Translation is commonly practice used by second language teachers in the class. In the multicultural setting of Malaysia where both teachers and students are multilingual, the language of the second-language class is not necessarily that of the target language itself. This is the case in the teaching of Chinese. In the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language, other languages, especially English and Malay, are often used in code-switching or translated as spoken Chinese. This article examines the use of translation in the teaching of a second language to clarify issues of contention and research concerning the methods of translation and to explore their practicality in the teaching of Chinese as a second language.