translators in translating Vietnamese teenager song lyric into
English and their equivalence effect. Because of this nature, it is necessary to
investigate both translated song lyrics and song audiences with sound knowledge
of language. Hence, the study was divided into two phases. Phase one dealt with
song lyrics in order to make general description of the strategies applied in
translating song lyrics. Meanwhile, in phase two, a number of song audiences

were interviewed, aiming to provide a rough evaluation of the strategies’
equivalence effect. Therefore, two different instruments were used in the two
phases to collect data so that different research questions can be answered.
3.2. Phase one
This phase aims to seek the answers for the first question: What strategies
are applied in translating Vietnamese teenager songs into English?
3.2.1. Sample selection
Em trong mắt tôi (How I see you), Bụi phấn (Chalk dust), Chênh vênh,
Vầng trăng khóc (The moon cries), Bài học đầu tiên (The first lesson), Đường lên
đỉnh núi (Road to the mount) and Mái trường mến yêu (Loving school) are
chosen as the subjects to be investigated in the research for two reasons.
Firstly, the Vietnamese versions of these songs have won widespread
popularity among Vietnamese teenagers. The songs “Em trong mắt tôi” (written
by Nguyễn Đức Cường) and “Chênh vênh” (written by Lê Cát Trọng Lý) earned
the Song of November and the Song of December Awards in the 2008

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Vietnamese Songs Contest hosted by Vietnam Television. Performed at the end
of the quiz show “Đường lên đỉnh Olympia”, also a successful product of
Vietnam Television, the song “Đường lên đỉnh núi” has become popular among
teenagers since its very first performance. The songs “Bụi phấn”, “Bài học đầu
tiên” and “Mái trường mến yêu” are listed among the most popular Vietnamese
teenager songs in the 20th century. Associated with the success of both the
musician Nguyễn Văn Chung and the two singers Nhật Tinh Anh and Khánh
Ngọc, the song “Vầng trăng khóc” is also known as a great hit in 2007.
Secondly, these songs’ English-translated versions are official, provided in
a reliable blog supported by the Young Translators Foundation after a
comprehensive assessment process. Information about the translators and

translation completion date are also given clearly in the blog. Especially, the
translation of the song “Chênh vênh” and “Em trong mắt tôi” was performed by
their original authors. Therefore, the research on these subjects will ensure
reliability and acquire practical significance.
3.2.2. Data collection procedures
Data collection procedure was divided into two steps, based mainly on
document observation and textual analysis methods:
Step 1: Collecting Vietnamese and English lyrics of sample songs
The very initial and essential step of this research was collecting song
lyrics. Among various Vietnamese teenager songs, the researcher selected eight
songs with the above-mentioned reasons. All lyrics of these songs in both
Vietnamese and English were found in the blog .
This is a project officially dated October 10th 2010, succeeding the scientific
research titled "Translation of music in Vietnam and the establishment of initial
databank of Vietnamese - English and English - Vietnamese song lyrics". It was
conducted by student Phan Tuan Quoc, supervised by MSc. Nguyen Thi Nhu
Ngoc, and criticised by Dr. Le Hoang Dung, all from Ho Chi Minh University of

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