Culturally competent translators
Which skills make the difference between an accurate translator and a culturally competent translator?
Cultural translation competence starts with cultural awareness. A translator is culturally aware if she/he understands how networks of meaning and connotations differ between cultures, between subcultures, between situations and contexts.
For instance, what concept does "educational system" refer to if you are German, French, Chinese or American? A culturally competent translator must be able to understand the kind of problems that arise when people from different cultures are not aware of differing connotations.
However, cultural translation competence is more than awareness. It is also the translator's ability to adapt a text for use in a different culture, keeping the intended outcome in mind.
Let us look at what happens when you transfer a text from one culture to another.
What is culture? There are literally thousands of definitions of culture. We can think of culture as everything that a group of people value. Let us call it a collection of values and valuables. When you compare cultures, it isn't so much the values that differ, but the importance attached to each value. Now, this collection - you may call it a system - of values is like a framework for those who live together within the same group (or society, or community ...). It is a framework that forms a support, a frame of reference. And people may refer to it and use it when dealing with problems, when deciding what to do, when trying to make sense of the world around them, when interpreting a text, when interpreting communication, etc.
What does this cultural framework consist of? Generally speaking, it consists of both visible and invisible things. It is both the roots (invisible) and the fruits (visible) of a tree. The visible part contains such things as the group's legislation, language, heroes, rituals (from the way people say goodbye to marriage ceremonies), etc., etc. The invisible part comprises the values, the beliefs, common assumptions, common perceptions of time, space, interpersonal relations, authority, truth(s), etc., in short 'everything that goes without saying'. (I am not implying that there is a linear relation between the invisible and the visible part.)
A culturally competent translator needs to understand what happens when two cultures meet, when two frameworks come into contact, when two value systems enter into a relation, e.g. when 2 countries develop diplomatic relations, or when a foreign company is acquired, or what happens when two individuals or organizations from two different cultures (with different frameworks, different value systems) start a relationship and communicate with each other. A culturally competent translator understands what happens when you send a message from one culture to another.
A translator who is not aware of how the cultural frameworks differ would be prone to produce an inappropriate text, in the sense that misunderstandings, dysfunction, communication breakdown and even conflict may arise.
Consequently, culturally competent translators need to understand how culture may shape significant aspects of communication and written communication in particular.
Read more about cross-cultural translations
Read more about the cross-cultural translation production process
Read more about translatability assessments