Achieving intercultural understanding through a translation project

This paper reports on how a translation team have come to intercultural understanding of Aboriginal Australian culture in relation to the Chinese culture during the course of a project-based translation experience. Using cultural linguistics as a theoretical framework (Sharifian, 2017), the researcher interpreted and reflected on the intercultural different perceptions and cultural differences as identified in the translation of a source language (English) into a target language (Chinese). Data were collected from our translation project (funded by Australia-China Council and University of Western Sydney in 2011) on Aboriginal Sydney (2013) and Aboriginal Darwin (2013) which were published in English-Chinese edition by Aboriginal Studies Press (Yang, 2015). A critical analytical approach was used to study a list of English words with cultural concepts different from those in Chinese. It is found that these culturally different and culture-laden words offer culture-unique meanings associated with the linguistic, social, and cultural contexts in which they are immersed and evolved. Each of the English words and Chinese lexemes tells a long and interesting story and engages language learners and researchers in their thought-provoking efforts in undertaking critical comparative studies between source language/culture and target language/culture, thus achieving a deep understanding of languages and cultures concerned. The implications of this project-based research results for multilingual and intercultural education are discussed.