The Challenge

of Translating Jobshttp://pakfaizal.com/

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The use of “Kebanyakan”

Observe this sentence in Indonesian:

Kebanyakan siswa membawa handphone ke

sekolah.

The word “kebanyakan” means “excessive

or too much in quantity” like “masakan ini

sangat asin karena kebanyakan garam” or

“kebanyakan begadang bikin pusing

kepala”.

The use of “dimana”

The word “kebanyakan” in the sentence:

“Kebanyakan siswa membawa handphone kesekolah” got the influence of English phrase “Most of” like “most of viewers” or “most of students”.

Kebanyakan siswa membawa handphone kesekolah.

Incorrect: Most of students brought cell phone in the school.

Correct: The majority of the students brought cell phone in the school.

The use of “dimana”

Don’t think this like caffeine where you

do need more and more shots.

Incorrect: jangan menyamakan ini seperti

kafein di mana anda perlu terus menerus

meminumnya.

Correct: jangan menyamakan ini seperti

kafein yang perlu Anda minum terus-

menerus.

The use of “dimana”

Have you ever in a situation where you

panic?

Incorrect :Pernahkah anda berada dalam

situasi di mana anda panik?

Incorrect: Pernahkah anda berada dalam

situasi panik?

Small errors, great disaster

1. one word worth 71 Million Dollar ( Rp.

852 Miliar).

2. Your lusts for the future (Nafsu anda

untuk masa depan).

3. We will bury you (Kami akan

menguburkan anda).

4. a head full of lamp or a horned/ a horny

moses?

A word worth 71 Million Dollar

( Rp. 852 Miliar). In 1980, a Spanish born teenager named

Willie Ramirez to a hospital in Florida in a

faint condition (pingsan). All his buddies

and relatives tried hard to describe his

condition to the doctor unfortunately on

in Spanish. At that time the translator

wrongly translated “intoxicado”

(keracunan makanan) into “intoxicated

(mabuk).

A word worth 71 Million Dollar

( Rp. 852 Miliar). This made the doctors treated him as an

overdoses drunken patient whereas infact he suffered intra-cerebral injury. Thismalpractice (malapraktik) gave bad resultthat he suffered paralysis (lumpuh) fromthe neck to lower parts of the body. ThenWillie got $ 71.000.000 (Rp.852.000.000.000,-) as thesubstitute/change of the malpractice.

Your lusts for the future (Nafsu

anda untuk masa depan). When President Carter visited Poland in

1977, the foreign affair dept hired Russian

interpreter who just knew less knowledge of

Polish language. Via the interpreter Carter

said an utterance which was translated in

Polish as “When I abandoned the US”(Ketika

sayamenelantarkanAmerika Serikat”)

whereas Carter wanted to say “When I left

the US” (Ketika sayameninggalkan

Amerika Serikat”)

Your lusts for the future (Nafsu

anda untuk masa depan). Then, when Carter said an utterance of

“Your desires for the future”(Keinginan

Anda untuk masa depan) the interpreter

wrongly interpret it to be “Your lusts for

the future (Nafsu anda untuk masa

depan). The use of the word lusts instead

of saying desires was a great controversy

at that time for journalists.

We will bury you (Kami akan

menguburkan anda). In the cold war era, the prime minister

Nikita Khrushchev gave Russian speech

which was translated wrongly in English. His

utterance of “We will live longer to see you

buried”(kami akan hidup untuk melihat anda

terkubur) or “we will live longer than you

(kami akan hidup lebih lama dari anda”was

translated to be “We will bury you” that was

a harder and a more extreme threat for

America at its allies.

A head full of rays or a horned/ a

horny Moses? Saint Jerome, the chief interpreter of Rome

learned Hebrew in order to be able to

translate old testament (perjanjian lama) into

Latin. At that time for ages people used

Greek translation of the bible. After making

Latin translation, there one of his notorious

false translation. When Prophet Moses went

down/descended from Mt.Sinai his head was

full of rays which was in Hebrew called

“Karan”.

A head full of rays or a horned/ a

horny Moses? This Hebrew “Karan” (full of rays/penuh

cahaya) was wrongly translated into

“Keren” (horned/Horny/bertanduk). From

this false translation many artists for ages

made the painting and sculpture of

horned/Horny Moses and weirdo

offensive stereotype of Jews as

“Horned/Horny Jews” (BangsaYahudi

Bertanduk).

Beware cultural aspects

After considering linguistic dimension ofboth languages and the users or readersof the translation, it should be consideredthe cultural aspects of translating process.

For instance, it not correct to translate“terima kasih” to be “Accept love” or thefunny “jangan ikut campur” into “don’tfollow mix”. They should be translatedinto “thank you” and “don’tbother/interrupt”

Some incorrect examples

SL: para saksi diambil sumpahnya di depan

hakim.

Incorrect: the witness swore in front of

the judge. (saksi itu bersumpah serapah di

depan hakim).

The witness took an oath in front of the

judge.

The other examples

a low quality translation: our government

is trying to tackle crippling economic

problems.

A better translation: our government

spearheads the effort to solve economic

woes”

Spearheads=memelopori/membuka jalan.

Woes=kesengsaraan.

Low quality vs HQ translation

LQ: The university gives certificate to law

students after they finish their studies.

HQ: The law degree is conferred by

university upon completion of studies.

Conferred=menganugerahkan, memberi.

Completion=penyelesaian.

Sudikah anda memberi anugrah?

Compare and choose the best of these

utterances:

Could I please have a drink?

May I have a glass of water?

I’d like to have a glass of water.

Would you please bestow me a glass of

water? (sudikah anda memberi anugrah

pada saya berupa segelas air? :D

Cross cultural understanding

There was an Indonesian moslem living in

Western country. At that time his wife

got pregnant and he could not accompany

her since he should work night and day to

earn a living. His native neighbor condoled

him by saying “yeaah, I feel sorry for you

but someone gotta bring home the

bacon”.

Bacon=babi. Gotta bring home the bacon?

Cross cultural understanding

The word “bacon” on that utterance literally

means “ Babi” so that actually in literal

translation “yeaah, I feel sorry for you but

someone gotta bring home the bacon” will

be translated into ya, saya turun prihatin tapi

harus ada yang membawa pulang babi ke

rumah). As a moslem don’t be angry with

this since the actual translation is “(ya, saya

turun prihatin tapi harus ada cari nafkah

untuk di bawa pulang).

How will you translate this?

Suppose you’re Hendra and there is a fast

speaking utterance on the phone like this:

HiHendra,

George’sherehowareyoudoinmate.justcall

youinregardtoNeill’srequesttoourteamtos

ervebritishdelegationthatwillvisitthedayaft

ertomorrow,

haveyouupdatedthatinourofficialwebsite?

Translating proverb

Great oaks from little acorns grow.

Incorrect: Selokan-selokan kecil lama-lama menjadi sungai besar.

Correct: sedikit-sedikit lama-lama menjadibukit.

Like father, Like son.

Incorrect: begitu bapaknya,begitu anaknya

Correct: Air cucuran atap jatuhnya kepelimbahan juga.

Translating proverb

SL: Tomber de Charybde en Scyilla

Incorrect: Jatuh dari Charybde ke dalam

Scylla.

Correct: Lepas dari mulut harimau masuk

ke mulut buaya.

SL: sekali dayung, dua tiga pulau

terlampaui.

TL: to kill two birds with one stone.

An Easy translation

SL: Les chiens aboient, la caravane passe

TL: Anjing menggonggong, kafilah berlalu”

SL: When there is a will, there is a way

TL: Dimana ada kemauan, di sana ada

jalan.