Intercultural competence in translation. A didactic experience on the translation of culturemes from French to Spanish

There are spaces where cultures come into contact. One such space is the text. The processes of translation and interpretation allow the ideas and meanings of a text to be transferred from one culture to another. However, there are textual elements that carry a specific, more pronounced cultural weight, which requires greater intercultural competence on the part of translators and interpreters. These culturemes (Vermeer 1983, Nord 1997, 2008, Lungu-Badea 2009) demand diversified treatment, such as translator's notes in written translation or interpreters' explanations in oral interpretation. We conducted an experimental study to ascertain how intercultural competence can be best taught in a learning environment to be able to translate and transmit the information content of a text. The target population of the experiment consists of translation and interpreting students, who were required to translate a text rich in culturemes from French into Spanish, following a specific methodology. Afterwards, they had to write a brief report to explain their translation choices; the aim of this process was to focus on the main challenges they encountered during the translation process and to identify the techniques applied to address them. In this way, the students became aware of their own (lack of) intercultural competence and the fundamental role it plays in their training and future professional careers.