The Difficulties in Translating Culture-Specific Expressions from Arabic into English

Ala’eddin Abdullah Ahmed Banikalef ,Jabr Abu Naser

doi:10.7176/jep/10-9-09

Abstract

This paper examines the problems faced by undergraduate students in Jordan majoring in translation when translating culture-specific expressions from the Arabic language into the English language. To attain this aim, 11 B.A translation students were given twenty cultural expressions to translate them from Arabic into English. These expressions were taken from volume two of the Jordanian Arabic novel “Mudun al-milh” (Cities of Salt) by Dr. A Munif. The findings show that the participants encounter various types of problems when translating these expressions. These problems are frequently related to; 1. unsuccessful attempts to attain the equivalent in the English language, and 2. inadequate knowledge in translation techniques and translation strategies. This study concludes with some recommendations, including providing at least two courses that deal with cultural differences, cultural awareness, and cultural knowledge, particularly in the academic programs that qualify translators. Keywords: Mudun al-milh, difficulties, cultural specific expressions, Arabic-English translation DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-9-09 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

Highlights

Translation plays an essential role in enabling the smooth transmission of ideas across national boundaries
This study focuses on the functional equivalence (FE), which is concerned with the common cultural lexical items and it requires the use of culture-free lexical items and sometimes-new specific terms
Data analysis showed that the students faced several difficulties in translating culture-specific expressions from Arabic language into the English language, such as inability to get an appropriate correspondence and incapacity to apply the suitable methods in translating

Summary

Introduction

Translation plays an essential role in enabling the smooth transmission of ideas across national boundaries It helps in bridging the gaps between the different cultures and nations (Bahaa-eddin 2011). Some scholars such as Khammyseh & Karak (2015) defined translation as a process of transferring ideas from one language into another. Translators resort to a sort of equivalence which can achieve the utmost approximation or the closest possible equivalent between the source language text (SLT) and the target language text (TLT). This means a possibility of loss and gain in meaning in most of the translations as a result of either over-translation or under-translation

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Discussion

Conclusion