Cultural Interference In Interpreting Of Foreign Affairs On Education

With the globalization of economy, politics and culture in the 21^st century, international exchange and cooperation in higher education becomes more and more active, putting new requirements before the participants in the international affairs. While many assume that once the interpreter masters the grammar of English and speaks fluent English, he/she will become a good interpreter; the research has proved that interpreting is not only a form of translating one language into another but also an intercultural behavior. Cultural difference will definitely influence the process and output of interpreting. This paper observes and examines the cases of cultural interference in interpreting of foreign affairs on education, and analyzes the reasons of communicative failures caused by ignoring the cultural interference and suggests some possible ways to tackle the problems. Four aspects are proposed to clarify this paper.Firstly, a general introduction is given as a theoretical background, including the definition, classification and history of interpreting so that the interpreting of foreign affairs on education focused in this paper will be provided with a firm point to peg down.In the second part, the author analyzes the nature of interpreting. This chapter starts with the process of interpreting followed by the theories of the great theorists including Nida and Danica Seleskovich, the author explains the characteristics of interpreting and works out that interpreting is an intercultural communicative activity. At the end of this chapter, the author explains why cultural interference is chosen as the theme of the paper and lists the common phenomena of cultural interference.The third part presents a spectrum of examples the author met or used in his job and the cultural interference is described in detail.At last, the author clarifies the ways or methods to reduce the influence on the output of interpreting. The author introduces three theories: Yanfu's "Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance" theory, Nida's "Functional Equivalence" theory and Bai Jingyu's "Cultural Reappearance" theory to illustrate the criteria of a good interpreting: accuracy, fluency and being prompt. At the end, the author exemplifies the ways to reduce the interpreting failures caused by the cultural interference, with the methods of alienation, adaptation and mediation.