earticle

영어

The study investigates the cultural usability of translated English websites of the top 30 Korean enterprises from a social semiotic perspective. To evaluate the cultural adequacy of the translated websites, the study focuses on one factor - the extent to which they foreground the CEO. This variable is chosen as an index indicating the degree of horizontal power distance within the organization. The comparative analysis of original Korean and English corporate websites shows marked differences in this variable. The Korean websites invariably foreground the CEO by posting a CEO message with a photo of the CEO often in an imposing posture, while the English websites kept the CEO in a low profile, often, by just mentioning his name and title. The Korean CEO message contains a number of formulaic expressions used in formal letters, the likes of which were decidedly absent in authentic English CEO messages. Most of the English translated websites had these Korean expressions transferred into the English CEO message, which served to undermine the cultural usability of the English website.