The Translation of Advertising Texts in Culturally-Distant Languages: The Case of Spanish and Arabic

Abstract

Translation problems can stem from the translator’s lack of familiarity with lexical, terminological, and textual correspondences between two languages. The roots of these problems are often deeply embedded in culture and context. Nord (1988) makes a distinction between translation problems and translation difficulties. She claims that problems are objective and are not related to the translator’s competence, whereas difficulties are subjective and depend on his/her working conditions. Translation problems can appear in the preliminary stages of translation as well as throughout the entire translation process. Initially, translators must deal with possible comprehension problems of the source text, and be able to foresee potential areas in the text where finding correspondences in the target language will be difficult. It goes without saying that translators must possess the necessary linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge to understand the text easily, extract its core meaning, and create a new text that will occupy a similar place in the target language text system and culture. Secondly, translators should know how and where to resolve their problems. This means being able to predict possible problem areas as well as being aware of which resources and search methods will provide them with precise information for text decoding and generation. Finally, translators must be sensitive to the vast array of contrasts and differences between languages and cultures since these can be the source of a wide range of translation problems. In fact, when source texts have a strong cultural component (which is often the case of advertising texts), translators are often obliged to seek creative solutions that involve adapting the translation so that its form and content will be fit into the target language culture. For all of these reasons, it is necessary for translators to be bicultural as well as bilingual. As an example of the translator’s need for cultural awareness, this article describes and analyzes problems that can arise in the translation of advertising texts from Spanish to Arabic. Our conclusions reflect the fact that translators should possess background knowledge and intercultural sensitivity, which will make them aware of potential translation problems that, can arise from differences in the two language-cultures.