The role of translation in Singapore's economy : a study on Singapore's language policy

• Main Author: Wui, Swee Qin
• Other Authors: Cui Feng
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72415
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Even though translation has always been present in the history of Singapore economy, the social status of translators and the economic value of translation have been remaining rather low. Through my researches, a lack of study on the relationship between economy developments and translation is discovered, be it locally or globally. Hence, this paper seeks to investigate the translation history in Singapore since the 19th century until present day, and to analyse the ideologies in these processes. This is in hope to highlight the importance of translators towards the economic development of Singapore and to justify the economic value of translation through these findings. In order to showcase the effect of bilingualism in grooming translators and translation agencies, Singapore‟s language policy will be mostly referred to as a point of reference. In view of the necessity to produce substantial justifications, qualitative research method is adopted for this research to obtain information. Literatures used will include Singapore bilingual education policy, toponymics, translation theories and journal articles of similar researches. As this paper will look at the history of Singapore, racial riots will also form part of the discussion so as to emphasize on the importance of social cohesion, consequently to show that mutual language and understanding is the crux to the solution. Due to the unique nature of being a private organisation controlled by the government, Temasek Holdings is being chosen as a case study in this paper. The purpose of it being a case study is to assess on the possible components which motivated and brought about the availability of translated annual reports i.e. Temasek Review. Based on the choice of simplified Chinese, its target audience is believed to be China, the current rising power in the world. Based on all the findings, analysis is done and the results proved that the importance and economic value of translation are indeed abundant. Whilst my paper fills up this research gap, more in-depth researches are expected to be done in the future. I hope that this paper will provide some grounds for Singapore government and educators to consider in further enhancing the development of translation and ultimately improve the social status of translators. Keywords: social status, economic value, bilingualism, Singapore‟s language policy, translation theories, Temasek Holdings, Temasek Review