Zhongxin Wanghai, May 5 (Reporter Xu Jing) "Spring equinox is an internationally accepted astronomical term, English has ready-made words, Spring Equinox (spring equinox) and Vernal Equinox (spring equinox) can be used, if you choose one of the two, I recommend using the more simple Spring Equinox." Gu Yu's words, the answer of each family is basically the same, that is, the literal translation of Grain Rain, it should be noted that the English capital of the solar term name is generally capitalized. Zeng Taiyuan, professor of the English Department and dean of the School of Foreign Languages and Taiwanese professor of Shanghai Shanda College, said in a recent interview that one of the current tasks is how to say "popular science" solar terms in English, and tell about the origin, cultural connotation and cross-strait solar terms folk customs.
In Zeng Taiyuan's view, the 24 solar terms, as an important carrier of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, are the accumulated achievements and wisdom of the working people of the Chinese nation. He hoped that through his own efforts, compatriots on both sides of the strait would have a better understanding of the 24 solar terms and feel the breadth and depth of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation.
After graduating from National Taiwan University, Zeng Taiyuan went to the University of Illinois in the United States to study for a doctorate in linguistics, and worked part-time in the Department of East Asia, working as a teaching assistant for Chinese as a foreign language, using the "Practical Chinese Textbook" of the Commercial Press. "In the dialogue between the two protagonists, Gu Bo and Palanca, I mastered Hanyu Pinyin, gradually learned simplified characters, and slowly understood the language and culture of the mainland."
It was during this period that Zeng Taiyuan met Shen Yu, the first mainlander and a colleague who graduated from the history department of Peking University. Shen Yu, who is like a "sister", makes Zeng Taiyuan full of good feelings and curiosity about mainlanders.
After graduation, Zeng Taiyuan returned to teach in the English Department of Soochow University in Taiwan, and served as the head of the department for two terms, during which he frequently traveled between the two sides of the strait to carry out exchanges and communication in English teaching. "Many of the interactions between old-timers and good friends, such as Teacher Lu Gusun, are still very impressive when I think about it."
In 2021, Zeng Taiyuan, who has been working in Taiwan for 25 years, made up his mind to come to the mainland to "break in" to a bigger "stage" and joined the School of Foreign Languages of Shanghai Shanda University. Coincidentally, Shanda College was founded in 1992, the year when Zeng Tai first set foot on the mainland.
Shanda College was characterized by "English" at the beginning of its establishment, and the School of Foreign Languages is also one of the earliest colleges established by Shanda College, which has cultivated many foreign language talents. Coming to the mainland to teach, Zeng Taiyuan found that "there are too many things to do, and he is very busy and fulfilling", and he first "transplanted" a reserved assignment from teaching in Taiwan: voting for the annual English hot words and analyzing them.
At the end of 2021, Zeng Taiyuan established the corpus research group of Shanghai Shanda College and released the 2021 English hot words, and related research has attracted much attention. In February 2023, the corpus research group was expanded, including 2 returnee doctors, 4 industry and society experts, and the research involved in corpus linguistics, machine translation, English teaching, dictionary and textbook compilation and other fields.
Based on years of research on annual English hot words, the Corpus Application and Research Center of the School of Foreign Languages of Shanghai Shanda University initiated and promoted by Zeng Taiyuan has been officially established this year.
According to the plan, the center is a scientific research institution integrating teaching, scientific research and social services, and will take the applied research empowered by corpus technology as the core, and is committed to applying the corpus to effective language teaching, textbook development, translation, image research, etc.
"I hope that the center can 'walk' and 'run' in the future." At present, Zeng Taiyuan has successively carried out the English translation research of current Chinese hot words such as "internal consumption" and "out of the circle"; Next year is the Year of the Dragon, and he is also conducting research on the semantic changes of the English translation of "dragon".
"We have joined hands with enterprises, and the two sides will carry out strategic cooperation between teaching application and digital publishing, corpus-based research on the vector classification of learners' writing text, corpus-based machine translation development and application cooperation, and language artificial intelligence industry-university-research internship base cooperation." Zeng Taiyuan hopes that the center can be combined with Pudong's high-tech development in the future to create application scenarios with digital humanistic foresight. Multi-faceted integration with intelligent foreign language teaching, in-depth service for the integrated construction of the Yangtze River Delta; It also hopes to intersect with Shanghai Shanghai culture and cultural and creative industries to provide multimodal language research and application services.
There were so many things to do, which made Zeng Taiyuan feel that time was quite tight. On weekdays, he arrived at the office at 8 a.m. and left at about 5 p.m., because he had more administrative tasks, and he could only put his class preparation, writing articles, etc. on weekends and evenings, "The most obvious feeling is that I sleep less than before, although tired, but not sleepy, because I know that what I am doing is very meaningful." ”
In teaching, Zeng Taiyuan found that there is not much difference between young people on both sides of the strait, they are eager to learn, seriously surprising people, and it is easy to feel the sincerity and enthusiasm of young people.
As a son-in-law in Shanghai, Zeng Taiyuan is also integrated into local life in Shanghai. During his holidays, he likes to walk around and taste the cuisine of all parts of the mainland, and he likes salted meat rice and pickled tuk xian the most, and he also has a soft spot for northwestern flavors, especially pasta.
"A few years ago, I planned to travel to Baoji Longxian County, Shaanxi Province with my wife, but because the epidemic did not happen, I still want to make up for it this year." Zeng Taiyuan said: Only by walking and looking more can we know the real situation on the mainland and have a more comprehensive understanding. (End)