Culture Shock in Translation Process under the Cross-cultural Communication

【Abstract】The paper focuses on culture shock in translation process. And it contains background of cross culture， culture shock， the shock in translation examples， and a conclusion.

【Key words】culture shock; languages; translation

【作者簡介】宋云青（1993-），女，汉族，四川绵阳人，宜宾学院，助教，翻译硕士，研究方向：翻译教学。

1. Introduction

Entering a foreign environment， persons emotion and cognition vary continuously. In the adaptation of new things， people will go through curiosity and happiness， then confusion and anxiety， finally acceptance. And in sojourning in a new environment， some persons adapt well in a short time， while some feel unaccommodated. This phenomenon is called “culture shock” （Oberg， 1960： 177-182）.

Due to the distinct culture and history background， there are many connotations and double meanings in respective expressions; culture shock also applies to translation in different language families. So a source language text can create a new environment for translators with the mother tongue， then the fresh conception and values brought by the source language cause culture shock to the translators. When the translators endeavor to interpret their mother language， they need to find out the adapting methods to solve the certain barriers in translation process.

2. The Definition of Culture shock and its U curve

The culture shock is ubiquitous to the transition period accompanied with worry and pressure in the early stage of adapting a new environment. And meanwhile the process of culture shock is inseparable from intercultural adaptation， which refers to the process of improve sojourners abilities of fitness， so that they can copy with the mismatches and incompatibility between the host culture and the culture of birth.

“Culture shock” was first used by Kalvero Oberg in 1960 to express the phenomenon of peoples anxiety and pressure in a totally new cultural environment. He defined this term as “anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” （1960： 177）. A U-curve described the intercultural adaptation was used by Sverre Lysgaard， further studied by Oberg， Smalley and Morris with four stages.

Initially， the sojourners observe the external objects from own cultural perspective with freshness， also think all nice in the new environment. Then crisis period means that calming from the overexcited phrase sojourners facing real challenges have to be accustomed to foreign habits and values. So this period can be regarded as the real culture shock stage with curiosity replaced by isolation and alienation. Next， the recovery period comes into being. Trying efforts to deal with a long period of depression and confusion， sojourners begin to learn how to treat the negative and the positive in a balanced manner. Lastly the bicultural period means sojourners have acquired abilities to acclimatize themselves to the point of view and nonverbal behaviors in the new culture. And the well-developed autonomy offers sojourners capacity for dual cultural identity （William， 2007： 173，174）.

3. The Culture Shock in Translation Process

The translators often suffer from the culture shock， for this group always exposes themselves to the foreign culture. So the culture shock is applicable to translators. According to the second period of U curve model， translators confuse about the translating obstacles in cultural untranslatability.

3.1 Shock in English to Chinese Translation

Deriving from Anglo-Saxon language， English mixes with Germanic and Latin language， absorbing various expressions forms， reflecting much cultural and historical background. Hence， these elements lead to barriers for translators.

3.1.1 The Religion Area

Religion has deeply rooted in westerners culture， influenced their behaviors， and guided the literature trend. Among Hans Christian Andersens Fairytales， the Little Match Girl should be Andersens most classic work. In the ending， the little girl died and went to heaven. In western cognitive， the death is positive matter， a turning point from the life of temporary， limited， fleshy， sinful and restrained state to the eternal happiness in heaven （Hegel， 1979： 281）. So the girls death is regarded as releasing from the body. The story plot is easy to be translated into Chinese with the literal translating strategy， while the death awareness is unacceptable in China， where people consider death is a terrible and grievous matter so that cant understand the deaths happiness in western. So in the Chinese translation version， this story has been comprehended as the evil capitalist society murdering the little girl， reflecting the superiority of socialist society. The misunderstanding is avoidable for the translators cannot make proper adjustment in source text influenced by western religious ideology.

3.1.2 The History Area

The historical events in culture have deeply taken roots in its languages， which cause tremendous barriers in translation practices. In English， “Waterloo” is from the battle in Waterloo; Napoleon with his French army fought the battle against England and Prussian but suffered the terrible defeat， ending his political carrier. For expressing the crushing defeat， the transliteration of “Waterloo” as “滑鐵卢” is understandable， because Waterloo are not located in China so its image bring a sense of foreign elements. In fact， the similar example in China was Guanyu， a general in Shu-Han dynasty， who failed battle in Maicheng city， so the Chinese idiom “败走麦城” is used to tell his experience. It can be seen that the two historical events have a resemblance and the two idioms have a similar meanings， therefore translators can use “败走麦城” to interpret  “Waterloo”.

3.2 Shock in Chinese to English Translation

The culture shock lies in Chinese into English too， involving in digging for the deep meanings， analyzing Chinese writing method， and comprehending connotation evolution. The two points， respectively the deep-meaning buzzword translation and the classics translation， are listed here to explain the culture shock in translating process from Chinese to English.

3.2.1 The Deep-meaning Buzzword Translation

“任性”is a fashionable word with most clink rate in the net， but is hard to translate in English. During the two sessions in China， the press spokesman said： “反腐倡廉，大家都很任性”， then the interpreter translated the world “任性” as “capricious” which won the praise from many people. Actually， “capricious” is use to express the person who make decision by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason. And “任性” used there is to show the governments confidence and attitude to fight against corruption. Therefore， “capricious” is an improper expression to explain the firm standpoint but give foreigners the unfaithful and changeable impression. And so the explanation strategy would be appropriate， then the rendering can be “constant and persistent”.

3.2.2 The Classics Translation

So many Chinese expressions techniques are difficult to transform with the plots rendering， and blindly following the forms may mislead foreign readers.

In Chinese classic novel， Dream of Red Mansions has won a place and already been transformed into many languages especially English， then there is a Chinese excerpt as follow：

“黛玉聽了这话，不觉又喜又惊，又悲又叹。所喜者：果然自己眼力不错，素日认他是个知己，果然是个知己。所惊者：他在人前一片私心称扬于我，其亲热厚密竟不避嫌疑。所叹者：你既为我的知己，自然我也可为你的知己，既你我为知己，又何必有“金玉”之论呢？”

（曹雪芹的《红楼梦》第32回）

This short passage has an obviously changing process in persons， showing the variety of perspectives. If transformed as Chinese form， it would be like： after hearing his words， Tai-yu felt pleasant and surprised while also grieved and distressed. As pleasant， I had a good taste for considering he was my confidant; as surprised， he praised me in front of others without avoiding arousing suspicion; as grieved， you were my confidant and I also can be yours， since we were confidants why there was the affairs of gold matching jade. For this rendering version， the foreign readers will puzzle about the perspectives changes that why the author used the third person “Tai-yu” and described her emotion， and then used the first person “I” to express the details; moreover they would confuse such work can be the so-called Chinese classics， therefore this literal rendering is unacceptable.

4. Conclusion

This paper tends to focus on the culture shock in translation process between English and Chinese. And it is easy to draw a conclusion that in term of English a plenty of phrases contains the deep connotation that close to Christian belief and influenced by western history. Contemporarily speaking， Chinese to English translation also produces many barriers， like mentioned in paper the buzzwords deep connotation and the classics literary techniques.

To sum up， there is no translation strategies could produce the targeting language text with completely equivalent information in source language text; and during the translation practice， lie in a lot of barriers caused by different culture backgrounds， so the thorough analysis and careful understanding are necessary in translation process that is a trial for translators.

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