Culture Specific Items Translating Strategies

Culture Specific Items Translating Strategies

Cultural Context Translate

Cultural translation surely becomes big task for every translator. Translating simply is just delivering text from one to another language. Is that simple? Of course it is not. Although there is kind of idealism that translating should keep the translation in target language as close as possible to the source language, sometimes people have to do more if they want to deliver the message from the source language. Maybe people do not have to do cultural translation all the time because there can be culture specific items which can be found in the text. When they find the culture specific items with the conversation function, they can use some strategies for translating them.

Repetition

There can be a time when people find repetition in the original text. Just because it is repeated in the original text, it will be translated in the same way in the target language. However, there is risk that this strategy can lead a rise in the cultural specific item exotic character. It can cause the target language readership alienation of the source reference. In fact, collective reception of something identical can be completely different. This is something which people have to pay attention in cultural translation matter.

Orthographic Adaptation

The next strategy is orthographic adaptation. Transcription as well as transliteration will be involved in this strategy. This strategy can be applied to translate the cultural specific items but it must be in specific circumstance. Different strategy can work well in different circumstance after ll. If the languages have the alphabetical system which is almost similar such as the Latin languages, this strategy can work greatly.

Linguistic Translation

Last but not least, instead of using the cultural translation, people just use the no cultural one or linguistic translation. In this circumstance, the translator chooses to be close to the original reference denotatively. However, it will come up with the item from target language that can be recognized as the belongings to the source text cultural system. Translators can draw on the linguistic transparency. He can also capitalize on the translation which is pre established within the target language inter textual corpus. This strategy can be solution for the problem which can be found from the previous strategies after all. This way, the foreign people can still receive the culture but it is still comprehensive because it is analogous or homogenous to the original one. Translators should be wise for choosing strategies in cultural translation.

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Translation Mistakes In Advertising

Translation Mistakes In Advertising

Cultural Context Grammatical mistake Translation

Hi! What makes you laugh whenever you walk out into street and watch some English words written mistakenly? It happens a lot when you go to the restaurants or cafes. The situations might go like these: The owners may request some jargon verbally into the advertisement companies or agencies. But the mistakes happen or occur in the writers or publishers.

It literally can be just an error. Or it is totally mistake made. So, generally we can say it is unconsciousness mistake ever made or it is totally human error double mistake.

Let’s see the examples:

- The jargon of a bakery: Fresh from the open

- The menu lists:

Ø Orenje Juice : Should be Orange Juice

Ø Friends Fresh : Should be French Fries

- Wrong translated branding sentence:

Ø KFC’s “finger licking good” into “eat your fingers off” in China

So, all the translation mistakes in advertising is back to the misunderstanding of the context. It is why when someone is trusted to translate the words, they should look thoroughly and wider concept where it will be announced or published.

Read Also 3 Types of Ambiguity In Translation and Ways to Handle the Issue. Be Aware!!

It will be disadvantage both financially and on the market’s trust if the companies have to take back the products suddenly from the markets. It has big loss for all.

So, how to avoid those mistakes??

1. Don’t use translation tool

It only will lead you to incorrectness. The tool only show you one to one word translation which it will not give more contextual translation. If you only use this kind of method, you will be misleading. The solution is you can just use the simplest and clearest words to represent your products.

2. Don’t assume all native speakers are good translators

It is true that they speak English very well. But, they know little about contexts you want. The contexts are not only about the places but also the characteristics of the people, the situations, the traditions, the times, and more. And mostly the natives do not study long time about the grammatical English. So, why don’t you try to find English speaking translators from other countries also to compare the work.

3. Give clearest information to your translators

It can be your mistakes too for not giving enough information to the translators that make translation mistakes in advertising. By not having enough source of information, your translators will not be able to give broader and more understandable context of the translation.

 Read Translation Gone Wrong (Funny Translation Mistakes)

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3 Tips on Culture Translate and Translation based on Cultural Adaptation

3 Tips on Culture Translate and Translation based on Cultural Adaptation

Cultural Context Translate Translation

Culture translate thing or something like cultural audit is commonly taking the place prior to translation in order to avoid the solution from different translators. By auditing or translating the cultural writings, it will be recommended to replace the expressions and idioms, metaphors from local, imagery, humor, and many more. And when you are doing the cultural audit, it needs to be adapted for any kinds of market.

Most experienced translators are already able to adapt any expressions from local. And for your
information, even a content writer should be rich of cultural reference or at least they learn it since the beginning of their content writer career. There are several tips when you are going to do culture
translate. Check this out.

Recreating the material

As the translator, sometimes we found that the materials are just not matched with the target market.
And by that, you definitely need to recreate the material from zero and also rewrite it into the new one so it will be proper for the target market. Other than that, you probably will need style and brand
guides for the reference that will be useful for the translators.

Learning and adapting more

It is also a common case if one day you found materials that not creative enough in the content.
Meanwhile, you have to be creative so what you write is going to be read by the readers. This is why
the translators should learn and adapt more. If you do not do that, the translation companies or experienced translators are going to take your job. They can make the materials become very locally
without much adaptation but the culture translate thing always goes well.

Prepare the source content

Translators need the sources in order to write or translated a good article or writing. But of course it
should be adapted into the culture or local wisdom as well as the local target market. You could end
up with 5 or more sources that already adapted by others. And of course it will make your work much
easier since you do not have to translate and adapt all the materials. Preparing will save your time
and also your money. Insurance policy is a good topic for cultural audit. Preparing now will avoid
losing money in later. If you can write it, you better adapt it. Translation companies will ask higher cost for specialties in doing culture translate.

You can read also related information on culture translation at Cultural Problems in Translation and Brief Solutions or  Culture Role in Translation

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Translation Of Culture

Translation Of Culture

Cultural Context Translation

When speaking about translation of culture, it is about the practice of the translation science. It involves cultural differences in translating words. It cares about the different meanings in different places in the locals. In the faculty of English language, the students also learn about this kind of subject which is often called as Cross – Cultural Understanding.

What Important?

Well, it can help you to know and apply the knowledge of the translation of culture which is not easy at all. You do not have to know languages in other countries. But at least, you know some of the words in the targeted countries where you want to translate.

For example, the slogan of KFC that is ‘finger licking good’. It was wrongly translated into ‘Eat your fingers off.

More Concern

The one and only thing you should consider as main issue is that you as the translator must solve the differences of words, ways of speaking and meanings and other features.

The tips to get better translations are:

- Know the content

Ø Research

If you get clients, what you need is just ask them. Ask many as you want to get better understanding of what you are going to translate.

Ø Check the market

By yourself, go checking the market or targeted place the translation will be published. Then you will find the best words or context for your projects.

- Translate

From the glossaries you have, now you can make the translation. If it is only general thing, you can use your grammatical knowledge. But if it is specific subjects, you better have specific dictionaries on you. It will help you a lot to get the thesaurus based on specific purposes.

And, for the language, if it has special requests by the clients, you should follow them. For example, if the text should be creative or interesting, you can use informal language. And it happens if the text is formal or serious topic, the language you should use is correct grammatical ones.

- Recheck

After finishing your translation project related to translation of culture, you can re-read again. Or ask your friends or other people to read what you have written. It is only if it is allowed by your clients or by the permissions only. If it is credentials because it has not been published and has big impact in the society, better you read by yourself only and just send to your clients if they have comments.

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Defining Translation and Culture

Defining Translation and Culture

Cultural Context Language Translation

Culture and translation sounds like completely different thing for many people. When translating something, people just need to transfer a word of sentence to different language. Culture sounds like something bigger associated with human being. In fact, translation has very strong association with the language aspect while language becomes part of the culture. It means that language will include much bigger things associated with the culture of human who is using the language. That is why it is crucial for making sure that people do not forget about the cultural aspect when they try to translate something. For this purpose, people need to be able to define translation and culture.

Translation

Translation surely is much bigger thing than just delivering sentence in one language to another language. There is meaning which should be delivered to the readers so the translation process should be done carefully including by considering the cultural aspects. There are some different definitions of translation which can be found according to the scholars. It can be the textual material replacement on one language by the textual material in another that is equal. There is also definition that translating will include reproducing in the different language the closest original language message natural equivalent. It must be bigger than just delivering word from one language to another language. In this circumstance, translators must deal with the alien culture which should be understood well or else the message will be delivered in strange way. That is why people cannot separate culture and translation at all to get the best result.

Culture

Of course it means that people have to understand further about the definition of culture. There are two manifestations of culture after all. First of all, the vocabulary items reference or concept is specific for given culture. Reference or concept is pretty general but there is specific expression to the culture of source language. That is why, it is better for translators to be careful when they translate expression or word which is culturally bound. They also have to consider about the procedures of translation. As translators, there are several competencies which should be owned. They must have excellent knowledge not only about the target language but also the source language from the vocabulary to the pronunciation. However, they also need the sociolinguistic competence. This knowledge will provide them with very great help for understanding the text with the right context. In fact, translators should increase their knowledge about culture and translation.

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Cultural Issues in Translation

Cultural Issues in Translation

Article Cultural Context Translation Translation Issue

Almost many translators face cultural issues in translation. It is almost impossible for them to avoid this kind of issue. Before you find out what are the common culture issues which are encountered by many translators, let’s take a look the definition of cultural translation first.

Cultural translation

When you heard cultural translation, it is strongly related to any range of disciplines. It is a common term that used in various kinds of disciplines both inside and out of the study of translation in several different ways. There are many theories and approaches that sound promising as valuable intuitiveness for the transfer of cultural practice. But the thing is, the exact usage of the term cultural translation still seems unclear and controversial. This term is also not clear yet of how the concept can give effect or impact on several basic assumptions in the translation studies. Cultural translation also brings many cultural issues in translation for translators due to different style of living, mind set and other factors.

Read Also : A Pragmatic Approach to Translating

Major cultural issues found in translation process

1. Allusions

There are many examples of allusions in literature. The first example refers to Adam and Eve who lived in Eden. This story doesn’t need any comments to Western reader even though it’s a biblical story. The second example of allusion is taken from Islamic history. This example is probably a vague for the Western readers. It refers to one of Prophet Muhammad’s daughters and wives as his very first successor, A’ishah. This woman played an important role especially during the conflict which opposed the fourth successors, Ali. He is also an important figure stated in Islamic history. This figure is well-known among people in Shiite sect. These historical and cultural allusions can give unclear statement to the language. They need to be clarified in the translation work so the readers will not misunderstand. Minimize the usage of footnotes since they can be quite intrusive. Mostly, translators will use explanatory notes into the body of the story or the text when it is needed.

2. Financial translation

Cultural issues in translation can show up because of the different cultural references. They are including cultural connotations, names of food and festival. Usually, many translators will write language localization in order to adapt the translation correctly to the target of the culture. One of the simple examples is financial translation that needs dates. In English, 06/05/2001 will mean May 6. But maybe it will not be the same in other languages which mean June 5.

The ways to overcome cultural issues in translation are many. It depends on what kind of issues that translator finds. Reading many references as many as you can will help to find out the problem solving. Good luck!

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