A study on Korean-to-English news translation strategy : Focusing on high and low context theory by Hall

Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether and how the Korean-to-English news translation provided by South Korean news organizations complies with the distinctive communication patterns of its target culture, or English-speaking culture, to meet the demand of the target readers, and what the effect is. To achieve this goal, the study adopted Edward T. Hall’s (1976) concepts of ‘low context’ and ‘high context’ cultures as theoretical framework. Hall suggests that, in high context cultures, such as China, Japan and Korea, the communication draws heavily on context such as social roles and positions, shared knowledge and experience. Non-verbal channels, such as pauses, silence and tone of voice, are used to convey meaning. On the other hand, ‘low context’ cultures, including North America and Germany, prefer explicit verbal messages. Based on these concepts, the research analyzed 40 Korean source texts and English target texts posted on the web site of Chosun Ilbo newspaper, South Korea’s most-circulated paper, between May 26 and June 9, 2012. The major findings are as follows. First of all, the English target texts were more clear, cohesive and neutral than source texts, indicating strategies were adopted to enhance the explicitness, cohesion and logic possibly in order to comply with the communication patterns of English-speaking culture. Second, these target texts helped readers better understand the message.