Translating Cultural Terms: Challenges and Strategies

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-587-4_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cultural Terms; Domestication; Equivalence; Foreignization; Intercultural Communication; Translation Strategies

Abstract

This study aims to explore how cultural terms are translated in the context of intercultural communication, with a particular focus on the translation of Indonesian cultural terms into English. The research investigates the strategies used by translators to convey the cultural meaning embedded in the source language without Translating cultural terms poses significant challenges as translators must navigate between linguistic accuracy and cultural authenticity. This study investigates the strategies and challenges encountered in translating Indonesian cultural terms into English. Drawing on Venuti’s (1995, 2012) concepts of domestication and foreignization and Baker’s (2011) model of equivalence at the word, textual, and pragmatic levels, the research examines how translators mediate between source and target cultures. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, the study analyzes five Indonesian non-literary texts containing culturally specific expressions. Data were collected through document analysis and supplemented by interviews with professional translators. The findings reveal that translators frequently apply strategies such as cultural substitution (e.g.replacing tali yeye with the skipping rope game), descriptive equivalence (e.g. replacing berselonjor with legs stretched), and borrowing (e.g.yeye), depending on the communicative purpose and cultural distance between the two languages. The results demonstrate that successful translation of cultural terms requires not only linguistic competence but also the ability to balance fidelity to the source culture with readability for the target audience. By integrating Venuti’s ideological perspective and Baker’s pragmatic equivalence framework, this study offers a more contemporary and context-sensitive understanding of how cultural meaning is negotiated in translation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Bambang Panca Syahputra
AU  - Yusni Khairul Amri
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/12
TI  - Translating Cultural Terms: Challenges and Strategies
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on English Studies in Indonesia (ICONESIA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 99
EP  - 109
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-587-4_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-587-4_10
ID  - Syahputra2026
ER  -