Understanding the Language, the Culture, and the Experience: Translation in Cross-Cultural Research

Abstract

Achieving conceptual equivalence between two languages is a challenge in cross-cultural, cross-language research, as the research is conducted in a language that is not the researcher's or research team's first language. Therefore, translation provides an additional challenge in cross-cultural research. The comprehension and interpretation of the meaning of data is central in cross-cultural qualitative analysis. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the translation process and explore some of the challenges, such as difficulties in finding a suitable translator, and the importance of communication between the researcher and the translator.