The Awareness of Audience in Translation

Every individual is a unique life form in the world, with different personalities, professions, hobbies, etc., making the differences between people more apparent. Therefore, all kinds of products and services must consider the real needs of the audience, cater to their thinking and preferences, in order to have the desired impact. This is the importance of audience awareness.

For different types of news media and journalists, audience awareness refers to having the concept of readers in mind for newspaper reporters during interviews and reporting, and the concept of viewers for television reporters. Establishing and reinforcing audience awareness is necessary for conducting interviews and reporting well, as well as for running newspapers, radio, and television stations effectively. Similarly, for translators, the audience is also a key point in carrying out translation work and improving the quality of translated texts. Different texts correspond to different target groups, which means their functions and goals are different. For example, the translation of a tourist guide targets tourists and aims to promote tourist destinations to attract more visitors, so the translation should be lively and interesting to engage the readers' interest. This article will divide the audience into several categories and provide a simple analysis from different perspectives.

Classifying the audience based on nationality is common in translation work. Taking Chinese-to-English translation as an example, when the audience is readers from other countries, attention must be paid to many details in translation. For instance, "我国" cannot simply be translated as "our country" because the referent of "我国" may not be the same for readers of different nationalities. Additionally, there are many traditional customs and cultural backgrounds that require slight adjustments during translation. For example, in China, red symbolizes auspiciousness and beauty, but in some other cultures, red may symbolize bloodshed and violence. Therefore, the translation needs to adapt the positive connotations of red to colors with similar functions in the target country to avoid misunderstandings.

Segmenting the audience based on age is also very common. The translation of children's literature differs from general literary works. Children's literature is targeted at young readers with less extensive knowledge, whose comprehension and knowledge systems are not fully developed. Just like when we talk to kids, grammar and vocabulary are simplified for easy understanding and lively expression, which then elicits responses from them. In contrast, translations for adults can be more profound in expression.

Another way to segment the audience is based on occupation. Different professional fields entail varying levels of specialized knowledge. For professionals, translating certain technical terms without additional explanations may make the text cumbersome. On the other hand, for non-professionals, if no annotations are added, readers would need to spend time looking up related terminology, significantly reducing their satisfaction with the translated text.

In conclusion, analyzing the audience can also be crucial to the success or failure of a translation.

◀️：Finding the right target audience - an important audience for translation

▶️：Translation from Chinese to English: Audience Awareness in External Communication Translation