Cultural Differences In Business English Interpreting And Their Corresponding Interpreting Strategies

With the development of China’s economy, and the increasingly frequent foreign business activities, business English interpreting has gradually drawn people’s attention. The differences between Chinese culture and Western counterpart play an important role in business English interpreting. Every language exists in its specific cultural background, and business English interpreting, in fact, is a kind of cross-cultural communication behavior in business context.This thesis analyzes the Chinese and Western cultural differences existing in business English interpreting, and discusses their corresponding interpreting strategies. It consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces the research background, research significance, research contents and methods. Chapter Two concerns itself with a summary of theories pertaining to cross-cultural communication, cross-cultural translation and cross-cultural business interpreting. Chapter Three focuses on the cultural differences in business English interpreting from macroscopic aspects and specific aspects. From the aspects of thinking patterns, the ways of expression, speech habits, forms of address, and idioms, the chapter makes a detailed analysis on the main differences in business English interpreting. Chapter Four introduces the corresponding interpreting strategies to tackle the cultural differences analyzed in Chapter Three. The first section is in response to the cultural differences from macroscopic aspects. For example, to tackle the cultural differences in thinking patterns, the interpreting strategies of amplification, division, generalization and concretization can be used; to deal with the cultural differences in ways of expression, the interpreting strategies of domestication and paraphrasing can be used; to settle the cultural differences in speech habits, the interpreting strategies of free translation and omission can be used. The second section is in response to the cultural differences from specific aspects. It introduces such strategies of interpreting ways of addressing people as omission and back-translation. To interpret idioms, literal translation and free translation can be used. Chapter five summarizes the study of this thesis, puts forward suggestions on upgrading the qualities of cross-cultural business English interpreters, and points out the limitations and deficiencies of this thesis.Business English interpreters must attach importance to and conscientiously learn the cultural differences between source language and target language, master the corresponding interpreting strategies, and improve the ability of cross-cultural interpreting to better play the role of business English interpreters.