Translating Arabic Culture-Bound Terms (CBTs) into English: A Pilot Study of Translation Students’ Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

In the current research, the focus is placed on exploring some of the most common translation problems encountered by undergraduate translation students dealing with translating Arabic culture-bound terms (henceforth referred to as CBTs) into English. The mentioned terms represent serious obstacles for translating processes, as they imply rather complicated cultural connotations and cannot be regarded as equivalents in other languages. Based on existing translation theories by such scholars as Peter Newmark and Mona Baker, this study aims at defining the nature of the mentioned problems and ways they can be solved by undergraduates. This study is exploratory in nature and it serves as a pilot for a larger-scale investigation. Thus, the chosen methodology was with the same nature, and it included a sample of 30 undergraduate translation students who had to translate 10 Arabic statements containing culture-bound terms into English. The data collected from the students were analyzed with the help of the thematic analysis framework suggested by Newmark (1988). In particular, he proposed to define categories that include various cultural objects in accordance with the classification of Peter Newmark. Then the chosen expressions were assigned to appropriate categories, while their translation difficulties were identified with respect to the mentioned three aspects: semantic accuracy, syntax appropriateness, and cultural adequacy. According to the findings in this sample, there is a great challenge faced by students to retain the cultural meaning in the translation of culture-bound expression. They translate them using literal translation or partial equivalence, thus losing meaning and cultural essence. Moreover, the findings show that the students prefer foreignization to domestication by 67% versus 33%. This is mainly because of their lack of understanding of the target culture.