7. Conclusion
The research is done with an aim to find out the main problems exist on the
English translation of public signs, and try to explore the ways on how to avoid these problems.
In order to reach this goal, a field survey on the English version of public signs in Beijing has been conducted. Mistakes found on these public signs are pointed out, and the types of mistakes are summarized and categorized. Emails regard to the problematic translations have been sent to native speakers to see their responses and collect their views. Suggestions on how to revise these problematic signs will be proposed.
Based on the survey, it is found that linguistic problems and neglect of cultural differences are two main causes of mistranslations. Linguistic problems are caused by the carelessness of translators or by unqualified machine translation. Mistranslations caused by neglect of cultural differences exist on the translation of Chinese store names and Chinese “unique terms”.
English translation of public signs is a great subject in translation field. Quite a lot of problems are waiting to be solved, for example, the inconsistency of English translation of the same place name; the inconsistency of English translation of the same object; how to deal with endless list of newly established Chinese public signs. It’s impossible to solve all these problems in this thesis, and further study should be conducted in the future translation practice.

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