Cultural Differences and the Problems They Cause in Commercial Translation

Abstract

 I attempt in this research to uncover the problems and obstacles faced by students at some Libyan Universities when translating English proverbs into Arabic and Arabic proverbs into English that relate to commercial matters. In this research, I focus on commercial proverbs whose translation cause ambiguity and misunderstanding of the proverbs, resulting an incorrect translation. I also provide some definitions of idiomatic expressions and some methods and strategies that students should use in order to avoid these problems and reach the intended meaning and a correct translation. The students were given texts containing English proverbs related to business matters. These students, were male and female, they were from various Libyan universities. They were asked to translate the English texts into Arabic  within a period of week. They were instructed not to consult professional translators, but were permitted to use dictionaries and seek assistance from each other. Texts were collected from students for review, analysis and discussion students' translation and the problems they encountered in translating these texts.