Exhibit 4: A Brazilian business man believes his Dutch business partners to be alcoholics due to him

not being familiar with Dutch customs and habits. When one of the Dutch business-people comes to
Brazil the Brazilian host serves them beer along with the coffee even though only coffee would’ve
sufficed in Brazilian customs.

We often don’t openly express that we wish foreigners to adapt to our culture but we do
subconsciously expect this from them. The author gives the example of how German people tend to
make very tightly packed programs with meetings coming right after another with almost no breaks.
You might try to convince them to not make their planning in such a manner but then they will hit
back at you with “They came all the way here so they need do as many meeting and see as many
places as possible to make the trip worth it.”

“The World is getting smaller”. “We have more information about other nations than ever.” This
claims can be argued over. But even if we assume that they’re true, while communication has become
easier on a technical level making a concrete claim on it being easier on all levels is difficult. It can
even be argued that communication has become more reliant on professionals that have studied the
cultural aspect of it.

In this context we understand that the translator is a person who can disassociate themselves from
their own culture and current situation, observe the foreign culture and while doing this demonstrate
an ability to put their observations and conjectures into the service of a communicative goal.

This can be summarized as

a) Disassociation
b) Comparison
c) Application

These skills have their roots in sociology, cultural science and communication sciences which shows
the multi branch aspect of translation. This also means we can pull a lot of discussions being made in
other disciplines into ours. For example Göhring’s paper on the problems intercultural
communication bring might be an interesting read. It includes observations that we could use when
analyzing our own behaviors when spending prolonged times in a foreign culture. Another important
work on this topic is by Vermeer. Going into deep analysis about the aforementioned three skills
utilized in culture focused translation.

We can only understand things foreign to us as much as we can compare and associate with the
concepts we’re already familiar with. Be it consciously or subconsciously. A lot of translation
education programs include country knowledge. These lessons usually consist of tangible, concrete
information. As a result a lot of students perceive these lessons as a tedious roadblock to graduation.

Topics that have to do with working culture are the basis for every translation activity.This should be
kept in mind both when cultural knowledge is sought to be transferred and when the lessons are
being planned out. Cultural analysis allows for such an education. This topic has been argued about in
educational circles and still is debated. Göhring and Müller being comparable examples to this. When
it comes to transferring and learning regional knowledge there appears to be two realms to this topic
as far as it concerns translation work:

a) Fundamental knowledge shouldn’t be examined in a vacuum. They should employed as a means to

do a deep analysis of a relevant situation.

Example::Topic: Brazilian worker’s syndicates.

When examining this topic the syndicates shouldn’t only be observed on the basis of their structure
and leadership. They should also be analyzed on their role within the greater Brazilian society.

Example::Topic: Brazilian Anarchists in the 20s

When this topic is handled for example the effects of Anarchism and its importance in the modern
day.

b) The questions about the topics should be associated with aspects from our own culture.

Example::Topic: Brazilian worker syndicates

How are these syndicates different from German ones?

What kind of roles did they assume?
How can their roles within their country’s political life be compared? Etc.

But realistically topics may not be discussed in this manner within the education process and it is a
reality that country knowledge doesn’t get the needed attention within a curriculum. There are
somethings the students can do about it themselves. Thinking about who or what sources might have
the information they need and how they can compare the phenomenons in foreign cultures to their
own.

As a result of cultural comparisons our view of different cultures becomes sharper and more accurate.
We become able to discern the communicative differences between similar situations.

Example: X sees someone they one in their German city but doesn’t have to chat so they bow their
head slightly and smile. This is an acceptable greeting in German society but smiling without speaking
would be considered a deep offense within the Swahili community.

In the modern day we have quite the gallery of sources on communication between cultures. Poyatos
(1983) could be seen as an interesting literature on the topic. Between cultures communication area
of translation wasn’t seen as important until 1990s so students had to take their own initiatives when
it came to research and learning on the topic. Although it is inevitable that the students would’ve
researched and have informed themselves about the cultural aspect of translation as it is such a vital
part of communication and relaying of messages across languages.