Translation: Be Smart!

Yes, be smart. Don't do what I did.


Cari pasal.

I thought I was a wonder kid.

When I was offered an Annual Report of 172 pages to translate from Bahasa Malaysia to English , what did I do? My response?

"Boleh," I replied.

"Can-ah, do in ten days?"

"Can,can!"

Then when I got your teeth into it, I found it was more than I could chew!

Cough, cough; choke,choke...............

It was not the many pages, my friend.

Literal direct translation without  any need for referencing and looking for the equivalents in nomenclature would have made this translation assignment a breeze.

But I think I got the short end of the stick.

This was an official document of  a government agency with all those weird sounding names of committees, panels, programmes, activities  and minutes too  et al  and just cross referencing using a dictionary or Google and internet search can wear one down.

Sheer murder!

Then there is that need to ensure uniformity of terminology which you can only do so at the end of the project.

Thus far it has been a hassle and I am pretty sure that 'sepuluh hari tak jadi-lah" and with bowl in hand, I will have to beg for an extension.

Poor me. Having backache now from seating and slumping  in front of the keyboard for too long.

So, if you intend to get into translation, be smart. Know what you are in for.

Make sure that you ask for a longer time and make your agreement flexible enough to accommodate that.!

Lastly, ask for more money!