Adeola Abdulateef Elega

Experiential equivalence: When subjects, objects, situations and issues are not 
extant in one’s culture, it is very difficult to translate. It is difficult because names 
might not be given to those subjects or situation in that culture because they don’t 
know about it. Trying to explain ice skating for a Nigerian who doesn’t travel or read 
might not be fruitful because our weather is not to the extreme. So we don’t have 
snow falls and mountains covered with ice so it will be very difficult to explain the 
sport called ice skating. 

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Conceptual equivalence: This impediment of translation results from unique 
meaning of a universal language within cultures. In United States of America for 
example the word freedom has a different and unusual meaning to its citizens. 
Speakers of other languages might to be able to get a translation that is equal to what 
they mean by freedom. 
It is also imperative to note that there is a better way to translate. Back translation is 
the best, when you translate to the first language, try it back to the other and compare 
and contrast answers (Sechrest et al 1972, pp.41-56). 
2.7 The Intervention of the New Media 
The world has moved from era to era and time to time, the new era is the era of 
technological advancements. This advancement does not exempt the media world. At 
every level of communication, technology has made a gigantic impact. Sun et al, 
(2011) posit that “New technologies ushered in a multichannel communication age. 
In addition to face-to-face communication, people can use phone, text messaging, 
email, and instant messaging” (Sun et al, 2011 p.8). The coming of the new media 
has availed in communication across cultures and the power of the new media cannot 
be underestimated because the media saturates our everyday life. A typical morning 
for a communication student like myself starts with checking my mail, I react to 
them. Then what I do next is to switch on the television to watch what is happening 
around the world on Aljazeera. To buttress my argument Baran 2005, submits that 
“the media so fully saturate our everyday lives that we are often unconscious of their 
presence, not to mention their influence” (Baran, 2005 p.4). Taking communication 
through the new media away from every start of my day will explain how much the 
new media saturates our lives and this also has really been impactful in interpersonal 

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communication across cultures. Most of the communication strategies students use to 
cope in a new environment are technologically inclined like phone calls, use of 
language assistant services like google translate, ivoice translator to mention but a 
few.