Common difficulties of translating business correspondence in the training of pre-service philologists

Abstract

This article investigates the multifaceted difficulties encountered in the written translation of texts within the official-business style, with particular attention to English-Ukrainian and Ukrainian-English translation. While translation studies have addressed various isolated challenges, there remains a significant lack of a structured methodological classification for translation difficulties, which can be used for training pre-service translators. This research addresses this gap by proposing a methodological typology grounded in linguistic, psycholinguistic, and stylistic analyses. Drawing upon previous studies and comparative insights, the paper outlines four stages of the written translation process: source-text analysis, translation realization, target-text evaluation, and editing. Each stage is associated with specific challenges, including semantic ambiguities, genre-stylistic discrepancies, sociocultural mismatches, and language-specific conventions. The typology reflects both the receptive and productive nature of translation, recognizing how directionality affects difficulty types. By systematizing these difficulties, the proposed classification enhances both theoretical understanding and practical training in translation. This framework provides a foundation for designing targeted pedagogical strategies and exercises, thereby improving the competence of philology students in producing functionally and stylistically accurate translations in official-business contexts. The study ultimately contributes to bridging the gap between translation theory and educational practice.