An Analysis On The Cultural Differences In Interpretations And The Solutions

With the rapid development of globalization, people from different nations,countries with different cultural-backgrounds are conducting increasing exchanges and communications in fields such as politics, culture, economy and trade, science and technology at a deepening level. Translation and interpreting, as the bridge between different cultures, are playing an important role today. Language is the carrier of culture. People’s thought patterns and behaviors are influenced by the cultural environment in which they grow up. Cultural difference is one of the challenges that interpreters encounter in work and properly dealing with cultural differences in the extremely short time is the key to a successful interpreting.This thesis is a case study based on the author’s interpreting experience. Chapter1 is the introduction to the development of translation and interpreting studies and the methodology used in this thesis. Chapter 2 is the definition of culture and interpreting and the relation between them. The author tries to classify the cultural differences in interpreting into six categories, namely differences in history, in geography, in traditions, in religions and beliefs, in thought patterns and in non-verbal acts, in order to figure out the root causes of these cultural differences. In chapter 3, the author introduces some theories of translation and interpreting,including cross-cultural awareness in interpreting, skopos theory and the theory of domestication and foreignization. Then, the author gives a brief report about the interpreting event in chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the author discusses the solutions to the cultural differences in interpreting, namely literal interpreting, literal interpreting with extra explanation, free interpreting, converting cultural images and omitting.Chapter 6 is the last part, in which the author makes a general summary about this thesis, including the author’s understanding about cultural differences in interpreting,his primary idea about the solutions to cultural differences, the limitation and shortcoming of the author’s study and the next step he will take about this study.Hopefully, this thesis could be an inspiration to interpreters to help them deal with cultural differences quickly and effectively in real interpreting practices.