论文总字数：32485字

摘 要

商务英语翻译在商务活动中发挥着至关重要的作用，而跨文化因素直接影响到了商务英语翻译的有效性。在商务英语翻译的过程中，尤其是在翻译出口商品的品名、商标和广告语时，由于东西方文化的差异，翻译时会出现的问题更应该引起重视。本文论述了这商务英语翻译和跨文化因素这两者之间的相互关系并提出了如何在商务英语翻译中融入跨文化意识，提高译者跨文化素养。

关键词： 商务英语； 翻译； 跨文化因素； 影响

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3.Business English Translation and Cross-cultural Factors 3

3.1 The definition of Business English Translation and its importance 3

3.2 The definition of Cross-cultural factors and their importance 3

4. The influence of Cross-cultural factors on Business English Translation 4

4.1 Different understanding of things 4

4.2 Different geographical locations 4

4.3 Different ways of thinking 5

5.Strategies to improve Cross-cultural Awareness 5

5.1 Study professional business knowledge 5

5.2 Attach importance to artistic conception and improve translation skills 6

6. Strategies in Business English Translation 7

6.1 Translation of product names 7

6.2 Translation of trademarks 8

6.3 Translation of advertising slogans 10

7.Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of globalization, international business activities become more and more frequent. English, as a universal language, has become an important bridge in international business activities. So, International Business English has been developed and matured day by day. In international business activities, both sides of the trade should understand the intention of the opposite side through the translation of business English to achieve the purpose of the transaction. To a certain extent, trade activities are human-to-human communication, which is bound to affect the cultural consciousness of human beings. People from different countries have different cultural awareness, which requires us attach importance to cultural differences among countries in business English translation, so as to promote effective communication among trade personnel and achieve the purpose of trade.

2. Literature Review

With the improvement of social, political and cultural communication, more and more scholars undertook studies on intercultural communicative awareness and carried out corresponding experiments.Hall (1959) firstly puts forwards the concept of intercultural communication in The Silent Language. Compared with others’ researches, Hall’s studies shift the study of single culture into the study of the relationship between cultures. In the 1980s and 1990s, more and more scholars study on intercultural communicative awareness, and they focus on the range and significance of cultivating intercultural communicative awareness. Based on the former studies, Breen (1984) expands the range of the cultivation of cultural awareness. It is inadequate to expand the scope of students’ cultural awareness by the means of knowledge accumulation; it is more important to develop learners’ potential ability. Stern (1992) proposes that it is necessary for teachers to cultivate learners’ ability of social culture in the course of learning cultural knowledge in Issue and Option in Language Teaching. For Stern’s point of view, it can be found that the acquisition of a new culture depends on whether learners can understand, respect and recognize it.Since the 21^st century, with the development of globalization and the in-depth exchanges between countries and regions, culture teaching and the cultivation of the intercultural communicative awareness of language learners has becomes more and more important, and scholars in this field spare no efforts to make studies on it.

China’s intercultural communication studies began in the late 1980s, since the researchers and scholars of domestic foreign language teaching realize that the simple linguistic forms cannot meet the demands of society, more and more experts and scholars pay attention to the cultivation of intercultural communicative awareness and competence.In the 1980s, the study of intercultural communication mainly focuses on the relationship between culture and language. Chen Jianmin (1989) proposes that culture should be studied from the perspective of linguistics.In the 1990s,the researches on intercultural communication have made great achievements in China. Hu Wenzhong (1994) reorganizes the findings of intercultural communication in many aspects including sociolinguistics, cultural linguistics and pragmatics. Since the 20^th century, the study on intercultural communicative awareness becomes more abundant and more profound. In the beginning, the study on the intercultural communicative awareness focuses on the courses in universities, especially for English majors. And little attention has been paid to the cultivation of intercultural communicative awareness in senior high school English teaching; however, under the influence of curriculum reform, more and more researchers begin to focus on the study of the cultivation of students’ intercultural communicative awareness in English teaching through empirical study. Feng Jiao (2013) analyzes the importance of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in English education from the perspective of the close relationship between intercultural awareness and language teaching. The previous studies show that researchers pay more attention to the intercultural communication and the related concepts, but less attention to the cultivation of students’ intercultural awareness, which is in urgent need.

To sum up, although there are a large amount of studies on intercultural communication, there are still some limitations.First of all, the studies on cultural awareness are usually conducted at theoretical level. Furthermore, previous studies are mainly about intercultural awareness in junior high schools or colleges, whereas few studies have been made on the current situation of cultivating students’ intercultural communicative awareness in senior high school. Meanwhile, this study is conducted by employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including test, questionnaire, interview and class observation to collect first-hand data and get the reasonable research results, which are the innovation and breakthrough point of this thesis.

3.Business English Translation and Cross-cultural Factors

3.1 The definition of Business English Translation and its importance

Business English is a special-purpose English model with English as the language medium and business knowledge as the core. It is mainly used in international business activities and is an indispensable language ability in the exchange of international trade. From the perspective of business English translation, the existence of translation is necessary for the development of activities such as international transport, foreign insurance, national finance, technology introduction, investment promotion, foreign trade, and so on. Business English translation, as an international English translation system based on economic content, is characterized by its rigor, objectivity and clarity,the content translated is also very standard, uniform and normative. It can promote the successful process of international trade activities. As a result of translation, businessmen can deepen their understanding and mutual trust between buyers and sellers, thus laying a good foundation for the success of trade-offs.

3.2 The definition of Cross-cultural factors and their importance

In 1999, Hu Wenzhong pointed out in his Compendium of Intercultural Communication: “people with different cultural backgrounds engage in communication is cross-cultural communication.” In communication activities, people from different countries in the history and culture,geographical environment, customs and human feelings, values, thinking patterns and other content are not the same. Cross-cultural communication refers to people"s communicative behavior under different cultural backgrounds.In international business communication, the meaning of business English activity is that as a form of activity, it is the common benefit of both sides in cross-cultural communication.In the actual communication, the different cultural background of the communicative parties determines the outcome of the communication and the success or failure of the trade. It is important to note that business English translation errors are common in cross-cultural communication due to the existence of different cultural backgrounds. If cultural misunderstanding is caused in translation, serious circumstances will lead to disharmony or breakdown of negotiations between the two sides.

4. The influence of Cross-cultural Factors on Business English Translation

4.1 Different understanding of things

The influence of cultural differences caused by different understanding of things on business English translation. Language and culture cannot be separated. There is no culture without language. Language is not only a part of culture, but also a carrier of culture. Language plays a vital role in culture. Vocabulary is the basic factor in the formation of words, and the differences in vocabulary will bring cultural differences, thus have an essential impact on business English translation. For example, China"s famous“白象” battery, translated into English is "white elephant", although achieved semantic equivalence, but from the Cultural information is a failed translation. Because in western countries "white elephant" is big and useless. If you sell batteries translated as "white elephant" to Western countries, you can imagine that their sales are definitely not good, because no consumer is willing to buy big and useless things. This is against the most essential purpose of business activities. Therefore, in the business English translation activities, it is necessary to fully recognize the culture caused by the different understanding of things in different countries.(Fan 279) In this example, it should be translated as a symbol of a strong quantity of animals, such as "Brown Lion", that Western countries like. It means that the battery you buy is infinitely powerful, which is in line with the consumer"s appetite.

4.2 Different geographical locations

The influence of cultural differences caused by different geographical locations on Business English Translation. British poet Shelley"s famous poem, Ode to the West Wind praises the warm westerly: “It"s a warm wind, the west wind, full of bird"s cries..” As a result, it is natural for British cars to use the Westerners (Zephyr) trademark. However, due to geographical differences, in China, the west wind is cold, and there is saying that the east sends warmth. The automobile trademark produced by China"s No. 1 Automobile Manufacturing Plant is Dongfeng. In addition, due to different social system and the historical environment between China and British, the eastern style and the western style have different political colors, which requires translators to pay special attention to cross-cultural factors in the translation of business English. The resulting translation will have a direct impact on the success or failure of business activities.

4.3 Different ways of thinking

The influence of cultural differences caused by different ways of thinking on business English translation. The different ways of thinking is the essential expression of cultural difference. In the long-term development, a nation or a country has formed its own unique habits and ways of thinking, and on the basis of a high degree of crystallization, it has formed cultural differences. For example, Chinese people focus on things as a whole, Westerners prefer logical thinking, like analysis and play. For example, when writing the address, the Chinese people are used to write from large to small, they are mainly highlight the whole. Westerners are used to from small to large, focusing on the subject. Therefore, in business English translation activities, it is necessary to take the different ways of thinking into account.

5.Strategies to Improve Cross-cultural Awareness

5.1 Study professional business knowledge

As business English translation practitioners, it is necessary to understand the relevant professional knowledge involved in the original text, otherwise, it is impossible to understand the original text, let alone notice the cultural differences. For example, “account receivable” is “应收账款” and if you don"t understand the term, because “account” also means “explanation” and “report”", it could be understood as “a report that can be received”. The lack of professional knowledge related to business English will inevitably lead to the failure of translation results. Therefore, a good grasp of business English-related knowledge is conducive to improve cross-cultural awareness and ensure the business English translation activities smoothly.

5.2 Attach importance to artistic conception and improve translation skills

In Chinese and English sentence patterns, there are fundamental differences between the form and structure of active sentence and passive structure. Among them, the focus of questions is not too uniform, so the sense of linguistic emphasis will also be different, thus the artistic conception of translation will also be biased. In Chinese, passive sentence patterns generally have their own explicit features, such as “被”、“受”, and so on, but in English, they do not have these symbolic words, they often only rely on the verb suffix to complete. Therefore, in the translation of the passive sentence pattern, the translator should add some local language features to express the original meaning of the target language. In feeling the cultural background difference between the two, we can also carry on the corresponding characteristic contrast, this also can better complete the corresponding communication, thus guarantees its to express the meaning accurately. Through the experience of context, translators can improve their sense of language. In the process of business English translation, it is not only a translation between languages, but also a cross-cultural communication between people. This requires both sides to communicate with each other so as to ensure that the context of the two sides is basically the same in the process of language communication. Translators should master a variety of translation techniques and methods, and be able to use translation skills flexibly according to different genres. Some specific words can be interpreted in literal translation and interpretation, such as the secrets of Victoria"s Secret: Victoria (a famous female garment brand in the United States), but also freely translated.

6. Strategies in Business English Translation

Commodity propaganda is an important means of selling goods and competing in the international market, and it is also one of the important factors for whether a product can win in the international market competition. However, due to differences in ethnic origin, natural environment, religious beliefs, and degree of economic development, the East and the West constitute different cultural systems, and people"s conceptual traditions, ways of thinking, value orientations, and language expressions are also very different. Therefore, when translating relevant information on export commodities, care should be taken to avoid “cultural conflicts”.So I am going to talk about the issues that should be paid attention to in translating the names, trademarks and slogans of export commodities from the perspective of cultural differences between the East and the West.

6.1 Translation of product names

There are huge differences in people"s mode of thinking in different cultural systems. These differences are not only reflected in people"s understanding of things, but also in people"s naming of things.

6.1.1 Different thinking

The translation of“绿茶” in Chinese into English is “green tea”, and how does “红茶” translate from English become “black tea”? This is because Chinese is the color of the tea after the tea is brewed, so the tea has red and green points, while in English, it is directly named according to the color of the tea itself, with green and black points. It is not surprising.The same is true for “红糖”in English called “brown sugar”. We call the watch used to measure the speed of running as a “秒表” or “跑表”, because people have to start working at the moment they start running. But in English, it is emphasized that the result of its work is the moment when people stop running, and it is logically called “stop watch”. A “跑”, a “停”, two diametrically opposite concepts that reflect people’s different thinking about the same thing in the East and the West.

6.1.2 Different mind segmentation

There are different ways in which the East and West people divide certain things, and the language used to describe these things is also different. In Chinese, “female” and “male” or “public” and “mother” are generally used to distinguish gender. Different animals, for animals that have not grown up, often only have “small” or “young” in front of their names. Such as “hen”, “calf”, and so on. But in English, there are usually a lot of different words to voice. Some animals even have special words for their products, such as chickens collectively called “chicken”, but cocks are “cock” or “rooster”, hens are “hen”, and the cub is “chick.”

The opposite imagination, that is, the phenomenon of Chinese refinement and English coarsening is also widespread. For example, our “锅”, “壶” or “罐” are all expressed in “pot” in English; “馄饨”, “饺子” and “汤圆” are called “dumplings”; the word “cabbage” is used to collectively refer to our “白菜”,“卷心菜”and“黄芽菜”.

Therefore, we must be careful when translating the relevant product names, so as not to cause unexpected troubles for the export of goods.

6.2 Translation of trademarks

Excellent trademarks can leave a deep and strong impression on people, and become a symbol of the quality and characteristics of goods, so as to meet the material and psychological requirements of consumers. Therefore, the success or failure of trademark translation which plays a decisive role is to open up the world market, participate in international competition, and establish brand consciousness.In the book Exploration of Translation Science, Nida clearly pointed out that “in dynamic peer-to-peer translation, the translator is not concerned with the one-to-one relationship between the source language information and the translation language information, but a dynamic relationship between the recipient of the target language and the translated message information should be basically the same as the relationship between the source language recipient and the original text information.”（Nida） As far as the English translation of Chinese trademarks is concerned, English trademarks must be able to produce the same or similar functions as Chinese trademarks. They must not only perfectly integrate sound, shape and meaning, but also conform to the aesthetic taste and psychology of Western people. In order to achieve this translation, "Do in Rome as Romans do", regardless of the method used in the translation process, we must consider the phenomenon of the inequality between English and Chinese trademarks caused by cultural differences.

6.2.1 Loss of meaning

"Red Bean", a poetic trademark, because red beans are a love beans that symbolize love. However, whether it is translated into "HONG DOU" or "Red Bean" or even "Love Pea", the original meaning will be greatly reduced, or even completely disappeared. How many Westerners know that red beans like “red rose”symbolizing love? Just to let Western consumers more closely understand the meaning of the original Chinese trademark, "Yu Tu" translated into "Moon Rabbit" instead of "Jade Rabbit" ". The reason is that "Yu Tu" is a rabbit in China"s mythology that accompanied Wu Gang under the osmanthus tree in Yuegong, so it has become the representative of the moon.

6.2.2 Mixed reviews

We often find that words that express the same meaning may have different connotations in different languages, thus leaving different feelings for people of different cultural backgrounds. Chinese people have always regarded the "dragon" as a symbol of power, strength, and auspiciousness, but it is a terrible monster in the impression of Westerners. On the contrary, "owl" in English is a symbol of wisdom. There is "as wise as an owl". If there is a publication, it will be used as a trademark. For example, the "big white rabbit" toffee produced in Shanghai is very popular among consumers. The superior quality is the primary reason, but it is not unrelated to the white rabbit in our opinion as a cute animal. But if you translate it into "White Rabbit" and sell it to Australia, sales may be unsatisfactory, because a large number of hares in Australia burrow around the ground, destroy the grasslands and compete with cattle and sheep, affecting the development of animal husbandry, people hate animals like "rabbit", so they don"t like the goods that are trademarked. There are many examples of this, especially the names of animals and plants, such as golden pheasants, white elephants, peacocks, cranes, petrels, goats, etc., as well as numbers and color words. When translating trademarks related to these words in English, care must be taken to avoid the unsatisfactory translation of English trademarks due to embarrassing changes in the translation process, thus affecting the sale of goods.

6.3 Translation of advertising slogans

The main function of advertising is to impress the audience widely and induce their desire to buy. Its role in the sale of goods is self-evident. Advertising translation is also true, it emphasizes the effect of the translation, emphasizing whether the translation can achieve the promotion function in the language of the target language. In a large extent, it depends on whether the translation is understood, recognized, and accepted by a broad audience. Cultural differences cannot be ignored in the process of translating Chinese advertisements into English. The different values, ways of thinking, and psychological characteristics of the East and West caused by cultural differences will affect the understanding of advertising and the effect of advertising, which will further affect the sales of goods.

6.3.1 Difference in values

Chinese advertisements, like English advertisements, often cater to their audiences with their mainstream values, aiming to impress people and promote products. Although there have been some changes in the values of Chinese people in recent years, traditional values still occupy an important position.Such a slogan "We will make you satisfied with high-quality and efficient services and make greater contributions to the cause of human health" fully embodies the values of the Chinese. But in Western countries, such as the United States, people there advocate individualism. They think highly of their identity,personal independence and choice. Therefore, the above words are rarely seen in English advertisements.

In addition, Chinese traditional culture advocates "top-down absolute power", and the government and its actions have great authority. In advertisements, "部优", "国优 "national excellence" and "获xx金奖" are often used as the basis of commitment. (Xu 84)According to statistics, more than 30% of advertisements in China use awards to promote goods. However, in the West, there is a great difference between us on the degree of recognition and acceptance of power . They believe in their own judgment and do not easily accept others, especially the official view of the law, and they do not think that the government is the authority.

6.3.2 Different ways of thinking

The way of thinking has a great influence on the arrangement of text content. It affects people"s words and sentences when they speak and write. Let us first look at a Chinese advertisement:

“象牙雕是一门古老的艺术，其悠久的历史可以追溯到人类文明初放曙光的史前文化。几千年来，雍容华贵的象牙雕是帝王贵戚、钟鸣鼎食之豪争相收藏的对象。如今，人类虽已进入太空时代，以料实工精为其艺术特征的象牙雕更值得人们青睐！愿美好的艺术匠心、精湛的牙雕技艺使您满堂生辉。

愿集财富、吉祥、艺术、智慧于一身的北京牙雕成为您的镇库之宝！”(Zeng 125)

This advertisement introduces the ivory carvings and paves the way for it. Finally, it points out the main points of advertising, which fully reflects the spiral thinking of the Chinese. However, English advertisements are influenced by the linear thinking of Westerners, and they tend to adopt a more straightforward and clear-cut approach in domestic programming. This is reflected in the English advertisement below:

"Give him a diamond, the gift he will never forget. Men"s diamond rings and men"s diamond wedding binds in bold and masculine designs. Price from $500 to $2,000.

A Diamond Is Forever.

THE MAN"S DIAMOND.

When A Woman Loves a Men."

In just a few lines, the information directly pointed out the purchase motivation, style, characteristics, price, etc., which are related to the product. Therefore, influenced by different ways of thinking, in the English translation of Chinese advertisements, the relevant information can be processed by means of reservation, substitution and deletion. Otherwise, the western audience will feel that there is not much useful information about advertising, which leads to the attraction of advertisements is not strong.

6.3.3 Difference in psychological characteristics

We know that in the West, people, especially women, are very afraid to be asked about their age, but in our country there is no such jealousy. The reason for this is that people"s psychological characteristics are different under different cultural environments. Such differences cannot be ignored in advertising translation. For example, in many Chinese advertisements, especially in many food advertisements, often emphasize “老少皆宜” in order to highlight the broadness of their audience. So it often be translated as“suitable for both the old and young”, ignoring “Old” is a taboo in Western culture.

Similarly, in many advertisements in China, the words “introduction of foreign advanced technology”, “high-tech technology” and “using scientific methods” are often used to emphasize the scientific nature of the product manufacturing process. However, for the Western people who are in the background of technological development, the scientific nature of material products is self-evident, and people are more admired by nature and returning to nature. According to people"s psychology, it is not difficult to see the translation of "the essence of modern advanced technology through the efforts of several generations of technical personnel...", which of the following translations is more appropriate.

(1) It"s the result of many years of intensive studies done by the technical personal of our factory and is refined with modern advanced technology...(Wang 86)

(2) The natural flavor is improved by years of researched state-of-the-art techonlogy...

7.Conclusion

Translation not only requires translators to be flexible in thinking, rich in knowledge, good at association, but also requires translators to have a keen sense of culture. This is especially true for translations of export commodities. Only in this way can the correct name, fine trademark and attractiveness be translated. Advertising can push more of our country"s goods to the international market, so that our economy can be integrated into the world economy more quickly and broadly.Business English translation plays an important role in international trade, not only relates to the fate of individual and enterprise, but also shoulders the transmission of enterprise and national culture. Under the background of global economic integration, business English translators should attach great importance to the influence of cross-cultural factors on business English translation, strive to improve their professional literacy and cross-text awareness, and make use of correct translation strategies. Make the business English translation work play the biggest positive effect.

Works Cited

Nida, E. A. “Toward a Science of Translating.” Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1964.

Nida, E. A. and Charles R. Taber. “The Theory and Practice of Translation.” Leiden:E. J. Brill,1969.

Hatin,B. “Intercultural communication.”Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2001.

范新：《浅析商务英语翻译中的文化转向》.中国外资(下半月),2013(12):279.

[Fan Xin.“Cultural turn in Business English Translation.”Foreign investment in China (second half month),2013(12):279.]

贾静：《商务英语翻译:翻译技巧与文化交流的综合体》.内蒙古大学,2010.

[Jia Jing.“Business English Translation: a combination of Translation skills and Cultural Communication.”University Of The Inner Mongol,2010.]

王茜：《试论文化差异对商务英语翻译的影响》.《淮海工学院学报》(社会科学版),2013,11(08):84-86.

[Wang Qian.“On the influence of Cultural differences on Business English Translation.”Journal of Huaihai Institute of Technology(Social science edition),2013,11(08):84-86.]

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