A Study Of Over-Adaptation In Intercultural Communication

Many of the writings relating to intercultural communication chiefly focus on cultural differences, particularly on how to adapt to foreign cultures, but few on cultural equality and over-adaptation in intercultural communication. By describing some phenomena of cultural inequality, the present author analyzes their main causes ?ethnocentrism, national identity and cultural imperialism. It is found that cultural inequality occurs when people do not take an equal attitude towards different cultures, especially towards their native culture and alien cultures. Cultural inequality may be reflected on over-adaptation, which means one participant adapts too much to the other in intercultural communication. Over-adaptation can be easily discovered in some activities of intercultural communication, such as in translation. On most occasions, over-adaptation not only weakens the efficiency of communication but also hinders the cultural exchange. Over-adaptation in translation appears in two forms ?cultural loss and cultural substitution. That is, the cultural elements in ST (source text) is not translated into TT (target text), or is replaced by cultural elements of the target language, and the TT reader cannot learn or even misunderstand the ST culture. Both of the two forms prevent different cultures from spreading. However, cultural over-adaptation can be avoided or limited by the strategies of foreignizing and annotating. Based on the theory of cultural relativism, the author points out that cultures are relatively equal and mutually compensative, though they are not equal in reality. Every culture has something valuable for people to learn. A translator need not adapt to TT culture excessively, but ought to take an equal attitude towards ST culture and TT culture and spare no efforts to reproduce ST cultural elements in TT so that the TT reader may learn some ST culture.