Technical Translation

CULTURAL RESEARCH

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." But, before you get to Rome, you'll need to find out exactly what it is the Romans "do."

Before a technical translation gets underway, a translator needs to gather a certain amount of background information about the audience that the translation is intended for. This can be a bit of a challenge if the audience is "foreign" to the translator.

Some degree of insight into the culture(s) of the target audience for a technical document is necessary for an effective analysis of that audience. Respecting the social, political, economic, historical, and linguistic characteristics of a specific culture is often a prerequisite for usable technical documents. 

For the sake of clarity, cultural research can be broken down into “three Cs": 

Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Psychology, and Cross-cultural Communication

While cultural anthropology involves the study of the impacts of global-scale economic and political phenomena on a specific, local culture; cultural psychology involves a more specialized understanding of the psyche and behaviors unique to and shaped by that particular culture. Some degree of understanding of what makes a culture “tick” and knowing how a native audience will respond to certain symbols, colors, semantic and syntactic constructs, etc. is essential.

Cross-cultural communication is a fast-growing research area which concerns finding the best way to incorporate cultural anthropology and cultural psychology into effective communication across cultural lines. No matter how simple or complex the translation, some degree of applied cross-cultural communication is necessary. A grasp of such linguistic constructs as semiotics, syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics is imperative. Understanding the impact of certain colors and symbols on an audience can be essential. Colors have widely different interpretations varying from one culture to the next; and icons and other symbols can reflect great perceptual contrasts. 

Understanding the impact of a document's words and images on the user will mean the difference between a usable document and one that either confuses and/or offends.

Some Informative Links:

What Place Does Cultural Anthropology Have in Translation Programs of the 21st Century? 
http://www.gial.edu/images/gialens/vol2-2/McKinneyAbbot-Cult%20Anthro%20in%20Translation.pdf

Here's a primer for translation and cross-cultural communication: 
http://www.language-translation-help.com/cross-cultural-communication.html


Here's a more detailed primer for translation and cross-cultural communication: 
http://www.epictrends.com/resources/localization/Think%20globally.shtml