ON INTERPRETATION IN PETRTOCHEMICAL INDUSTRY BY ENGLISH MAJORS ABSTRACT:Large scale petrochemical projects in related with foreign funds, technology or located in foreign countries involve plenty interpreters. This thesis discusses the difficulties faced by English majors in undertaking petrochemical technical and engineering interpretation work and proposes some suggestions for improving capabilities and qualities in the interpretation work in this field. KEY WORDS：Petrochemical; English major; Terms; Technical exchange; Technical appendix During the preparation and engineering phases of large scale petrochemical projects funded by foreign companies, supported by foreign technologies or located in foreign countries, plenty interpreters who understand related techniques are involved. Currently, most interpreters in this industry have background in technical learning or working. But English majors with no technical learning experience could also be found in this filed. The author, combing her experience in interpretation work for technical exchange /negotiations with foreign clients, foreign licensors, kick-off meetings, engineering design review meetings in preparation phase as well as exchange meetings in engineering phase in recent years, intends to discuss the difficulties faced by English majors during interpretation work for preparation and engineering phases of petrochemical projects and proposed solutions. During the preparation and engineering design phases of petrochemical projects, several disciplines get involved, including process, instrumentation and automatic control, static equipment, mechanical, piping ,architecture, civil, plot plan, storage and transportation, electrical, telecommunication, water supply and drainage, firefighting, environmental protection, heating and ventilation etc. It is almost impossible for an English major, with only language knowledge, to serve as a competent interpreter for petrochemical projects with over ten disciplines. As a beginner in this field, the interpreter feels that each word is simple to understand, but when they are combined, they are not easy to be understood. For interpretation of engineering projects, it is not one word to be replaced by another word in another language. Every professional issue could only be expressed in technical terms. In addition, this issue could only be conveyed with appropriate terms in a correct manner, as long as the interpreter has understood the technical knowledge and master the terms and glossary comprehensively. Otherwise the interpretation, with not conform-to- practice and to-norm expressions, will be hard to understand. Hence, the level of an interpreters technical knowledge determines his interpretation standard. To improve ones technical knowledge, one needs to read bilingual documents regarding technology of foreign licensors and consult the engineers or experts frequently. Technical appendix of the contract of a project stipulate the production capacity, technical route of the project, index and parameters of each discipline and always serve as guideline for technical negotiations. If the interpreter is familiar with the content of the technical appendix through reading before the meeting, he could understand the speakers point quickly and correctly. However, if he has no idea about the appendix, he is prone to encounter difficulties in comprehension and to make mistakes with only the understanding and memory in the meeting. The involvement of so many disciplines in the industry requires that the interpreter understands basic knowledge and principles of all disciplines and masters the meaning of all these terms in both English and Chinese. However, interpreters could not be divided into so many disciplines as the engineers do. As a result, the interpreter should grasp a general understanding of petrochemical engineering work as a first step and then starts from the basic knowledge of the most important disciplines and then proceeds with all disciplines. For the practice of interpretation work, the engineer could commence with the comparatively easy interpretation undertakings. For example, during the technical negotiations, although many engineers from major disciplines will attend the meeting, what they are concerned about is the process principles and parameters and seldom explore detailed issues. During the technical negotiation, the interpreter could have some idea about the key issues that all disciplines are concerned about and strengthen his general understanding about project engineering work. With increasing knowledge of the project technical interpretation, the interpreters could attend technical exchange and meetings conducted during the engineering phase of a project, i.e. to provide interpretation service along with the progress of the project. Detailed engineering work normally lasts for over half a year. During this time, the frequent and lar