On Business Translation Compensation1. Introduction12. Problemsarousedbydifferentculturalbackgrounds22.1 Definition of culture32.2The zero of equivalent word32.3 Cultural difference and business translation42.4 Interpretation of cultural difference in business translation53. Translation93.1 Theory of translation93.2 Definition of translation93.3 Principle of translation104. Business translation compensation114.1 Outward compensation124.2 Inward compensation144.3 Naturalization175. Conclusion19References201. IntroductionSociolinguistics and Ethnology study shows that language is a kind of culture activity, a cultural mirror, which reflects all kinds of meanings of culture; however, Culture is a dynamic, multidimensional, complex, and all-pervasive phenomenon. It is clear that there is no shortage in existence of definitions of this concept. But we should also keep in mind that the key part of culture at the base of the iceberg that is deeply rooted in a nations tradition and ideology resisting to any changes. Its this kind of relative stability of the core aspect of culture that makes each culture unique, and that makes it possible to discuss the varieties of culture. Different value orientations exert great impact on communication.Cultural differences are absolutely and universally existed. Any contacts among different cultures need to overcome the foreign countries cultural obstacle to accomplish the purpose of communication. As we all known, English has become the best communicational media of the international business. To be the global business language, English has a character for its variety and mutability, which lead to English language existing in many forms and varieties with different cultural backgrounds. In the other words, English grows up with the contact of the other languages, which becomes a kind of mixed language and rapidly evolutes constantly to satisfy the needs of culture and communication. Therefore, the international business translators want to fully understand the differences of their own culture and foreign cultures, as well as the English semantic information and cultural informations differences in different cultural background, they try their best to make cultural information reach information equivalence as far as possible. Aim at these differences; we usually have to do some translation compensation while doing translation.2. ProblemsarousedbydifferentculturalbackgroundsOnce, an American was visiting the home of a Chinese. as the visitor saw the hosts wife, he said, “your wife is very beautiful.” The host smiled and said, “Where? Where?-which caused the Americans surprise, but still he answer: “Eyes, hair, nose.”ananswerthatthehostfoundabitpuzzling.Thesurprisingwascausedby different cultures. “ Where? Where? Meaning “ 哪里！哪里！” inChinese is ofhumblesaying.ButtheAmericanunderstooditas“Whichpartsofthebodyarebeautiful?”So,thereasonforbothsidesmisunderstandingswasdifferencesincustomsandhabits.Eachwasexpressingandunderstandingwhattheothersaidaccordingtohisorherculture.2.1 Definition of cultureThe word “CULTURE” originates from German “kulture”, meaning the reclamation of the land and the cultivation of the plants. Later it means the training of peoples body and spirit, especially the training of the ability of arts and moral. Since the founder of cultural anthropology, the British scholar E.B.Tylor, gave a definition of culture in 1871. In his opinion, culture is a complex integrity, which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom and any other ability and habit which people obtain as the member of the society. Other scholars have studied the concept from different angles. Nowadays, when we talk about culture, we usually definite it in two ways. In narrow sense, culture means intellectual and conceptual culture, which in a broad material and spiritual products, ways of thinking, and so on.2.2The zero of equivalent wordThe zero of equivalent word, means the phrase plants a root in particular cultural background reflecting particular cultural contents. As for person of non- native language speakers, because of the concept, person, object expressed by these phrases is in this clan culture nonentity, their concepts meaning is unfamiliar for native speakers, often they let native speakers confused. Their concept lexicalized in one language does not have a corresponding lexical unit in another language and thus presents a translation difficulty. This kind of phenomenon is called the language lack an item(lexical gaps) or the vocabulary is empty to lack(the zero of equivalent word).In order to reduce the nonequivalent phenomenon, in this thesis, translation compensation, the method of translation, is introduced to bridge the gaps in translation.2.3 Cultural difference and business tran