Page 125 - Communication across Cultures

Chapter 4 Cross-Cultural Communication Barriers

native language, they also learned their culture consciously and unconsciously. If a
person learns another language or grows up speaking more than one language, he may
be aware of the different ways that each language allows its speakers to describe and
perceive reality. These differences in perception are also reflected in culture, so the re-
lationship between language and culture is that they are like mirrors to each other. Each
one reflects and is reflected by the other.
Language can reflect unique aspects of its culture, and when these unique aspects
interfere with translation, language can become a barrier to intercultural communica-
tion. It also becomes a barrier when a group of people are forced to speak a language
they do not want to.
For example, a number of years ago the Chevy Nova (a car from the 1960s and
1970s) was marketed in Mexico. Sales were miserable, and then experts realized the
linguistic reason: the name Nova when pronounced sounds like “no va” which trans-
lates to “no go”. How would you feel about a car whose very name defeats the purpose
of owning a car? It is not difficult to see how meanings can vary radically in language
translation.
Actually, a certain word or concept may not have an exact counterpart in another
language. Different languages do not have the identical verb tenses and many verbs
have various meanings. In English, for example, the verb “take” may mean to get, re-
ceive, seize, attack, adopt or secure. Besides, when a language is a person’s second lan-
guage, slang, euphemisms and cultural thinking patterns can cause problems as well.
In dealing with the language problems between different cultures, translation is
critical—but always imperfect. Translation is a critical tool in bridging the language
gap between different cultures. However, it is important to acknowledge that translation
is always imperfect and comes with its own set of challenges.
When the American historian Henry Brooks Adams wrote, “Words are slippery”,
he must have been referring to the fact that language translation is difficult and subject
to countless misinterpretations. The translation of one language into another is far more
complex than most people believe. Most people assume that text in one language can
be accurately translated into another language, so long as the translator uses a good bi-
lingual dictionary. Unfortunately, languages are not that simple, and direct translations
in many cases are difficult.
Problems often arise in translation when we hope to achieve equivalence between
languages, equivalence of various types, including lexical, idiomatic, grammatical-syn-
tactical, experiential, and conceptual equivalence. So there are basically five translation

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