Radio as a Cultural Mediator

This study analyzes how the traditional Korean twenty-four solar terms are translated in the Japanese and English broadcasts of Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) World Radio. Using broadcast scripts from 2022 to 2023 as data, it examines how cultural familiarity, audience background knowledge, and the aural characteristics of radio influence the selection of translation strategies. The analysis reveals that in the Japanese versions, the strategy of Shared Cultural Reference predominated, reflecting the shared use of Sino-Korean characters. Additional explanations were provided only when necessary, particularly when the seasonal term was less familiar to listeners or highlighted as a central theme, in which case Translation Using a Loan Word was combined with Translator’s Explanation. By contrast, the English versions assumed that none of the seasonal terms would be familiar to the audience. Accordingly, explanations were consistently provided at the first mention, while later occurrences employed a simplification strategy using Translation Using a Loan Word alone. In addition, the English texts frequently applied Translation by Generalization, linking the seasonal terms to Western calendar concepts. This comparative analysis demonstrates that cultural familiarity is the key factor determining the complexity of strategies and the extent of explanatory detail in multilingual radio translation.