The appreciation of cultural and linguistic adjustments in multilingual museum audio tours by international tourists

Bibliographic Data

ID11181801
AuthorsMarisa Tempel (Enza Zaden (Netherlands), corresponding author), Jan D Ten Thije (0000-0003-3542-0796, Utrecht University)
Year2012
Volume33
Issue7
Pages643-664
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0143-4632 • E-ISSN: 1747-7557
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01434632.2012.713962
OpenAlexW2083363142
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited14

This paper discusses the question of whether House's theory on a cultural filter can be applied to the study of the appreciation of multilingual audio tours. According to House theory, cultural and linguistic adjustments of a target text to a specific target culture will have a positive effect on the appreciation and understanding of the information provided. This study analyses the appreciation of British and German users of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum audio tour. Based on an institutional ethnographic investigation of the coming about and, subsequently, a contrastive text analysis of the German and English translation of the Dutch source text, three audio stops were selected for a field experiment at the museum. Two alternative versions were made: one linguistic manipulation of the text and one content manipulation of the text. In the linguistic manipulation, one of the five dimensions of crosscultural differences between English and German was manipulated, namely, orientation towards content versus orientation towards persons. The texts were presented to 30 British and 30 German visitors of the Rijksmuseum. Responses were measured using questionnaires composed by a multicultural team of Dutch, English and German native speakers and translators. The results of this field experiment do not seem to give a clear answer to the research question. However, the differences found indicate a trend that the linguistic adjustments are more appreciated and the content adjustments are appreciated less than the original version of the text. The study encourages the discussion between multimedia producers and museum curators with respect to the standardisation or cultural adjustment of audio tour translations. Keywords: audio tourscultural filtertranslation quality assessmentfunctional equivalenceDutch Golden Agemuseum Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Gus Maussen (Audio Antenna, Benelux), Renate Meier (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), and Quirine Steen (Universiteit Utrecht) for facilitating and supporting this research. They also want to thank Elizabeth Fox and Daria Bathina as well as an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on previous versions of this text. Notes 1. http://www.antennaaudio.com/content/section/5/32/lang,en_GB/ (accessed September 21, 2010). 2. The study was carried out by Marisa Tempel in the framework of the Master Communication Studies at Utrecht University and included a research internship at Antenna Audio in Amsterdam. Her master thesis is available at: http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/student-theses/2009-0401-200511/UUindex.html

Field (mathematics · German · Linguistics · Multiculturalism · Pedagogy · Sociology · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Mathematics · Psychology · Subtitles and Audiovisual Media · Translation Studies and Practices

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