浅谈英汉翻译中的文化因素

Contents

1

1.0 Introduction of culture (1)

2.0 Language, Culture & Translation ......................................... .2 2.1 Idioms (2)

2.1.1 English and Chinese idioms sharing the same meanings and

cultural images (2)

2.1.2 English and Chinese idioms sharing the similar meanings but

different cultural images (3)

2.1.3 Translation of idioms not restricted to only one version (3)

2.2 Communications with peopl e of different background (4)

2.2.1 Communications in a restaurant (4)

2.2.2 An embarrassing answer (4)

2.3 Animals that bear different cultural connotations (5)

2.4 Colors that have different cultural bearings (6)

2.4.1 B lue (6)

2.4.2 White (6)

2.4.3 Black (7)

3.0 Conclusion (7)

Cultural Factors in English and Chinese Translation

Abstract: This article discusses the influence of cultural factors on translation. Translation is to convey a message of one language into another language. It might not be so easy to get along well with your foreign friends because you have different cultures. You want to be friendly and to show your hospitality towards them when you say or do something. Even if your words or action are acceptable in the Chinese culture might be understood as impolite. So the cultural factors play a very important role in translation.

Keywords: cultural factors, English and Chinese translation

After entering the WTO, we have now got more chances to do business with European countries. Obviously, English, used by most of the countries, makes our communication much easier. So if you can master English, it will help you a lot in your business. Since the cultural factors play a very important role in translation, it is necessary for us to learn the cultures of the English speaking countries. Then you can understand them much better and communicate with them more successfully.

1.0Introduction of culture

Culture is an extremely complex concept and an enormous subject as well. It includes almost everything in the world, whether material or spiritual. But however complex it is, culture can roughly be divided into three categories: the material culture, which refers to all the products of manufacture; the institutional culture which refers to various systems and theories that support them, such as social systems, religious systems, ritual systems, educational systems, kinship systems and language; and the mental culture, which refers to people's mentality and behaviors, their thought patterns, beliefs, conceptions of value, aesthetic tastes.1These three aspects of culture have been formed through a long history of social development. Different countries have undergone different historical developments and thus have had different cultures. Therefore, the English native speakers and the Chinese native speakers have their own cultures.

2.0Language, Culture & Translation

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