On Cross-Cultural Awareness and its Cultivation in Interpretation 英语口译中的跨文化意识及其培养.doc

论英语口译中的跨文化意识及其培养on cross-cultural awareness and its cultivation in interpretationabstractwith the development of economic globalization and chinas accelerating opening up, interpreters take on more and more important roles in cross-cultural communicative activities. however, with the frequent cultural exchanges, the interpreter, as the communicative mediator, with mere competent language skills are far from satisfactory. therefore, studies on interpreters cross-cultural awareness are of great value and necessity. this thesis aims to study cross-cultural awareness in interpretation from the perspective of cross-cultural communication. in this thesis, the author analyzes cross-cultural awareness and its functions in interpretation, and also studies reasons causing cross-cultural communicative barriers during the process of interpretation. finally, the author concludes some strategies to deal with cultural barriers in interpretation, and offers some suggestions to enhance student interpreters cross-cultural awareness. the whole thesis consists of five parts. besides introduction and conclusion, the other three parts are the body and soul of the thesis. the introduction mainly introduces the purpose of the thesis, its writing method, its arrangement etc. in the second part, a few lines are given to introduce the definition of cross-cultural awareness and its researches both in the west and in china. the third part concentrates on cross-cultural awareness and cross-cultural communicative barriers in interpretation. after it, the author offers some strategies to cope with cultural barriers in interpretation according to specific situations. then, the author advances some proposals with regard to the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness. at last, a conclusion is drawn naturally in the fifth part.key words: cross-cultural awareness, interpretation, cultivation 论英语口译中的跨文化意识及其培养随着经济全球化的发展和中国对外开放的推进，口译人员在跨文化交际活动中扮演着越来越重要的角色。然而,在多样文化的交流过程中，作为跨文化交际的中介者，口译人员仅仅具备足够的语言能力是远远不够的。因此，对译员跨文化意识的研究是很有意义的。本文从跨文化交际角度出发，研究了译员的跨文化意识；分析了口译中跨文化意识的功能和口译中产生文化障碍的原因；最后，总结了一些解决文化障碍的口译策略，并提出了如何提高学生的跨文化意识建议。本文共分为五部分。除引言和结论部分以外，其它的三部分为文章的主体。引言部分主要介绍了文章的目的、研究方法以及整体结构。第二部分则叙述了跨文化意识的定义及其中西方学者对其的主要研究成果。第三部分论述了口译中的跨文化意识及其文化差异。同时还提出了根据特定的语境来解决文化差异的一些口译策略。之后，作者提出了提高学生跨文化意识的一些建议。最后，对全文进行了总结。关键词: 跨文化意识 文化差异 培养contents1. introduction .52. literature review .52.1 definition of cross-cultural awareness.62.2 studies on cross-cultural awareness in interpretation . 62.2.1 studies in the west . 62.2.2 studies at home . 83. cross-cultural awareness in interpretation .83.1 cross-cultural awareness in interpretation.83.2 relations between cross-cultural awareness and interpreter.93.2.1 interpreter as the carrier of cross-cultural awareness .93.2.2 cross-cultural awareness as criterion of interpreters competence.93.3 functions of cross-cultural awareness .103.3.1 to enable the interpreters to detect cultural-specific words and phrases.103.3.2 to help the interpreters to understand the cultural-loaded words properly.103.3.3 to assist the interpreters to shift between two different cultures .103.4 cross-cultural communicative barriers in interpretation.113.4.1 cross-cultural communicative barriers during interpretation .113.4.1.1 greeting and farewells . 113.4.1.2 topics talked about .123.4.1.3 compliments and praises . 123.4.1.4 way of addressing . 133.4.1.5 idioms, proverbs and sayings . 143.4.1.6 allusions . 153.4.2 causes of cross-cultural communicative barriers .163.4.2.1 differences in life style and experience . 163.4.2.2 differences of customs and practices. 173.4.2.3 discrepancies in religion belief. 183.4.2.4 habits of thoughts . 183.4.2.5 allusions from classical works . 193.5 strategies to diagnose cross-cultural communicative barriers. 203.5.1 to increase cross-cultural awareness. 203.5.2 techniques to overcome cross-cultural communicative barriers. 213.5.2.1 transliteration . 213.5.2.2 reasonable explanations . 223.5.2.3 translating according to connotations . 223.5.2.4 rewriting . 233.5.2.5 mediation . 244. cultivation of cross-cultural awareness . 244.1 comparative studies on cultures . 244.2 tremendous interpretation practices . 254.3 neologies accumulation . 255. conclusion .26references.28acknowledgements.301. introductionas 2008 olympic games and 2010 world exposure are approaching, a group of young interpreters with both linguistic and cultural competence are in great demand. interpreters, the carrier of cross-cultural awareness, behave as a bridge in transmitting information and making participates effectively and successfully. unfortunately, there exist thousands of cases in cross-cultural communication that are ended with a failure. the reason why sometimes embarrassments occur is, in a great extent, due to lack of cross-cultural awareness and ignorance of the cultural differences between the east and west.as matter of fact, many scholars have observed this awareness and have conducted some researchers in cross-cultural awareness. however, most of these studies are a summary of experience. few researches have been viewed this awareness from the perspective of cross-cultural communication. therefore, in this essay, the author tries to analyze cross-cultural awareness in interpretation from the perspective of cross-cultural communication with the aim of thoroughly understanding the significances of the cultivation of cross-culture awareness in interpretation and making some efforts to probe in the feasibility of their translation.the principal method used in this essay is contrastive analysis, because contrast is one important and effective approach to get the essence of two similar matters. the whole thesis consists of five parts. besides introduction and conclusion, the other three parts are the body and soul of the thesis. the introduction mainly introduces the purpose of the thesis, its writing method, its arrangement etc. in the second part, a few lines are given to introduce the definition of cross-cultural awareness and its researches both in the west and in china. the third part concentrates on cross-cultural awareness and cross-cultural communicative barriers in interpretation. after it, the author offers some strategies to cope with cultural barriers in interpretation according to specific situations. then, the author advances some proposals with regard to the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness. at last, a conclusion is drawn naturally in the fifth part.2. literature review 2.1 definition of cross-cultural awarenessover the years many distinguished scholars have observed this awareness and given some different definitions to cross-cultural awareness that are listed as follows:cross-cultural awareness is by definition the awareness in communication between persons of different cultural backgrounds. (robin setton: 153)cross-cultural awareness is an awareness of the otherness and difference of others, or rather, of foreign cultures in all their complexity. (grosman: 51)cultural-cultural awareness is a cognitive aspect of cross-cultural communication. it refers to the understanding of cultural conventions that affect how people think and behavior. (chen & starosta: 407)cultural awareness was described to sensitivity to the impact of culturally-induced behavior on language use and communication. (tomalin & stepleski: 10)although they hold a different outlook on cross-cultural awareness, its noticed that they all stress on recognizing cultural differences and imply the influence of culture on human behaviors. in this thesis, according to the authors understanding, cross-cultural awareness is defined as follows:cross-cultural awareness, in a board sense, refers to a particular way of thinking or an acute sensitive to cultural elements that is shaped consciously or unconsciously during the process of inter-cultural communication; in a narrow sense, cross-cultural awareness to an interpreter is an awareness which enables him/her to truly understand a special phenomenon in one culture and transfer it into another cultures language in a culturally acceptable way.2.2 studies on cross-cultural awareness in interpretation2.2.1 studies in the westthe history of interpretation could trace back to the ancient time when written translation did not exeist. due to the need of political, economic and cultural communication of variant regions and nations, people began to use unprepared representation to transfer the information from one language into another language. the preliminary writings started in the late 1950s and most of researches on interpretation today focus on conference interpretation, which convers both simultaneous and consecutive interpretation.in the fifties, several remarkable articles were written on oral interpretation by hebert, rozna and ilg. they were based on personal experience and not scientific，but they did identify most of the fundamental issues that are still discussed at the present time. during the period of the sixties and early seventies，a large number of hypotheses, such as paneths thesis, gervers experiments, were formulated regarding the process of interpretation and the reaction to various factors such as source language，noise，speed of speech, delivery time pressure etc.the most influential study on cross-cultural awareness in interpretation is done by robert hanvey in the 1990s. according to hanvey, cross-cultural awareness is “ an awareness of the diversity of ideas and practices compare, found in human societies around the world, of how such ideas and practices compare, and including some limited recognition of how the ideas and ways of ones own society might be viewed from other vantage points (hanvey, 1982:8). there are four levels of cross-cultural awareness as described by hanvey: 1) an awareness of very visible cultural traits that are interpreted as exotic or bizarre. 2) an awareness of significant and subtle cultural traits that contrast markedly with ones own and are experienced as frustrating or irrational. 3) an awareness of significant and subtle cultural traits that contrast markedly with ones own but can be understood cognitively. 4) an awareness of how another culture feels from the standpoint of the insider. (hanvey 1982:9) apparently, the four levels are of a gradual development. the first level is about the realization of the existence of diverse cultures that one may find strange. level 2 is a cultural conflict situation and an outsider may feel it frustrating to interpret it. in level 3, the outsider is able to analyze these cultural features and can interpret these differences cognitively. finally, the fourth level is stressing the “other” culture, which is achieved through direct experience and the realization of the interdependence among different cultural groups. with the increasingly frequent cultural exchanges among different nations, no one will deny the existence of cultures, neither certainly an interpreter is going to get irritated to another culture. what an interpreter should possess is the fourth level, a level which requires him/her to interpret dreams from the target audiences standpoint.2.2.2 studies at home the authentic interpretation research in china just began in the late of 1930s with expansion of communication with other countries. it is slower than the study of interpretation in the west over 50 years. at the beginning，most study limited in the discussion of practical experience and teaching experience. the first group of interpreters in china was all self-taught. they were usually diplomats，or a special group, who developed their skills on the basis of their wide scope of general knowledge and perfect fluency in more than one language. nowadays，many distinguished chinese scholars and researchers devote themselves to the study of interpretation. among them, xiao xiaoyan (2006:16) focuses on introducing dnaiel giles effort model of simultaneous interpretation based on cognitive concept. zhong weihe (2001:16-19) has a concrete research on principles and training of simultaneous interpretation as well as cai xiaohong (1999:24-32) published her doctorate paper aiming at studying the process of consecutive interpretation and its competency development. even though these researches are done from different perspectives, basically their aims are the same, that is, to communicate effectively and efficiently.as the time goes by, more and more scholars come to see its limitations and at the same time, and some new opinions are put forward instead. wang lidi (2004:26) attempts to apply some basic notions and typical methods of schema theory to the process of interpreting and translating in order to highlight the facilitating roles of knowledge schema in source language comprehension，memory, information retrieval and in the re-coding of the message in the target language. xu bing (1997:34) thinks that it is the first and foremost for an interpreter to enhance his/her sensitivities to cultural differences in the course of inter-cultural communication. all in all the study and research of cross-cultural awareness is lively and continuously developing with more frequent cross-cultural communication.3. cross-cultural awareness and interpretation3.1 cross-cultural awareness in interpretationaccording to the renowned chinese scholar wang zuoliang (2003:3), “on the surface a translator is to deal with single words, but fundamentally he/she is faced with two large expanses of culture”. therefore, in the process of interpreting, interpreters must realize the possible difference in the same thing between source language and target language. for interpreters, a cross-cultural awareness is indispensable and it is especially helpful to them due to the consultation unavailability of the interpreting activity. in order to achieve cross-cultural communication, an interpreter should possess cross-cultural awareness because it is an essential qualification to make him/her know whether or not, how and to what degree to modify their interpretation.3.2 relations between cross-cultural awareness and interpreters3.2.1 interpreter as the carrier of cross-cultural awareness in the course of cross-cultural communication, interpreters server as a bridge in transmitting information and making participants communicate effectively and successfully. he/she will ecode cultural messages in one language and then decode them in another. the focus of interpreters is not individual words but two diverse cultures. therefore, profound cultural knowledge is the foundation for interpreters to materialize cross-cultural communication. a qualified interpreter is not only able to pronounce the abcs correctly, use words and expressions propriety and form the sentences that are grammatically acceptable, but more important, able to identify and comprehend cultural elements as well as conceive creative language accord with specific contexts.for example, if the interpreter is able to realize the cultural factors in interpretation, he/she will not interpret literally the sentence “你想要些什么?” as “what do you want?”, but “what can i help you?” or “may i help you?” which are more polite and acceptable.3.2.2 cross-cultural awareness as criterion of interpreters competence there are many standards to judge an interpreters competence, such as bilingual competence, reactive ability, psychological quality and so on. cross-cultural awareness is being realized by more and more scholars, and some of whom even consider it as the “yardstick to assess the competence of an interpreter”. (zhao 1998:134) a qualified interpreter should be able to possess this awareness and apply cross-cultural awareness flexibly. take the sentence “its greek to me.” for example. if the interpreter has no relative cultural awareness, he/she couldnt render the message immediately and accurately. he/she may misunderstand the sentence as “那便是我心目中的希腊了”. cross-cultural awareness could assist interpreters to convey the authentic meaning of the original speech, give them an instant feedback to the differences and make correct strategies accordingly. therefore, a qualified interpreter will render the above-mentioned expression into “我对它一窍不通.”3.3 functions of interpreters cross-cultural awareness3.3.1 to enable the interpreters to detect cultural-specific words and phrases when culturally-loaded words take place in a speech, cross-cultural awareness helps the interpreter to recognize these words and thus pay close attention to how to transfer these messages rather than leaving them alone. if an interpreter didnt realize the cultural texture of a word or words, he/she might skip it/them for various reasons, like time pressure or the cohesion of the whole passage. such treatment can be considered as nothing but a failure of faithfulness from the cultural perspective.3.3.2 to help the interpreter