Translation of Culture-Specific Items in the Age of AI: Educational Implications from Crying in H-Mart : Exploring Translation Strategies and Cohesion

The study aims to examine how machine/AI translation and human translation handle textual cohesion and cultural context in translating culture-specific items (CSIs), using Crying in H-Mart as a case study. It also explores learners' perceptions of cohesion differences between English and Korean translations, considering their implications for teaching cultural translation in the AI era. Based on these findings, the study seeks to propose educational approaches that enhance learners' understanding of CSI translation, bridging the gap between translation strategies and textual cohesion. Culture-specific items are elements unique to a specific language or culture or those embedded with cultural connotations, often posing challenges in translation. While existing research has primarily focused on translation strategies at the lexical level, translating CSIs often requires considerations beyond lexical approaches, especially when CSIs appear repeatedly or are context-dependent within a text. In this context, this study examines how machine/AI translation processes CSIs at both the lexical and textual levels. Additionally, it investigates how learners perceive and understand CSIs not only in terms of translation strategies but also from the perspective of surface cohesion through survey analysis. This study confirms the need for translation approaches that extend beyond one-to-one lexical correspondence to consider textual cohesion. Finally, it offers insights into the educational implications of cultural translation in the age of AI.