Abstract
The term “culture-specific vocabulary” appeared in the 1980s. Problems of translating culture-specific terms from one language to another have always been a serious issue for translators. It causes even more problems if the languages being compared belong to different language groups and represent different cultures. Nevertheless, the study of culture-specific vocabulary helps to achieve the adequacy of translation, which in turn helps speakers of different languages and cultures to achieve mutual understanding. The above emphasizes the relevance and timeliness of the study of translation from the point of view of cultural linguistics. This paper will examine the peculiarities of translating culture-specific terms from Kazakh into English. It provides different methods of translating cultural connotations, taking into account the ways of living and thinking, as well the historical and cultural backgrounds embedded in the source language (hereafter SL) and target language (hereafter TL). These methods will be analyzed using specific examples, originals and translations of such works as “The Path of Abai” by Mukhtar Auezov and “Nomads” by Ilyas Yessenberlin. Therefore, the main aim of the paper is to try to explain main approaches and theories needed for adequate understanding of different cultures through translation.