When engaging with translation, and specifically with the translation of cultural items, it is inevitable to also engage with arguments about the very possibility of translation and arguments that foreground the allegedly problematic nature of translation. Such arguments that propagate ‘untranslatability’ abound. However, in a diverse teaching and learning environment that works across different cultures, it is important to consider whether this is a phenomenon that has emerged from translation traditions at a global level or is limited to specific schools of thought. In other words, is this a universal concern, or is there a possible fixation on problematisation simply because it has been problematised? This is of importance to translator education since it seems inevitable that we will encounter a clash of theory versus practice, where learners and teachers engage with theory that propagates the impossibility of translation and the incongruence of cultures, but at the same time leaners are required to translate cultural items and are assessed on it as well.