Difficulties of Translating Humor from English into Arabic

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the difficulties that translation students face when they translate humor from English into Arabic, the reasons behind such difficulties, and what strategies students used to overcome those difficulties. To achieve the objectives of this research, the researcher selected a sample of 74 undergraduate students who were enrolled in level four translation programs were selected from three Yemeni universities in Sana’a. Two instruments were used to collect the data: The first is a translation test used to investigate the difficulties when translating humor from English into Arabic and what are the strategies used to overcome such difficulties. The second is a questionnaire consisting of 10 items divided into 3 categories (background, linguistic and cultural) to explore the reasons behind those difficulties. The findings of this study showed that the participants face a number of difficulties due to certain reasons, i.e. the participants’ tendency to use literal translation, the lack of, or absence of the participants’ linguistic sensitivity and cultural familiarity, the participants had no sufficient knowledge about the translation strategies, and the participants’ limited knowledge of their mother tongue. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that the students of translation need to make more efforts to improve their Arabic language, acquire more knowledge about the English culture including English humor. Furthermore, the curriculum of the translation program should include humor translation because this kind of activity is most likely to help them overcome those difficulties and improve their knowledge of both linguistic and cultural aspects in Arabic and English. Hence, the students could be more competent and better qualified translators after graduation.