Complexities in the process of translating research documents in cross-cultural settings

ABSTRACT

In multilingual societies, where researchers and participants often do not speak the same language, research is a challenge as a mismatch of understanding between researchers, research instruments and participants often occurs. Reporting on the translation process is crucial because of the potential implications for the validity of the data that follow from it. We aimed to report on the complexities of such a translation process and many considerations that came to our attention. Methodologically, we used a detailed case study to demonstrate that the complexity of translation might be underestimated by researchers who may neglect to report on the challenges that they experience to benefit the wider research community. We emphasise that translating documents, particularly between languages that are not cognate, requires time and financial resources that researchers often do not anticipate or plan for. By discussing what happened to texts that were translated, and how we as researchers were challenged by considerations that were primarily linguistic but also straddled cultural and socio-political domains, we hope to encourage a deeper understanding of the translation task. We conclude that consideration of these complexities is necessary if the aim is the development of translated documents which complement the researchers’ goals.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilingualism
• translation
• challenges
• community translators
• professional translators

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgement is given to the community and professional translators involved.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

ADW and LS conceptualised and drafted the manuscript. All authors were involved in editing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethics approval for the underlying study was obtained from Stellenbosch University’s Research Ethics Committee: Humanities (reference: HS1058/2014) and University of Toronto’s HIV Research Ethics Board (protocol reference number 30609).

ORCID

Anneliese de Wet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8121-8698

Tessa Dowling http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-2924

Leslie Swartz http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1741-5897

Anthea Lesch http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0245-0529

Ashraf Kagee http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1241-2566

Peter A. Newman http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0444-5915

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under Grant number TH-118570. The funder had no role in the interpretations put forward or writing the manuscript.