Penerjemah Tersumpah Bahasa Jepang & Inggris di Jakarta

Kesalahan Penerjemahan yang Mengubah Dunia

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 02:06:00 +0000

Ironis memang, betapa sebuah kesalahan penerjemahan dapat mengarahkan audiens pada kekeliruan yang menggelikan bahkan dapat menimbulkan kengerian. Terbih jika si audiens mengerti kesalahan dari hasil terjemahan tersebut, maka tentunya akan menimbulkan perasaan geli, gemas atau pasrah. Sebaliknya, jika audiens sama tidak memahaminya dan menyerap isinya apa adanya, maka akan menimbulkan kehebohan yang luar biasa.

Banyak contoh kesalahan penerjemahan dan dampaknya. Tapi ternyata, karena secara takdir dan perkembangannya, manusia, budaya, kondisi alam, membagi dunia ke dalam bahasa-bahasa berbeda yang ribuan jumlahnya, kekeliruan penerjemahan menjadi suatu masalah yang akhirnya bahkan mampu mengubah dunia itu sendiri.

Pada sebuah situs, disebutkan pula beberapa kesalahan penerjemahan yang mengubah sejarah dunia, di antaranya adalah:

1. Mars pernah dihuni ras berintelejensia tinggi yang membangun kanal di planet itu.

Konon di planet tetangga bumi ini ditemukan kanal-kanal buatan makhluk berakal yang kemungkinan adalah alien penduduk asli Mars (Martians). Kanal-kanal tersebut diasumsikan adalah upaya gagal Martians menyelamatkan planet mereka dari ancaman kekeringan masal.

Pemahaman adanya kanal-kanal air buatan makhluk hidup di planet Mars ini mengilhami banyak karya fiksi ilmiah di antaranya The War of the Worlds karangan penulis terkenal H.G. Wells dan novel Edgar Rice Burroughs, berjudul A Princess of Mars yang kesemuanya memuat topik terkait kanal-kanal buatan di Mars.

Padahal, isu adanya kanal buatan alien di Mars ini muncul karena kesalahan penerjemahan oleh Astronomer Percival Lowell yang membaca karya astronomer Italia pada tahun 1877 Giovanni Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli menuliskan bahwa dalam pengamatannya, Mars memiliki "canali" di permukaannya. Kata "canali" ini oleh Lowell diartikan sebagai "kanal". Kanal dalam definisinya adalah "saluran BUATAN MANUSIA". Sementara sebenarnya "canali" yang dimaksudkan Schiaparelli makna tepatnya adalah "perbedaan tinggi permukaan tanah" yang disebabkan fenomena alamiah.

2. Kesalahan penerjemahan idiom Rusia yang hampir memicu perang nuklir

Pada tahun 1956, di mana perang dingin antara Uni Soviet dan Amerika Serikat mencapai ketegangan tertingginya, Pimpinan Kabinet (Premier) Uni Soviet - Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev berpidato terkait persaingan mereka dengan Amerika serikat. Salah satu bagian dari pidatonya tersebut diartikan oleh media-media Amerika sebagai ancaman, yaitu kata-kata "Kami akan menguburkan kalian!"

Berita ancaman ini menimbulkan kemarahan dan kesiagaan perang di negara Paman Sam. Persiapan perang nuklir dilakukan hingga level paling waspada. Sayangnya, ada satu masalah; Khrushchev sama sekali tidak pernah mengucapkan ancaman tersebut.

Kalimat yang diartikan media Amerika sebagai ancaman perang "Kami akan menguburkan kalian!" itu aslinya adalah idiom atau pepatah asli bahasa Rusia yang makna literalnya memang "kami akan hadir ketika kalian dimakamkan!". Namun arti idiom tersebut sebenarnya tidak kurang tidak lebih adalah "kami lebih baik dari kalian", itu saja.

3. Pidato pertama presiden Amerika di negara Komunis

Masih seputar perang dingin, pada tahun 1973, presiden Amerika Serikat saat itu - Jimmy Carter, berpidato di Polandia yang merupakan negara komunis. Mudahnya, untuk menggambarkan pentingnya pidato tersebut, bayangkan saja Presiden Barrack Obama hari ini berpidato di negara yang dikuasai Taliban.

Celakanya, pidato Carter di Polandia ini akhirnya menjadi bahan tertawaan rakyat Polandia bahkan hingga saat ini. Penyebabnya adalah kalimat Carter "saya mencoba memahani opini rakyat Polandia dan mencoba mengerti keinginan kalian di masa depan" diterjemahan oleh penerjemah lokal menjadi "saya ingin dan perlu berhubungan seks dengan rakyat Polandia"

...

4. Bom Atom
Siapa tidak tahu peristiwa pengeboman Hiroshima dan Nagasaki pada Agustus 1945? Tahu semua? Tapi tahukah kalau tragedi perang paling mengerikan sepanjang sejarah tersebut terjadi karena kesalahan penerjemahan?

Pada Juli 1945, Amerika Serikat menerbitkan Postdam Declaration yang isinya menuntut Jepang menyerah tanpa syarat atau diserang dengan kekuatan yang menghancurkan secara total.

Jepang yang saat itu sebenarnya sudah terdesak, mengeluarkan pernyataan balasan berisikan kalimat "untuk sementara tidak ada komentar, kami akan memikirkan tawaran tersebut".

Celakanya, pernyataan "no comment" perdana mentri jepang saat itu - Kantaro Suzuki yang diucapkan dalam bahasa Jepang "mokusatsu" diartikan menjadi "Kami tidak akan memperdulikan ultimatum sampah itu".

Hasilnya?

Presiden Harry Truman marah, dan 10 hari setelah pernyataan perdana mentri Jepang itu dikeluarkan, Hiroshima rata dengan tanah, disusul Nagasaki 3 hari kemudian.

5. Penerjemahan di dunia kesehatan

Konon banyak sekali kekeliruan fatal penerjemahan di bidang ini, namun saya tidak sempat melakukan penelusuran secara lengkap. Satu contoh mungkin mewakili, ketika seorang pasien Spanyol meminum obat tekanan darah 11 kali sehari karena kata "once" dalam bahasa spanyol berarti "sebelas".

6. Lidah berpeta rasa

Di SMA, kita diajari bahwa lidah kita memiliki kemampuan merasa yang berbeda pada tiap bagiannya. Ujung lidah untuk merasakan rasa manis, sisi depan untuk rasa asin, sisi belakang untuk asa, dan pangkal lidah untuk rasa pahit.

Informasi tersebut di atas adalah salah, karena faktanya, telan saja gula, maka di bagian manapun lidah, tetap saja terasa manis, atau telan saja garam, semua bagian lidah akan merasa asin, atau putus cinta saja, maka menelan ludah pun akan terasa pahit sampai ke hati *eh*.

Kesalahan ini terjadi karena lagi-lagi kesalahan penerjemahan hasil riset seorang Jerman - D.P. Hanig pada tahun 1901 (!).

***

The History of Translation History

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:55:00 +0000

By my count, nine useful books about translation history, specialized works aside, have been published over the last thirty years. It must say something about where this field is going that six of them have come out during the last seven years (and four since 1992). The latest such work, Translators through History, edited and directed by Jean Delisle and Judith Woodsworth, appears under the very highest auspices, being co-published by John Benjamins and Unesco. The combined effort of fifty scholars from twenty different nations, this volume has been five years in the making and is now published simultaneously in French and English with assistance from several Canadian sponsors and the F.I.T.

The editors have set out to create "a selective and thematic overview" rather than "an exhaustive study of the history of translation,...without compromising ...standards of scholarship...they have sought to make the book readable and accessible to as wide an audience as possible." The volume is divided into nine chapters, each covering one of the roles played by translators over the ages: inventors of alphabets, developers of national languages, creators of national literatures, disseminators of knowledge, accessories to power, religious proselytizers, transmitters of cultural values, authors of dictionaries, and interpreters as the middlemen of history.

To their outstanding credit, the editors and their collaborators make a truly impressive showing in each of these fields, no small achievement within the limitations of a few hundred pages. The work is supplemented by 24 illustrations, two appendices, a bibliography, and an index. Perhaps most important, this is the first general work on translation history to abandon a purely Eurocentric perspective (though a pending ATA exhibit proposal also favors this approach).

This work is almost overwhelming in the sheer number and richness of strands, episodes, and anecdotes it embraces, moving with seeming effortlessness from the Seventh Century Chinese monk Xuanzang to modern Cameroon to the creation of the Cree syllabary in the early Nineteenth Century. As we visit Baghdad, we learn that the master translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq was paid in gold for his work according to its weight (and hence tended to use thick paper!), that Gerard of Cremona wandered from Italy to Toledo in 1157 simply because he wanted to find a copy of Ptolemy's Almagest for himself, that Doña Marina's ghost still lurks along the edge of Mexico City's zócalo, that French Canadian translators protested in vain against politicians, who insisted "Dominion of Canada" must be translated "Puissance de Canada."

This book is certainly an indispensable tool for anyone interested in translation history. But it should perhaps also be admitted at the same time that no single book in this field can be considered a model of clarity or accessibility. Of these works (see bibliography at end), perhaps Rener's and Kelly's should receive the lowest grades for their overall meaning-to-verbiage ratio, though both certainly have useful insights to offer. Even for someone familiar with the material, the current work also leaves something to be desired. Parts of it read even more drably than most history texts, and sentences like the following are all too common:

    "In the twentieth century, as in the nineteenth, the United States was divided by conflicting ideological tendencies, some of them conservative and others more liberal."

    "In fact, religion was only one of several motives for the many expeditions from the Old World to the New; missions were also carried out for the purposes of commerce, power and territorial expansion."

Wooden language abounds, and the chapter on dictionaries reads remarkably like a laundry list of such works through the ages, though such a list will surely be valuable to specialists. And many other passages, both in the chapter on evolving world literatures and elsewhere, resemble what Jir¡ Levy called mere "literary chitchat" and/or the all too predictable harumphings of Gregory Rabassa's "Professor Horrendo."

Perhaps most unfortunately, given the book's theme, parts of it actually read "like a translation." From internal evidence it would appear that at some point during the bilingual publishing process, the entire text of the book was converted into French for a "final" proofreading and then reconverted into English with little further checking, leaving behind such French spellings as Marchak (Marshak), Guatemoc (Cuauhtémoc), and La Coruna (La Coruña). Equally distracting are countless text-embedded footnotes stuffed with sources, dates, or titles, greatly reducing the work's readability—these could have been assigned lettered footnotes (to distinguish them from endnotes) and placed at the bottom of the page.

Despite the number of scholars involved, there are still some glaring errors, among them the Western invention of printing in the fourteenth century (p.102), the assertion that Greek and Roman medicine were "of Indian origin" (p. 108—over time their cross-fertilization was far more complex), the strange use in English of the French term "Americanist" (p. 149), and a misleading explanation of the differences between Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhism (p. 125). Two major oversights: the book almost totally ignores Japan and Korea and also fails to mention that the great Baghdad renaissance actually began in the Persian town of Jundishapur.

Given its UNESCO auspices, Translators through History certainly does its best to avoid any statement that could ruffle international feathers—in the Nuremberg trial section it even contains an endnote for the young detailing the nationalities of the "Allies" and the "war criminals." And yet the editors' well-meant attempt at even-handedness finally ends in failure. In the material they have chosen, they have been unable to resist the persistent quirk of extreme francophilia, a failing that finally leads almost to comedy. Not only do they insist that the entire twelfth century "Toledo School" of translation was under "French" direction, via monks from the Cluny monastery at in central France (and this at a time when Cathar, Bogomil, and diehard Arabist influences ran rampant throughout the South, when neither France nor the French language was in an advanced state of formation), not only is an attempt made to exonerate French church fathers for burning translator-martyr Étienne Dolet at the stake (see next selection on Translation Menu), but an even more amazing claim is made for French Calvinist missionaries in the jungles of Brazil.

While both the English and Spanish had a very poor record of training interpreters during their early explorations, according to our co-editors the French were far more fortunate:

    "It is believed that Norman navigators anchored at the mouth of the Amazon even before Columbus reached the shores of the New World. Some Frenchmen, referred to in the French accounts as truchements de Normandie or 'Norman interpreters'...had moved into the villages, learned the language, cohabited with the women, had children by them and allegedly adopted all their practices, even cannibalism. While these truchements were an embarrassment to the French missionaries, they were immensely valuable to them as liaison agents."

This episode allegedly took place in 1555, which means that these truchements—or their grandchildren—would have needed to retain their French for at least 65 years, assuming they had arrived no earlier than two years before Columbus. But this story, which adds up to nothing less than the claim that the French discovered America, was inspired by a typical Sixteenth Century "traveler's tale" and deserves no logical analysis at all. Even histories of translation must still obey historiographical rules, and today's historians are united in dismissing most claims of successful new world colonization prior to Columbus—whether by Normans, Welsh, Irish, Vikings, Phoenicians, Egyptians, or Israelites—as poppycock, and this tale does not belong in a serious history. Another recognizably French feature—as Mary McCarthy pointed out long ago—is an inadequate index, containing a mere fraction of the text's many names of persons and places. So French does the book become that it even quotes from that great Frenchman and former ATA President Henri Fischbach. [he is of course better known to ATA members as "Henry"] Greater clarity would also have been served by listing the authors of each chapter at its beginning rather than grouping them in italics at the end.

Despite these objections, books like Translators through History are still of enormous value: they offer a rich harvest for those prepared to cut their way through their burgeoning undergrowth. But some of the greatest figures and movements throughout this history upheld a different vision for translation, even for communication itself, than the one presented by our scholars. Martin Luther demanded language for "the common man in the marketplace," King Alfred the Great insisted on "language that we all can understand," Alfonso X of Castile called out for texts that were llanos de entender ("easy to understand"), while Hunayn ibn Ishaq wanted his medical texts to be understood by someone "who was not a medical specialist, or who was unacquainted with philosophy." During both the French Revolution and nineteenth-century political unrest in India, voices cried out insistently for precisely these goals. All of these examples can be found in the current volume. Against this background, it seems supremely ironic—and may well explain many of the problems facing our profession—that we have still not evolved a style for explaining the history and principles of translation to our fellow citizens in a clear and simple way. As advanced as this book undoubtedly is, the field of translation history may still be in its infancy.

Source

Tips on Indonesian Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Having difficulty with Indonesian translation? What is the correct Indonesian translation for this sentence? How do I translate this sentence into good Indonesian sentence? All these questions might be bothering you for some time yet you can not find the answers to all these questions. If you have difficulties in translating Indonesian sentences into English, or vice versa, I guess it is time for you to get yourself an Indonesian language teacher who can not only teach you how to speak in Indonesian (or Bahasa Indonesia), but also to understand some commonly used phrases used in daily conversation.

However if you need to translate some important documents into Indonesian, it is strongly recommended that you hire a professional, certified, sworn translator. Nowadays it is relatively not too difficult to find a sworn translator, but you still have to make sure the reputation of the translator. Be sure that the sworn translator you hire is really an experienced, professional one. Many people would claim themselves to be professional, sworn translators, yet their work doesn't reflect that at all. So my advice is that you should go to the Indonesian embassy and ask for their reference.

For those who are staying in Indonesia, or plan to visit Indonesia in the near future, it is advised that you learn Indonesian language prior to your coming here, and to continue your learning while you are here.

Indonesian Translation – Tips and Guides

How do I translate Indonesian sentences into English? Is it possible for self learners to do some simple Indonesian translations? Yes, it is possible. All you need to have is a good English-to-Indonesian dictionary, and vice versa. And due to the fact that Indonesian language is one of the easiest languages in the world, you can make some simple Indonesian translations only within minutes by following these simple rules below.

1. The attributive adjective is placed after the word it qualifies.

For example:

Big car	Mobil besar
Green house	Rumah hijau
Expensive watch	Jam mahal

Exceptions:

Many books	Banyak buku
(a)little sugar	Sedikit gula
Five cities	Lima kota
All languages	Semua bahasa

2. The personal possessive pronoun placed after the noun it qualifies becomes a possessive pronoun.

For example:

My dog	Anjing saya
Your friend	Teman anda
His language	Bahasanya / bahasa dia

3. "Itu" as an article and a demonstrative pronoun

That dog	Anjing itu
This table	Meja ini

Therefore if you want to translate this Indonesian sentence into English, it'd go like this:

(English) This tall lady can speak Indonesian language
(Indonesian) Wanita tinggi ini dapat bicara bahasa Indonesia

Another good news about translating English sentences into Indonesian is that there is barely any tenses in Indonesian language. So the sentences of "I bought a car" and "I buy a car" would be "Saya membeli mobil" in Indonesian language. Pretty easy, isn't it?

However there are also some complex Indonesian sentences which require you to learn some in-depth knowledge about Indonesian grammar and phrases. And by joining an Indonesian language course, you should be able to understand the Indonesian language grammar, how to speak in Indonesian language by using the proper grammar and phrases, and of course, last but not least, do some Indonesian translations of your own.

Being one of the easiest languages in the world, Indonesian language can easily be learned and understood only within a relatively short period of time. And with proper knowledge, Indonesian translation should also come easy to you. All you need is your extra time and a good teacher to guide you professionally. Start learning Bahasa Indonesia now!

Tips and advice on learning English conversation and vocabulary

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:11:00 +0000

I have found important information that may be valuable for all students of English. I am a former English (ESL) teacher. I have undertaken a thorough comprehensive research on the most effective methods and aids for learning English. Those aids include audio, videos, websites, study books, etc. I want to share with you that information for English language learners.

Of course, everyday talking in English to native English speakers on a variety of topics helps best in order to be able to speak English fluently. But relatively few learners of English have such long-term opportunity. To eventually be able to speak English fluently, first of all one must have materials with important content on all everyday topics (audio, videos, printed texts/study books, etc.) for beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of study.

The materials must include dialogs, monologues (thematic texts), questions - answers with important content, thematic lists of difficult word meanings and phrases (expressions) with usage sentences, and comprehensive vocabulary on all everyday topics. I believe that one can master English conversation and vocabulary with the following methods:

One must listen to each sentence in conversations (thematic dialogs) in audio materials several times and see printed texts at the same time, and understand everything in those sentences clearly.
One must read (pronounce) each sentence aloud and compare one's pronunciation to the announcer's pronunciation.
Speaking activity with self-control. One must check if one can orally convey the content of those dialogs closely to the original dialogs as much as possible, that is try to be an actor for both speakers in the dialogs. The most important thing is to speak English yourself, and to check in printed conversations (dialogs) whether you have made any mistakes in speaking. One can also make one's own written questions on the dialogs that require long answers contained in the dialogs to facilitate (make easier) one's imitation of the dialogs. Alternatively, one can write key words and phrases, or main ideas as a plan to make easier for one to imitate those dialogs.
One must also prepare potential questions and answers with important content on all everyday topics and practice speaking. To show different ways of expressing one's thought one can make several potential questions and answers on one point in this speaking activity. There are two websites that contain a lot of ready-made questions in English on a large variety of topics: www.esldiscussions.com; http://iteslj.org
One must have lists of difficult word meanings and of phrases (expressions) on every topic with usage sentences. One must read those ready-made vocabulary usage sentences many times if needed. Longman Language Activator Dictionary (unique English Idea Production Dictionary) covers this issue thoroughly. One must also make one's own sentences with that vocabulary, taking into consideration real life situations.
One can learn a lot of vocabulary on every topic from thematic English dictionaries. Good thematic English dictionaries provide clear word usage explanations and also a few usage sentences for each word meaning, which is especially important. One must also make one's own sentences with difficult vocabulary. Think about the real life situations where and when that vocabulary can be used.
One can also learn English vocabulary by reading thematic texts (materials), first of all on everyday topics with important content, for example: Practical Tips and Advice to Make Everyday Life Easier and Better (practical solutions for everyday problems). Such self-help books on settling everyday matters are available at book stores.One must write down unknown vocabulary in whole sentences. One must practice telling the content of the texts that one has read. As people say, practice makes perfect.
Constant review of material ensures solid knowledge and success in learning.
One must also make use of other important aids on a variety of topics to improve one's English conversation and vocabulary skills: audio, videos (English learning videos, travel videos, etc.), Internet resources, English learning magazines, newspapers, newsletters, radio programs (especially the BBC English learning programs/materials), TV programs (educational programs, documentary films, movies, news), books and e-books on a variety of subjects, online communication with native English speakers (chat, by email, by Skype).

Good libraries have a wide selection of English learning aids.

Source

5 Techniques To Improve Your American Accent

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:01:00 +0000

The invention of the Internet and rapid technological advances have brought our entire world into a global village which has had significant impacts on business to business relations throughout various parts of the world. Numerous call centers and the virtual assistants have been established to connect merchants from diverse parts of the world allowing them to interact daily.

The main obstacle has proven to be communication. Most of these jobs require a level of proficiency in English to prove successful. United States employers have a high demand for workers who they can easily communicate with so their businesses can remain running smoothly without any loss of time or money due to miscommunication. There is little doubt that those language students who work on their American Accent training will to have more job opportunities and higher salaries.

If you are an English speaker seeking to improve your American accent quickly, here are five proven techniques to help you achieve your language goal.

Pay close attention to how American English speakers form their words when you interact communicate with them. Watch the motions of their mouth and lips and practice the idiomatic expressions they use when they speak.
Each language has a distinct rhythm and English is no exception. Find a language CD and listen to it over and over while you are driving in your car or have free time. This will get used to the rhythm of American English speakers.
When you are speaking, be sure to take your time and breathe slowly. Many other languages are spoken at a much faster tempo than English and you want to be sure you are speaking in a calm and coherent manner so you are understood. Once you gain the confidence you can always speed up your tempo from that point.
Practice is a very important. Try to read English out loud every day for at least 30 minutes if you have the time. This will help get you used to pronouncing common expressions and phrases. If you have a recording device, try recording yourself and listen back to focus on the improvements you can make.
Perhaps the most important technique to improving your accent is to surround yourself around native English speakers and continuously receive feedback from them on how your accent training is improving. They should be able to help you focus on areas where you are having trouble and help you improve. There should be clubs and social organizations in your local area where you can meet people.

There are many different resources available to help you with your American Accent training. We recommend starting your search online to gain a more focused understanding of exactly what you would like to achieve, and then turn your focus on your local resources to reach your goals.

Tips to help you learn the Chinese language

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:29:00 +0000

Although the English language has long been the universal language of business, the Chinese language is beginning to spread rapidly. For most countries looking to do business overseas, English is standard, but the tables are beginning to shift in a new direction. Chinese is beginning to grow significantly in the common languages of trade. For those attempting to learn the Chinese language, there are a few important points you should know from a foreigner who's taken the time to learn the Chinese language.

Of course Chinese language classes, tutors, and even computer programs will help enhance your knowledge of the Chinese language. However, I found the most effective way of learning the language was to immerse myself in the Chinese culture by visiting China. By immersing yourself in a different culture it triggers your learning curve to increase dramatically. I found that relatively few individuals in China were able to speak English back to me, which forced me to learn Chinese quickly.

One huge benefit to actually living in the country to learning the language was to experience the traditions. I have found that especially with the Chinese language, experiencing the way Chinese men and women interact on a non-verbal level has a large significance to their communication. I discovered that there is another level to their communication behind specific phrases and manners that would be very difficult to pick up by simply taking classes.

While living in China I discovered a few simple yet effective techniques to help learn the vocabulary of their been speaking to individuals in town. One very effective technique is to listen to local radio stations or watch movies. While at first it can be difficult to comprehend, you will slowly begin to understand new words and phrases in a low pressure environment. If you are struggling to comprehend the vocabulary, I recommend turning on the subtitles while you are in the early stages of learning the language. Chinese films are also a wonderful way to learn more about their tradition.

While you are visiting China you should focus on making new friends and exploring new scenes, which will help you master the vocabulary at a much faster pace. I realize for many people it would be a difficult realization to simply leave to China for a few weeks or even months. However, if your business is serious about entering the market they may be open to the idea of sending you there to learn the language, customs, and make valuable business contacts.

Artikel Terjemahan Dalam Kegiatan Jurnalistik

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:34:00 +0000

1. Pendahuluan

Artikel terjemahan cukup berperanan penting dalam surat kabar atau majalah. Di samping berita-berita hasil liputan lapangan, surat kabar atau majalah juga memuat artikel terjemahan yang bersumber dari berbagai surat kabar/majalah manca negara (terutama yang berbahasa Inggris).

Artikel terjemahan tersebut bisa kita ketahui karena penulisnya biasanya mencantumkan sumbernya, misalnya : Reuter/AFP, time, Reader’s Digest, news Week, dsb. Ada dua kemungkinan : nama penulis dan sumbernya ditulis secara utuh atau disingkat.

Ada dua macam artikel terjemahan yang dimuat di surat kabar : (1) artikel terjemahan yang bersifat ‘hard news’ (perang, pembunuhan, musibah, pidato pejabat pemerintah, dsb); (2) artikel terjemahan yang bersifat ‘soft news’ (profile, human interest). Menurut Anderson, D.A & Itule, B.D. (1984:23), ‘soft news’ dimaksudkan untuk menghibur atau mendidik, disamping memberikan informasi; maka, penulis (wartawan) lebih bebas untuk menentukan bentuk tulisan dan berkreasi.

Dalam hal ini sebagian besar data (artikel terjemahan) yang terkumpul bersufat ‘soft news’. Artikel-artikel tersebut bersumber dari Time, Reader’s digest, Womas’s Affair dan dimuat di kompas, Suara merdeka, dan Wawasan.

2. Pengertian Artikel Terjemahan dalam Kegiatan Jurnalistik.

Artikel terjemahan yang dimuat di surat kabar atau majalah agak berbeda dengan karya terjemahan dari buku teks atau artikel ilmiah lainnya. Sebenarnya kurang tepat kalau disebut artikel terjemahan karena bukan merupakan terjemahan murni:artinya penerjemah lebih bebas untuk berkreasi. Sebaliknya, karya terjemahan yang bersumber dari buku teks dapat dikatakan taat azas, artinya terjemahan judul, sub judul, dan tubu karangan tidak menyimpang dari karya sumbernya.

Artikel terjemahan dalam surat kabar/majalah sering kali tidak taat azas. Pemberian judul misalnya, sering kali menyimpang dari artikel aslinya. Disamping itu, pemberian ‘lead’ juga tidak sama dengan artikel aslinya. Pada karya terjemahan yang bersumber pada buku teks, urutan paragraf sesuai dengan karya aslinya; sebaliknya, artikel terjemahan di surat kabar tidak mengikuti urutan paragraf pada partikel aslinya. Kadang-kadang terjemahan dimulai dari bagian tengah artikel atau adanya penggabungan dua paragraf. Maka, cukup sulit untuk mencocokkan dengan karya aslinya, karena kalimat-kalimat sudah dioplos sedemikian rupa sehingga artikel yang muncul tidak sama dengan artikel aslinya.

Disamping itu, penerjemah terpaksa harus menghilangkan beberapa bagian karena terbatasnya kolom yang disediakan dalam surat kabar. Misalnya bagian ‘desk’ hanya menghendaki artikel terjemahan sepanjang tiga halaman, ketikan dua spasi, padahal artikel aslinya (sumbernya) cukup panjang. Maka tidak ada cara lain, kecuali menghilangkan beberapa bagian atau merangkumnya, sehingga artikel terjemahan tersebut tetap tampak utuh, tidak tersendat-sendat bila dibaca.

Si penterjemah bila perlu mengaitkan informasi yang relevan agar artikel terjemahan tersebut menjadi lebih lengkap. Jadi, dia tidak semata-mata tergantung pada teks tersebut. Pada tahap tertentu, artikel semacam itu tidak bisa disebut artikel terjemahan karena artikel tersebut hasil oplosan dari beberapa sumber dan pengetahuan penerjemah.

Artikel terjemahan dalam surat kabar/majalah dalam beberapa hal bisa digolongkan ragam terjemahan bebas. Nurachman Hanafi (1986:58) melukiskan terjemahan bebas sebagai berikut :

“Umumnya terjemahan semacam ini (terjemahan bebas) lebih berorientasi dan memberikan penekanan pada bahasa sasaran. Itulah sebabnya segala bentuk kemudahan hendaknya bercermin agar pembaca bisa merasa puas. Umpamanya walaupun terpaksa terjadi pemberontakan, penghilangan dan penambahan bagian-bagian tertentu dari kalimat-kalimatnya, hal itu dibenarkan dalam mencapai kemudahan pengertian. Terjemahan bebas semacam ini oleh Savory (1969) disebut pula sebagai : Idiomatic Translation”

3. Korpus

Artikel-artikel terjemahan sebagai bahan analisis diambil dari tiga surat kabar:Kompas, Suara Merdeka, dan Wawasan. Pemilihan artikel dilakukan secara acak dan diusahakan dari berbagai topik. Ada 9 artikel yang terkumpul:2 artikel film, 1 artikel mode, 2 artikel wanita, dan 1 artikel kesehatan.

Sebagian besar artikel terjemahan tersebut diambil dari Wawasan (2 artikel). Dan jumlah artikel sumbernya pun sebagian besar dari majalah Time (6), dan sisanya dari Woman’s Affair (2),dan Reader’s Digest (1).
Berikut ini adalah daftar artikel yang terpilih :

Hollywood Makin Effisien sebagai Gurita Perfilman, Kompas, Minggu, 5 Agustus, 1990. (Movie Muscle, Time, May, 1990.
Hollywood Kekurangan Cerita : Lantas Rame-rame Bikin Film Ulang, Suara Merdeka, Minggu, 15 Juli 1990. (Hollywood’s Rage for Remakes, Time, May 28, 1990)
Jangan Kaget, Pemeran Gali Sunguhan, Suara Merdeka, Minggu, 17 juni, 1990. (Lights! Camera! Murder!, Time, May 14, 1990.)
Basia Trzetrzelewska; Ada Jazz, Soul dan Samba, Wawasan, Minggu, 29 April, 1990. (Poland’s Silky Pop Export, Time, April 23, 1990)
Aids Jangkiti Industri Mode, Kompas, 7 April, 1990. (Dressed To Kill and Die, Time, April 9, 1990)
Siluet Ramping, Siluet Tak Terpotong, Wawasan, Minggu, 20 Mei, 1990. (Stripping Down to Essentials, Time, May 14, 1990)
Mempererat Hubungan Bisnis – Business Lunch, Wawasan, Minggu, 24 Juni, 1990. (Business Lunch, Woman’s Affair, March, 1990).
Jatuh Cinta Di Tempat Kerja, Wawasan, Minggu, 1 Juli, 1990. (Love at Work, Woman’s Affair, March, 1990).
Proses Kebotakan Biasanya Dimulai pada usia 20-an, Wawasan, Minggu, 10 Juni, 1990. (The Naked Truth of Baldness, Reader’s Digest, April, 1990).

4. Metode Analisis

Setelah memilih sejumlah artikel, saya perlu menjelaskan metode analisis yang akan saya gunakan. Metode ini disebut ‘a genre-based analysis’ karena hanya berkaitan dengan satu jenis teks yaitu artikel surat kabar. Menurut Swales (1985) pengertian ‘genre’ adalah sebagai berikut: A genre is a recognized communicative event with a shared public purpose and with aims mutually understood by the participants within that event.

Dalam menulis sejumlah artikel, saya akan menitik beratkan pada struktur makro (makro Structure). Pendekatan ini, menurut Hutchins (1977), adalah “untuk memperoleh suatu perspektif yang lebih global, untuk mencoba memahami organisasi teks secara menyeluruh.” Jadi dalam pendekatan ini, saya akan menganalisis struktur organisasi teks berdasarkan pembagian retorik (judul, lead, tubuh dan penutup). Berikut adalah sebuah diagram yang menunjukkan bagian-bagian dari artikel surat kabar baik yang berupa berita maupun feature.

(Tempo, 1979: 33)

Maka ada tujuan yang ingin dicapai dalam analisis ini. Tujuan tersebut adalah :

Untuk memperoleh gambaran secara menyeluruh mengenai struktur artikel terjemahan dalam surat kabar.
Untuk mengetahui ragam terjemahan dalam kegiatan jurnalistik.

5. Analisis Korpus

5.1 Bagian Judul (Headline)

Prinsip penulisan judul dalam artikel terjemahan tidak berbeda dengan penulisan judul berita. Bagian ‘desk’ selalu berusaha menulis judul (berita) yang dapat menarik pembaca, kalau perlu dengan bahasa yang agak merangsang atau bombastis. Disamping ‘lead, judul juga berfungsi sebagai kail bagi pembaca beritanya.
Menurut Assegaff, D. H. (1983:50), pengertian judul berita (headline) adalah sebagai berikut ;

Judul berita (headline) berfungsi menolong pembaca yang bergegas untuk cepat mengenal kejadian-kejadian yang terjadi di sekelilingnya yang diberitakan. Fungsi lainnya adalah teknik grafika dengan tipe-tipe huruf, judul berita yang menonjolkan berita tadi, untuk dapat lebih menarik orang membacanya. Karena sifat manusia di abad modern yang selalu bergegas, maka banyak pembaca surat kabar yang hanya membaca judu-judulnya berita (headline atau kepala berita) saja. Pembaca surat kabar di Amerika sering disebutkan sebagai “headline-reader” (pembacajudul/kepala berita).

Dalam artikel terjemahan, penulisan judul tidak harus sama dengan judul artikel sumbernya. Dari sembilan artikel terjemahan, hanya dua artikel menggunakan judul yang hampir sama dengan artikel sumbernya, yaitu artikel VII dan VIII.

Artikel VII (Wawasan)

Mempererat Hubungan Bisnis
Business Lunch

Artikel VIII (Wawasan)

Jatuh Cinta Di Tempat Kerja

Sedangkan sisanya (7 artikel) menggunakan judul yang berbeda dengan menonjolkan salah satu unsur tema artikel tersebut. Artikel V, misalnya, lebih menekankan tema AIDS dan tema tersebut diangkat menjadi judul artikel (Aida Jangkiti Industri Mode) sedangkan judul aslinya (Dressed to Kill-and Die) lebih tersamar, meskipun tidak bombastis tetapi judul tersebut membuat pembaca penasaran untuk membacanya.

Artikel V (Kompas)

Dressed to Kill and Die
Aids Jangkiti Industri Mode

Demikian juga untuk artikel III. Pada judul artikel sumber, bagian desk menggunakan tiga kata dan masing-masing diakhiri dengan tanda seru (Lights! Camera! Murder!), sedangkan pada versi terjemahan, bagian desk menggunakan judul yang menonjolkan unsur pemeran (Jangan Kaget, Pemeran “Gali” Sungguhan).

Artikel III (Suara Merdeka)

Lights! Camera! Murder!
Jangan Kaget, Pemeran “Gali” Sungguhan

Dua contoh judul terjemahan diatas (artikel III, V) memberi kesan bahwa bagian desk masih menekankan bahasa yang bombastis dan lebih eksplisit. Sebaliknya judul artikel sumbernya, meskipun kurang bombastis, lebih memancing rasa penasaran pembaca.

5.2 Bagian Lead

Dalam surat kabar atau majalah, penulisan lead adalah mutlak. Lead yang “provokatif, jelas dan sederhana” (Anderson & Itule, 1984:37), dapat merangsang pembaca berita/informasi untuk membaca berita tersebut. Karena lead merupakan bagian tersulit, kadang-kadang si wartawan terpaku agak lama di muka meja tulisnya untuk mencari dan memilih bagian mana yang paling pokok dalam suatu berita, untuk dijadikan lead. Oleh Assegaff D.H. (1984:51) menulis lead diibaratkan “Mencium seorang gadis jika kamu dapat sekali maka lainnya akan mudah.”

Lead biasanya ditulis diantara judul dan paragraf pertama. Untuk ‘hard news’, lead tidak lebih dari 5 kata, sedang untuk ‘feature’ (karangan khas) bisa lebih dari 35 kata karena berbentuk ‘summary lead’. Tetapi, sering lead langsung ditulis pada paragraf pertama.

Dari sembilan artikel terjemahan, hanya satu artikel (VI) yang leadnya ditulis secara terpisah, dan sisanya (8 artikel) lead ditulis pada paragraf I atau paragraf 1 dan 2. disamping itu, pada lima artikel (I, III, IV, VI, VII, dan IX), lead ditulis berdasarkan improvisasi si penerjemah, bukan terjemahan langsung. Sedangkan untuk sisanya (3 artikel), lead ditulis sesuai dengan artikel sumbernya, meskipun kadang-kadang diambilkan dari bagian tengah artikel (III, V).

Artikel I (Kompas)

Hollywood adalah gurita. Sekali musuh dicengkau, tak bakal dilepaskan. Dengan banyak tangan, banyak koloni pula mampu dicengkramnya. Dan kata jauh dekkat tak dikenal, sehingga jarak sasaran dan dirinya bersifat relatif.

Globalisasi perfilman lebih berarti karya Hollywood yang menyerbu ke negara lain, ketimbang keseimbangan distribusi film negara yang satu ke negara yang lain. Globalisasi di sini jadinya tetap bermakna ada wilayah pusat yang mendominasi daertah pinggiran.

Ever searching for funds and profits, Hollywood increases its dominance over the global film industry, inspiring fear and imitators.

Pada artikel I, paragraf 1 dan 2 berfungsi sebagai lead dan ditulis berdasarkan improvisasi penerjemah, bukan terjemahan langsung lead artikel sumbernya. Terjemahan baru dimulai pada bagian akhir paragraf 1 artikel sumber, itupun hanya kutipan kata-kata Duncan Clark, Wakil Presiden Divisi Pemasaran Internasional Columbia Tri Star.

Jadi, lead prolog berupa kutipan dialog dan paragraf 1 pada artikel sumber tidak diterjemahkan.

Artikel II (Suara Merdeka)

Apa yang dilakukan para produser Hollywood kalau sedang bokek cerita (asli) atau novel atau lakon pentas yang patut diangkat ke layar film?

Kalau sampai terjadi krisis seperti itu, mereka biasanya melirik Perancis untuk mencari bahan yang pantas difilmkan atau dibuat ulang dengan tambal sulam di sana-sini (remake).

Studio-studio seperti Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros dan 20th Century Fox, misalnya, berebut mendapatkan hal pembuatan ulang atas film-film cerita Prancis populer, seperti Mama. There’s a Man in Your Bed.

What a poor Hollywood produce to do when there are no more sequels to make or plays or novels or newsheadlines to get the creative accounting juice going? These days major studios are looking a cross the Atlantic, particularly to France, for materials. Disney, Paramount, Universals, Warner Bross, and 20th Century Fox are all vying for the U.S. rights to remake such popular French features as Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed.

Sebaliknya pada artikel II, lead dibuat sesuai dengan artikel sumbernya berupa ‘question lead’. Agar sesuai dengan prinsip bahasa pers, paragraf 1 pada artikel sumber dipecah menjadi paragraf pada artikel terjemahan karena dianggap terlalu panjang.

Artikel III (Suara Merdeka)

Begitu parahnya kehidupan remaja Kolombia yang tergabung pada gang-gang Medellin, ternyata malah menjadi ide bagi sutradara Gaviria untuk menarik mereka terlibat dalam pembuatan film. Sembilan remaja yang sudah tidak mempunyai masa depan, karena terlibat perdagangan kokain, atau dengan enak membunuh calon presiden, betul-betul menghayati peran yang diberikan. Itu terjadi karena sehari-hari mereka memang menjadi “preman”.

A shocker film exposes the milieu of Medellin’s youthful killers By John Moody Medellin Carlos Mario Restrepo, 21, was guided to the grave by a brutal and simple philosophy: live fast, die fast. “Who cares if they knock us off as long as we’ve got some money and a girlfriend while we’re alive?” he proclaim to a visitor. Some 40 months later, he was dead, shot by a trio of teenge strangers for no apparent reasons.
Pada artikel III, lead (paragraf 1) dibuat berdasarkan oplosan dari artikel sembernya. Pada artikel sumber, certia dimulai dengan tokoh Carlos Mario Restrepo, sedang pada artikel terjemahan, cerita dimulai dengan gambaran kehidupan remaja di Medellin (Kolumbia).

Artikel V (Kompas)

As more and more designers succumb, AIDS take devasting toll on the fashion industry.

Gara-gara perancang mode Yves Saint Laurents masuk rumah sakit bulan lalu, gosip pun berkembang perancang kenamaaan asal Perancis itu kejangkitan AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)). Perancang top ini memang untuk pertama kalinya tidak menghadiri peragaan busana siap pakai di Paris. Padahal dia masuk rumah sakit karena kondisi fisiknya yang melemah akibat terlalu keras bekerja dan kurang istirahat.

Pada artikel V, penulisan lead diambil dari bagian tengah artikel sumber (paragraph 6) dengan mengedepankan perancang mode Yves Saint Laurent, bukan merupakan terjemahan langsung lead artikel sumber.

Artikel VI (Wawasan)

Pakaian itu tak seksi, wanitalah yang seksi

Leggings, tight and body stockings give slink a high profile
By Martha Duffy

Penulisan lead pada artikel VI hamper sama dengan artikel V, yakni diambilkan dari bagian-bagian penutup artikel sumber (paragraph akhir), dengan mengutip kata-kata perancang Jepang, Issey Miyake, “Clothes aren’t sexy, women are”.

Berdasarkan analisis tersebut diatas, penulisan lead pada artikel terjemahan dapat dikatakan cukup bebas, artinya si penerjemah dapat berkreasi atau berimprovisasi sehingga artikel yang muncul lebih enak dibaca atau sesuai dengan gaya bahasa targt (bahasa Indonesia). Dan dari enam sampel analisis (artikel I,II,III,V, dan VI) tersebut, penulisan lead dapat dikelompokkan menjadi 3 jenis ;

Lead dibuat berdasarkan improvisasi penerjemah (artikel I,III,IV,VII,IX)
Lead dibuat sesuai dengan artikelsumbernya (artikel II,V,VI,VII)
Lead diambilkan dari bagian tertentu artikel sumber (artikel V,VI)

5.3 Bagian Tubuh

Dalam proses menerjemahkan, penerjemah sering kali menghilangkan beberapa bagian pada artikel sumber atau kadang-kadang menambah informasi yang diambilkan dari sumber lain sehingga artikel terjemahan tersebut menjadi lebihlengkap.dari Sembilan artikel, hanya dua artikel (VII,VIII) tidak mengalami pemotongan kar4ena kedua artikel sumbernya sudah cukup pendek, sehingga tidak perlu memotongnya.

Pada artikel I, penerjemah menambah informasi yang sumbernya diambilkan dari American Film. Dan informasi tersebut ditambahkandi bagian tengah artikel (sebanyak tiga paragraph). Pada bagian tubuh artikel I, disamping ada beberP bagian yang dihilangkan karena dianggap kurang penting, ada penambahan informasi.
Sebaliknya pada artikel II, hanya satu paragraph yang dihilangkan. Yang dilakukan penerjemah adalah membuat paragraph-paragraf yang lebih pendek. Misalnya paaragraf 1 pada artikel sumber dibuat menjadi 3 paragraf pada artikel terjemahan.

Pada artikel III, proses terjemahan tidak berdasarkan urutan paragraph, tetapi dioplos sedemikian rupa sehingga cukup sulit untuk merunutnya. Misalnya, tokoh Mario Restrepo yang muncul pada paragraph 1 pada artikel sumber baru muncul di bagian tengah artikel terjemahan. Disamping itu, penerjemah menambahkan beberapa informasi tentang sindikat kokain di Kolombia seperti ‘Kartel Medellin’, ‘Segi Tiga Emas’ di perbatasan Laos-Thailand dan Myanmar (Birma)’. (lihat Lampiran 11)

Proses terjemahan untuk artikel-artikel lainnya (IV-IX) hampir sama dengan ketiga artikel tersebut diatas (I,II,III).

5.4 Bagian Penutup

Suatu karangan khas (feature) biasanya mempunyai penutup (ending) karena dua sebab :

Menghadapi feature hampir tidak ada alasan untuk terburu-buru dalam proses redaksi. Editor tidak lagi harus memotong dari bawah, tapi ia harus punya cukup wakti untuk membaca naskah secara cermat dan meringkasnya sesuai dengan ruangan yang tersedia.
Ingat bahwa seorang penulis feature pada prinsipnya adalah tukang cerita. Ia dengan hati-hati mengatur kata-katanya secara efektif untuk mengkomunikasikan ceritanya. Umumnya sebuah cerita mendorong untuk terciptanya suatu penyelesaian. Penutup tidak sekedar layak, tapi mutlak bagi banyak feature (Tempo, 1979:34).

Untuk artikel terjemahan, mestinya penerjemah hanya mengikuti artikel sumbernya. Dari Sembilan artikel, hanya empat artikel (II,V,VI,VII) yang penutupnya sesuai dengan artikel sumbernya. Sedangkan, untuk artikel I,III, dan VIII penutupnya dibuat berdasarkan rangkuman penerjemah. Dua artikel sisanya (IV,IX) tidak mempunyai penutup karena terjemahan tidak sampai paragraph terkahir. Berikut ini adalah dua sampel penutup.

Artikel I

Apapun analisis orang tentang kekuatan gurita Hollywood, agaknya cengkeramannya tak mudah dilepaskan. Selama mesin Hollywood masih pandai memanipulasikan selera penonton, jalur distribusi, dan pasaran pasaran film di berbagai Negara lain bakal tetap terengah-engah. (fit).

Golden Harvest could count on kung fu super star Jackie Chan to draw audiences everywhere, including Southeast Asia, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, India, The Soviet Union, much of Europe and Chinatowns of North America. Everywhere except mainstream U.S.A. but Golden Harvest hit the jackpot when it backed the American conceived Teenage Mutant NinjaT urtles, a $16 million picture that has so far earned about $100 million in the U.S. Turtles II is already on the drawing board, again with Golden Harvest backing

Artikel V

Flanders menyatakan “Selama ini wanita perancang sudah frustasi mendapat dukungan keuangan. Sekarang para investor justru mencari para wanita perancang dan dengan cara yang sangat berbeda dari sebelumnya.” Menarik. Sayang sekali, biaya manusiawi memenangkan minat baru itu cukup tragis; kematian para pria perancang mode berbakat karena AIDS. (Time/Satrio)

Because of concern about men’s vulnerability to AIDS, women designers are attracting new interest from the financial community. New York designer Rebecca Moses, for one, has been approached by investor about expanding her line. Says DIFA’s Flanders: It’s been notoriously frustrating for women to get the backing. Now investor are looking at women with very open eyes and in a very different way than they did before. “They human cost of winning that new interest, however, is tragic. –By J.D. Reed Reported by Kathrin Jackson Fallon/New York

6. Proses Penerjemahan dan Masalah-masalahnya

Proses menerjemahkan untuk artikel-artikel surat kabar tidak jauh berbeda dengan proses menerjemahkan untuk buku teks. Secara umum proses penerjemahan terdiri dari tiga langkah. De Maar dalam A. Widyamartana (1989:15) memberikan petunjuk senagai berikut :

Bacalah dengan tuntas karangan dua atau tiga kali untuk memperoleh suatu pemahaman yang jelas mengenai arti umum dari seluruhnya maupun hubungan-hubungan dari bagian-bagiannya. Proses penterjemahan meliputi tiga tahap:

(a) membaca dan mengerti karangan itu;
(b) menyerap segenap isinya dan membuatnya menjadi kepunyaan kita;
(c) mengungkapkannya dalam langgam bahasa kita dengan kemungkinan perubahan sekecil-kecilnya akan arti atau nadanya.

Prinsip penerjemahan untuk artikel surat kabar bias dikatakan cukup longgar jika dibandingkan dengan prinsip penerjemahan untuk buku teks. Dengan demikian proses penterjemahan lebih cepat. Meskipun prosesnya cukup cepat tidak berarti lepas dari masalah atau hambatan. Masalah-masalah yang muncul biasanya berupa terminology, idiomatic expression, dan struktur kalimat.

Terminologi

Seorang penerjemah yang belum berpengalaman akan mengalami kesulitan untuk mencari padanan istilah-istilah. Maka tingkat kesulitannya tergantung pada ‘frame of reference’ penerjemah itu sendiri. Misalnya kalau kita menerjemahkan artikel tentang mode, maka kita harus mengikuti istilah-istilah atau seluk beluk dunia mode dengan cara mebuka buku-buku / artikel-artikel tentang mode dalam bahasa target (bahasa Indonesia). Dengan demikian, kita akan hapal istilah-istilah maupun gaya bahasa yang biasa digunakan dalam artikel mode. Semakin banyak membaca dan membuat kliping, frame of reference kita semakin lengkap, sehingga sewaktu menerjemahkan artikel tentang mode tidak akan mengalami banyak kesulitan.

Idiomatic Expression

Kadang-kadang proses penerjemahan terhambat oleh serangkaian ‘idiomatic expression’ yang ada dalam artikel. Biasanya kalau terbentur masalah semacam itu penerjemah akan mencari padanannya di kamus atau menafsirkan berdasarkan konteks, atau, yang terburuk, dilewati sepanjang bukan merupakan unsur kunci.
Struktur Kalimat

Struktur kalimat yang rumit juga merupakan hambatan bagi penerjemah. Untuk mengatasi hal itu, penerjemah harus mengubah total struktur kalimat tersebut. Perubahan struktur kalimat tidak bias dihindarkan agar hasil terjemahannya lebih enak dibaca sesuai dengan pola kalimat bahasa target (bahasa Indonesia).

Tingkat perubahan struktur kalimat juga berbeda-beda. Untuk artikel-artikel yang bersumber dari majalah wanita seperti Woman’s Affair, New Idea, dll., struktur kalimat tidak banyak mengalami perubahan. Tetapi artikel-artikel tentang tokoh (penyanyi/bintang film), struktur kalimat atau urutan paragraph seringkali diubah secara total sehingga artikel terjemahan yang muncul nampak berbeda dengan artikel sumbernya, meskipun intisarinya tetap sama.

Ciri yang menonjol untuk artikel jenis ini adalah penggambaran bentuk wajah, tubuh si tokoh, terutama untuk penyanyi wanita atau aktris film meskipun dalam artikel sumbernya tidak disebutkan. Artikel tersebut biasanya menggunakan bahasa yang lebih seronok, kenes atau bombastis.

7. Kesimpulan

Berdasarkan analisis sembilan artikel terjemahan tersebut diatas, saya dapat menyimpulkan bahwa prinsip penerjemahan untuk artikel surat kabar cukup longgar karena beberapa hal:

Pemberian judul yang berbeda dengan judul artikel sumber.
Pemberian lead berdasarkan improvisasi penerjemah.
Penghilangan beberapa bagian karena artikel sumber dianggap terlalu panjang atau terbatasnya kolom yang tersedia.
Penambahan informasi sesuai dengan tingkat ‘frame of reference’ penerjemah.
Perombakan struktur kalimat maupun urutan paragraph, terutama untuk artikel tokoh music/film.

Sumber : ARTIKEL TERJEMAHAN DALAM KEGIATAN JURNALISTIK

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These agencies only do what you could do yourself: they select a number of translators, outsource the work and return the work to you. They add a generous margin on top of the purchase price. This effectively means you spend a considerable amount of money without being offered any genuine added value.

2. The Better Agency

Where possible, these agencies try to check and proofread the outsourced work themselves. This may be acceptable for more common languages such as English and Indonesian, but well-high impossible for more exotic languages such as Japanese. These agencies tend not to employ a team of 'permanent' in-house Japanese translators, as Japanese translation work is rarely requested. These agencies therefore act as The Middle Man for exotic languages. Whether or not a language is deemed exotic naturally depends on the languages in which the agency specializes.

3. The Too-Good-To-Be-True Agency

These agencies check and proofread all returned translations. They are able to do this for all 5,000 languages of the world. Surely there must be a catch? And there is. The average agency only employs 5 to 20 people. This means that the average in-house translator has managed to master no fewer than 250 languages! Even if the agency were to have the quality checked and proofread externally, it is highly unlikely that it has a permanent and reliable network at its disposal, simply by virtue of the fact that certain language combination are only requested sporadically.

In Jakarta Indonesia, Agency No. 3 does not exist. For you, the customer, it is therefore important to know in which languages the agency genuinely specializes, and in which languages it does not. Can the agency vouch for the quality of its translations? This is the main question to ask a translation agency, be it Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia or another agency: which languages do you check and proofread personally, which methods do you deploy, to what extent is the work proofread (word for word or skim-read) and is this work conducted by a professional translator who is a genuine native speaker of the target language?

Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia specializes in Japanese, English and Indonesian language only. All translations from and into these languages are carried out by us personally, or checked and proofread by us personally. Word for word, by professional translators who are native speakers of the target language. Per language combination, please feel free to ask us about our working methods. We will be honest.

Yes, we are honest. For all other languages, it is best to contact another agency. Not many agencies would be happy to disclose the above information.

Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia began this business in Jakarta Indonesia as a small translation company in 2002. Initially, having provided basic translation services we have steadily grown to be an enterprise with an international client base from all parts of the world. Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia have catered to Japanese, English and Bahasa Indonesia translation needs of a range of clients such as multi-national business entities, professionals such as lawyers, doctors and professors and regular clients. Building relationships of mutual trust and gaining customer loyalty and satisfaction is a priority in our business. Overall, we assure that the customer feels that a service beyond expectations is achieved and that an excellent value for investment has been obtained.

Our constant corporate growth justifies the value of our business philosophies.

Call us now (+62-21) 70599511, 70573635, 0856 9769 6565 to speak to our friendly team ! or send an email if you require more information!

Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia - Japanese Translation Service

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 25 May 2011 00:20:00 +0000

About Japanese Language

Japanese is native language of about 125 million people of Japan. Japanese residing in Hawaii on the North and South American mainlands also use it as their first language. Some Chinese and the Korean people also speak it as a second language. It is also spoken by small number of people in Brazil, Australia, Peru, Taiwan, Philippines and Guam. With 130 million total speakers, it is sixth most widely spoken language in the world.

Importance of Japanese Translation

Japanese is sixth most widely spoken language of world with the advantage of being the native language of second largest economy of the world. Japan with its 125 million population and strong economy is a lucrative option for foreign traders. Japan is the world's fourth-largest purchasing power after the United States, the European Union and the People's Republic of China. If you are considering expanding your business, Japan offers you a vast and promising market for your products and services. As Japan is emerging as an economic, technological and cultural leader, so does the importance of Japanese as an international language is also mounting. Whether you want to enter into Japanese market with your website or want to establish relations with Japanese business and traders, you need accurate Japanese translation of your important documents.

Why take professional Japanese translation services?

Japanese is considerably a difficult language with its typical writing style and complicated grammar. It is written with three different scripts that are symbolic and usually written vertically. For native Japanese, mastering over all these elements of language comes naturally. Addition to this, Japanese language has its own formalities in speaking and writing as well. For example, Japanese use "Yoroshiku Onegai Shimasu" in almost every type of document. Thus, Japanese translation becomes highly challenging effort. It emphasizes the need of expert handling of your translation work.

Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia provide you the services of professional language translators who can translate your business documents, websites and specialized documents with the correct nuance of language to localize your translation to your target audience. We assign translation projects to expert translators who are either native speakers or residing in that particular location for five to ten years. We ensure the accuracy by handing over the work to the translator who has comprehensive knowledge of the target and source languages and subject matter as well.

The evolution of Japanese translation services

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 25 May 2011 00:10:00 +0000

For a long time, there was once hassle gaining access to Japanese translation services. This used to be because there have been few people that gave a lot idea to translation services as a the most effective venture. However, with time, the situation has changed. You’ll be able to now get Japanese translation services from virtually any where within the world. It does now not subject the language you need to translate into Japanese or the one you wish to have to translate Japanese into; for each and every process that you just require, there will likely be somebody (if now not a company) so as to offer you with the very best quality of services. So then what might be the reason for this unexpected change, you may also ask.

A few years again, the Japanese language was not extensively used. In the United States and Europe as an example, there was little or no talk about Japanese. English and other dominant Eu languages have been preferred. Then again, this disadvantage changed into the emerging aspect for Chinese translation services as with time, people started having interest within the language. The desire for translation services with regard to the Chinese language grew so huge that there arose individuals who have been multilingual and who decided to set up firms that specialized in Japanese translation services.

The site of Japan as a huge buying and selling spouse, not best in the Asian continent but additionally in all the international, was one of the vital reasons that brought concerning the want for Japanese translation services. It changed into evident that without translation services it might be unattainable for other international locations, especially those from western regions. As a result of there used to be such a lot attainable for industry with Japan, Japanese translation services turned into the only way through which the opposite international locations could connect with Japan and do business. However, this may no longer were a hit had there not been the urge by the Japanese people to grasp the opposite languages, too.

Nowadays the Japanese other people speak almost every different language of the arena, not like a while back when they only spoke Japanese. That is another factor that has seen the massive enlargement within the availability of Japanese translation services. It is common knowledge that without the Japanese other people working out the opposite languages of the sector, it could now not be possible to have their translation services.

The supply of a wide range of Japanese translation services has been made even more uncomplicated with the use of the internet. With the internet, a person in the hunt for translation services from network town can get them from a person in Asia with no need to shuttle and even making any telephone calls. The providers of Chinese translation services have come up with web sites from which you’ll request their services and have your process performed just the way in which you need it and submitted to you anywhere you are.

So from the times when so little used to be thought to be in regards to the Japanese translation services, we are actually at some degree the place searching for the services via the search engines gives you overwhelmingly virtually too many options in the results list to make a choice from. It’s something to rejoice about.

Article Source

Penerjemah

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Wed, 18 May 2011 18:34:00 +0000

Di kalangan kita masih terjadi ketidakpahaman akan kemampuan dan peran penerjemah, yakni mengalihkan pesan teks suatu bahasa ke bahasa yang lain dan berperan sebagai jembatan menghubungkan dua pihak. Posisinya sangat strategis. Kesalahan penerjemahan memberikan dampak yang buruk pada pemahaman pembaca.

Fasih berbahasa asing tidak dengan sendirinya mampu menerjemahkan. Penguasaan bahasa sasaran sangat penting. Kemampuan menerjemahkan bertumpu pada pengalaman, bakat, dan pengetahuan umum: gabungan pengetahuan atau inteligensi (kognitif), rasa bahasa (emotif), dan ketrampilan menggunakan bahasa (retoris). Seorang penterjemah tidak dapat menerjemahkan naskah untuk segala bidang. Penerjemah harus menguasai pengetahuan umum, seperti tentang kehidupan sosial, politik, ekonomi, budaya, teknologi, dan ilmu pengetahuan.

Penerjemah yang berspesialisasi, misalnya hukum, teknik, atau kedokteran, harus menguasai substansi yang diterjemahkannya. Sering terjadi seorang penerjemah “dipaksa” menerjemahkan teks dengan substansi apa saja. Penerjemah adalah profesi. Mempekerjakan penerjemah harus berdasarkan kriteria profesional dan tidak sekadar karena kenal atau karena kata orang saja. Bila kita belum mengenal kemampuannya, ia harus diminta menerjemahkan satu halaman untuk kita nilai kualitasnya.

Editor penerbit masih banyak yang tidak memerhatikan kualitas terjemahan, tetapi semata-mata bahasa Indonesianya agar layak terbit dan laku jual. Dalam penerbitan terjemahan diperlukan pemeriksa kualitas terjemahan (disebut reviser), yang menguasai bahasa sumber dan bahasa sasaran, untuk mengurangi risiko kesalahan. Penerjemahan film juga masih memprihatinkan karena penerjemahnya diambil tanpa menggunakan kriteria profesional. Intinya, kualitas terjemahan harus diutamakan.

Penerjemah adalah profesi praktis dan nonakademis yang bertumpu pada kemampuan berpikir, rasa bahasa, dan kemampuan retoris.Peneliti dan kritikus terjemahan adalah profesi yang sifatnya akademis atau semiakademis. Mereka pengkaji dan bukan praktisi penerjemahan.

Pendidikan sarjana, magister, atau pun doktor di bidang penerjemahan memberikan kemampuan akademis dan bukan praktis di bidang penerjemahan, kecuali jika kurikulumnya memang dirancang untuk menghasilkan penerjemah.

Kualitas penterjemah berdampak pada kualitas terjemahan. Penerjemah berkualitas buruk akan menghasilkan terjemahan yang buruk. Pertanyaannya bagaimana menanggulangi masalah ini?

Pertama,

Salah satu butir kode etik Himpunan Penerjemah Indonesia menyebutkan penerjemah tidak dibenarkan menerima pekerjaan penerjemahan yang tidak sesuai dengan kemampuannya. Ini untuk menjaga kualitas.

Kedua,

Penerjemah harus selalu meningkatkan dan memperluas serta menyegarkan pengetahuannya.

Ketiga,

Sebagai tempat mengembangkan program pelatihan di samping program pendidikan formal di jenjang pascasarjana (spesialis atau magister).

Keempat,

HPI sedang membina para penerjemah dengan pendidikan nonformal untuk meningkatkan kualitas.

Kelima,

Peneliti dan kritisi terjemahan harus berperan sebagai pendorong peningkatan kualitas.

Keenam,

Pengembangan karir penerjemah harus mendapat dorongan dari masyarakat pengguna. Penerjemah dalam birokrasi harus diberi jabatan fungsional agar karirnya terjamin (upaya ini sedang ditangani oleh Sekretariat Negara dan Kementerian PAN).

Ketujuh,

Perlu ada standardisasi kualitas melalui ujian kualifikasi (sejak tahun 1968 sudah dilakukan oleh Universitas Indonesia).

Itulah sketsa profesi penerjemah di Indonesia. Semoga penerjemahan yang ngawur seperti dikeluhkan selama ini bisa berkurang jumlahnya. Namun, kelihatannya kita masih harus bersabar.

Chinese Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:17:00 +0000

What are some pitfalls specific to Chinese to avoid that a client should be aware of when translating into this language?

The most common pitfall of the Chinese language is whether to use Simplified or Traditional Chinese or both. This is the first thing the client needs to specify when requesting a Chinese translation. There are two different categories of written Chinese. While Traditional Chinese is for people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese population residing in the United States, Simplified Chinese is for mainland China–Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. The difference lies not only in the characters, but also in the manner of expression.

Sometimes a client may ask for a translation into “Mandarin” Chinese. Actually this does not make sense at all because Mandarin only refers to spoken Chinese and to the official Chinese used everywhere versus Cantonese which is a dialect in the southern province Guangdong, HongKong, and some “old” Chinese communities in the States, especially in the San Francisco area.

So, when it comes to written Chinese, we always translate into either Traditional or Simplified Chinese, whereas we speak or interpret in either Mandarin or Cantonese.

Unfortunately, many translation agencies and clients used to take it for granted that their Chinese translators were “universal.” They were not aware of or even didn’t care that most Simplified Chinese translators don’t have the real ability to do a decent Traditional Chinese translation, and vice versa. They just use the Traditional fonts. The difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese is not merely about fonts, but more importantly about the manner of expression and terminology.

If the agency or client is still not sure what to specify, the translator needs to know where the translation product is going to be used, or who the target audience is. An experienced professional translator can easily figure this out for you.

What are characteristics of Chinese that are unique or different from English and/or other languages?

The characteristics of Chinese comprise, among other things, the following aspects:

The Chinese language is written in characters each of which consists of one up to dozens of strokes, and a phrase/sentence can be made of several characters. Since the characters are much shorter than the corresponding English words, the Chinese translation version always takes much less space than the English original if the “font” sizes remain the same. So when you translate a brochure or localize a website from English into Chinese, the layout of the pages will be affected by the shrinking text. One whole paragraph of English could become one or two lines, and the Chinese version of one full web page of English original could end up as two–thirds of a page or even less.
However, in many cases, one English word may be expressed in two to three Chinese characters, such as gao–xing for “happy” and kai–che for “drive,” making the “word” count of Chinese translation always higher than the English original. The ratio of English to Chinese is roughly 1:1.5 depending on the nature of the document and the style of the translator. So if you want a 1,000–word English document translated into Chinese, the word count of the “target language,” Chinese in this case, will be 1,350 to 1,500. And a 1,000–character Chinese document will be translated into an English version of about 700 words.
Moreover, since Chinese has different grammar than English, the order of words/phrases in the English original may be reshuffled in the translation, sometimes even reversed. If you use a translation memory tool such as Trados or déjà vu, the TM is not smart enough to adjust the word order, and you have to do it yourself. This is especially true in the titles/subtitles of books, brochures, catalogs, etc. For example, when the upper line of a title says “Features and Advantages of,” and the lower line says “Computer–Assisted Designing System,” the translator or the formatter should reverse the order and put the “Computer–Assisted Designing System”（计算机辅助设计系统的）above “Features and Advantages of”（特点和优势）.

How do these characteristics make it important to use properly qualified, professional translators?

Properly qualified, professional translators can help agencies to avoid pitfalls in Chinese and provide a translation product which lives up to the expectations of the client in the following ways:

Although most of the time there is no established style guide available, professional translators will use generally accepted practice or common sense to select fonts, adjust tone, and bridge the language gap by avoiding common mistakes, oversights, or mistranslations. They will keep the basics consistent and make sure that the choices they make are in conformity with the general practices and customs of the trade.
Professional translators will use their training and experience to exhaust all resources to find appropriate terminology or create terms which make sense. Looking things up in the dictionary or on the internet may sound simple and convenient, but picking the right word from a large range of choices and using it in an appropriate way requires good judgment and experience. The wrong word choice may jeopardize the integrity of the translation.
Professional translators will pay close attention to the accuracy of the translation. They also attach great significance to the rhetoric. Professional translators regard translation as an art. As a matter of fact, as a certified Chinese translation QC reviewer/grader, my initial evaluation of a translation is often based on the “first impression,” i.e., the flow, the professionalism or craftsmanship, the appropriate tone, the sophistication level of nuance, etc., of the target language.
Professional translators have sufficient experience and training to judge the edits/changes from outside reviewers or clients. They will gladly accept what is a “good catch,” consider or reconsider those “subjective” or “preferential” suggestions, and reject unjustified changes.
Professional translators always take great pride in their work. They feel very responsible for the quality of their translations and make it very personal.

Do you know examples where translation or localization mistakes have occurred with Chinese, such as problems with text expansion, date/time formats, counting errors, character encoding, etc., or mistakes with the translation itself? Perhaps you’ve been asked to review a translation that did not seem to be the work of a properly qualified, professional translator.

A major oil company wanted to translate about 800 PowerPoint slides and a lot of lecture handouts for a driving safety training program for its distributors’ trucking fleets in Asian countries. As the program coordinator was not aware of the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese, he only ordered one set of Chinese translations for use in China. By this he meant “mainland China.” So a Simplified Chinese translation was done and provided accordingly.

Later on, after the first a couple of sessions were successfully completed in mainland China, the training expanded to Hong Kong, which is also a part of China now. However, after the first day of class, the local trainees and instructors who were used to reading Traditional Chinese complained, saying they had trouble understanding the slides and handouts in Simplified Chinese. This is when the training coordinator at the company’s headquarters first realized something was wrong. Unfortunately, it was too late to prepare another set of translations in Traditional Chinese. The classes had to go on without visual aids. Needless to say, the results of training in Hong Kong were disappointing.

Relate an example or two of times you found a website page or form difficult to use because it was poorly localized. How might a business lose money, prestige, or incur legal risk due to this bad translation?

Another example is related to a government agency and just happened last week. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bureau wanted a forty–page Guide for International Visitors to be translated into Chinese. However, they made two mistakes:

They decided on Traditional Chinese for this brochure, despite the fact that the absolute majority of the target audience are visitors from PRC reading Simplified Chinese.
They used an in–house translator without sufficient Traditional Chinese experience to do the job. And worse, the translator, though he may speak perfect Mandarin, did not have much experience in translation [the misperception of the government agency being that as long as a person is bilingual, he or she can certainly do translation].

This resulted in a mix of mistranslations and awkward expressions. As of today, the project is still pending, while the agency decides on whether to spend sixteen extra hours to overhaul what they have or to retranslate it.

If possible, provide one example of a particular phrase or concept that only a properly qualified, professional translator would be able to correctly communicate.

Professional translators know how to handle a translation based on the basic rules and customs of the language in the country/area where it is used.

When it comes to numbers, there are established, well–accepted Chinese units which do not exist in English. For example, for the Arabic figure “10,000,” Chinese has a specific character [wan] (Simp万 / Trad 萬). So for 50,000, the proper Chinese translation is 5万 or 5萬. Also, for “100 million,” Chinese has a specific character [yi] (Simp 亿/ Trad億). So for 400 million, the proper Chinese is 4亿 or 4億. This usage is often questioned by non–Chinese proofreaders from agencies or clients, because they think that some zeros are missing.
For dates, the proper format in Chinese for June 25, 2007 is “2007年6月25日.” And in Chinese letters and documents, the date is always shown at very bottom of the stationery–under the signature–not at the top of the page.
For a person’s name, there are always some rules to follow. Except those established names such as John（约翰）, David（大卫）, Peter（彼得）, transliteration is generally acceptable. However, to mimic the pronunciation, only “benign” and “meaningless” characters should be used, such as for Sheldon we use 谢尔登 or 薛尔顿. Awkward words, although they have the same pronunciation, like 斜儿蹲 or 鞋二吨 should be avoided. And unless a middle name or initial is used between them, there is always a centered dot between the first name and the last name such as 约翰 ∙ 史密斯 for John Smith, but 约翰 R. 史密斯 for John R. Smith.
For addresses, contrary to the western practice, the proper order is always from top to bottom: country (China), province (Jiangsu), city/town (Nanjing), street (Jinshan Rd.), house number (1234), and postal code (300025).

This list goes on and on . . .

Some uniqueness in the Japanese language

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:33:00 +0000

Japanese language uses 4 distinct systems of writing: kanji, hiragana, katakana and romanji.

Hiragana is syllabic and the most original writing system in Japan. It is used for simple words, conjugations, particles and children's literature as it is the first set of writing which is taught.

Katakana is used to write foreign words.

Kanji is based on the Chinese writing system and consists of about 2000 signs. Kanji was imported from Chinese in the 6th century AD. It has developed strongly ever since, often simplifying the original letters.

Recently, romanji - a romanization of Japanese words - has developed, too.

Formal / informal address

Japanese uses 4 different ways of addressing people: kun, chan, san and sama. Kun is somewhat condescending, chan is used for intimates and children, san is the universal mode and sama is deferential. However, getting hierarchies and politeness levels right is difficult and you need a lot of additional information (context) about your conversational partner and some insights into the working of Japanese language and culture.

Gender

Vocabulary can vary according to gender of the speaking person: women use other vocabulary than men

There is no distinction between singular and plural. Gender, too, is not indicated grammatically. There are no relative pronouns.

Word order

Verbs are usually placed at the end of a sentence.

Most Japanese words end in vowels, which determines the structure and rhythm of Japanese language. Usually, all syllables carry equal stress.

Tips For Choosing a Good Translation Service

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 04:52:00 +0000

The translation must be thoroughly checked and proofread. And this is where we separate the Good from the Bad. Some agencies carry out this procedure better than others. Broadly speaking, we can distinguish three types of agencies:

1. The Middle Man

2. The Better Agency

3. The Too-Good-To-Be-True Agency

In Jakarta Indonesia, Agency No. 3 does not exist. For you, the customer, it is therefore important to know in which languages the agency genuinely specializes, and in which languages it does not. Can the agency vouch for the quality of its translations? This is the main question to ask a translation agency, be it PEMINDO (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) or another agency: which languages do you check and proofread personally, which methods do you deploy, to what extent is the work proofread (word for word or skim-read) and is this work conducted by a professional translator who is a genuine native speaker of the target language?

PEMINDO (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) specializes in Japanese, English and Indonesian only. All translations from and into these languages are carried out by us personally, or checked and proofread by us personally. Word for word, by professional translators who are native speakers of the target language. Per language combination, please feel free to ask us about our working methods. We will be honest.

Yes, we are honest. For all other languages, it is best to contact another agency. Not many agencies would be happy to disclose the above information.

Chinese characters to be phased out in China

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:31:00 +0000

The Chinese government announced today that it plans to phase out Chinese characters and replace them with Hànyŭ Pīnyīn, a system for writing Chinese with the Latin alphabet. This change will be incorporated into the five year plan commencing in January 2005 and should be completed by the end of 2010.

A spokeswoman for the Latinisation Committee (Lādīnghuà Wĕiyuànhuì), which has been set up to oversee the change, told our reporter that Hànyŭ Pīnyīn will be introduced first in schools, then in official publications, and then in all other printed materials. She went on to say that the switch to the Latin alphabet will dramatically reduce the amount of time children need to spend learning to read and write Chinese, and will help to increase literacy among adults.

The form of language used will be based on the Mandarin spoken by educated people in northern China. Written standards will also be established for other major varieties of Chinese, such as Cantonese, Min, Wu and Hakka.

A spokesman for the Chinese Character Preservation Society (Zìbăohuì) claimed that abolishing the characters would cut the people off from over 3,000 years of literary heritage, and that the large number of homophones in Chinese make any system based on the Latin alphabet difficult to read.

The Latinisation Committee responded to these points by stating that Hànyŭ Pīnyīn versions of the major literary classics will be produced, and that grouping syllables into words will help to reduce the ambiguity of homophones.

The progress of these changes will be observed with interest by the people of Taiwan and Singapore, though they are not planning to abandon Chinese characters just yet.

English as a Universal Languge

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:27:00 +0000

English is without a doubt the actual universal language. It is the world's second largest native language, the official language in 70 countries, and English-speaking countries are responsible for about 40% of world's total GNP.

English can be at least understood almost everywhere among scholars and educated people, as it is the world media language, and the language of cinema, TV, pop music and the computer world. All over the planet people know many English words, their pronunciation and meaning.

The causes for this universality are very well known and understandable. English first began to spread during the 16th century with British Empire and was strongly reinforced in 20th by USA world domination in economic, political and military aspects and by the huge influence of American movies.

The concept of a Universal Language is more significant only now, in the era of world mass communication. Before this era Greek, Latin, French were to some extent universal languages, though mainly in Europe.

By a lucky coincidence due to factors above, English, the Universal language, is one of the simplest and easiest natural languages in the world. The only other simple and easy languages are constructed ones.

Of course the concept of easiness is relative, and it depends on which language you know already. However the concept of simplicity is undeniable: English in an easy language to learn, understand and speak. A complex language such as Hungarian would be a very unlikely candidate for a universal language.

First of all, English Language uses Latin alphabet, the most universal, simple and short one (only the Greek alphabet is shorter and simpler). In addition, in English, the Latin Alphabet presents its most "clean" form as a true alphabet with only 26 basic letters and no diacritics;

Verb conjugation is very simple and easy. Even for irregular verbs, there is almost no variation in person (except 3rd singular in present tense).

Regular verbs have only four forms: Infinitive + Present, Past Tense + Past Participle, 3rd person singular Present Indicative, Present Participle.

There are almost no Inflections. No number or gender inflection for adjectives, articles, adverbs. For adjectives there is only comparative and superlative, almost only number for nouns. In pronouns there are gender and number inflections and only three declension cases (Acc/Dat, Nom, Gen).

English is one of the most analytical languages, with no significant synthetic, fusional or agglutinative characteristics.

Could be there any other alternative for Universal Language, instead of English?

There are other languages that are quite simple and synthetic, with almost no verb conjugation, no declension, such as Asian languages like Thai and Chinese, but they are written with complicated scripts and are tonal languages. However if Chinese were to be written with the Latin alphabet, it could potentially become a univeral language.

There are other strong languages that, due to population and economic power, could be univeral languages, but they have a number of disadvantages when compared with English.

Some examples:

Japanese: has very regular verbs but also a very complicated script.
Chinese: no conjugations or declension, but a very complicated script and tones.
German has many more inflections than English.
The major Romance languages, such as French, Spanish and Portuguese, have fewer inflections than most of languages, but their verb conjugation is very complicated.
Russian has both complex verb conjugations and numerous noun declensions.

In conclusion, it is lucky for us that our universal language is the simplest and easiest, even though that simplicity and easiness weren't the reasons that lead English to that condition.

Tips To Became a Translator

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:15:00 +0000

This Tips for Translators page started after I had spent a few years working as a freelance translator and thought it might be useful to some translators, especially those who are just beginning their freelance careers, to read about some of my experiences and what I have found useful. It can be very difficult to get advice or opinions when starting out in the translation business - I know, I was there once, which is why I didn't mind taking time to share my experience in the hope it would help whoever wanted to listen... I know I would have liked some of this information when I started! Of course, everything on this page reflects just my own personal opinions.

1. Do not accept a project which you know is not within your abilities. It is perfectly professional to turn down jobs translating highly technical product specifications or lengthy legalese if you have no experience in those fields. Turning down such work will not automatically disqualify you for other work in your language pairs for which you are qualified - if anything, in fact, just the opposite. It shows you know your own limitations and that's good. Alternatively, hire a good editor to review your work if you're developing a new area of specialization. What you learn from a good editor is worth much more in the long run than the sum of your initial expenses for editors.

2. Do not accept jobs with impossible deadlines. Dare to negotiate! You can take measures (such as charging higher rates) to discourage or compensate for jobs with extremely tight deadlines. You may often find that the job turns out to be not quite so urgent after all. Besides, the quality of your work may suffer under the pressure of an unreasonable deadline and that, in the end, only reflects poorly on you.

3. Do not hesitate to ask questions. When asked, agencies may be able to provide you with past translations or other documentation to use as reference material. Also, if I have done considerable research on a term to no avail, I point it out to the agency. I personally would not dare to simply guess and hope that no one notices. I feel better just being up front about the fact that I do not know everything and although I tried, I was unable to find the answer. So far, I've never had a negative experience when asking agencies such questions. Most translations contain at least one ambiguity. An important part of translation is to NOT guess what your client might mean, but to identify ambiguities and resolve them together with the client. A common beginner mistake is to try to be "good" and not ask questions.

4. Do not accept a job without seeing the text first. What someone might describe to you as a business text may turn out to be medical. I've been called for Dutch translations and actually received text in Danish. Someone might say the text is 1500 words, but then you find it's 1500 words of difficult to read handwriting - nightmare! It's always best to see the text before committing to it.

5. Do not accept work without knowing who your client is. Check out the person or company who is offering you work. Get full contact details, not just an email address. Get a purchase order in writing before you begin work on a project. You need to do these things to protect yourself - with so much business being done over the Internet, you need to know where you can find someone if for any reason you run into difficulties. Check the payment history of a new potential client through the TCR and Payment Practices Lists. A little research now could save you tremendous problems down the road.

6. Do not proceed with the job until you have agreed on the rate. No one likes surprises when it comes to the bill, so make sure you and your client are clear when it comes to the cost. You may charge different fees for different projects or you might have a couple of different fees for the same project (a per word rate for translation plus an hourly charge for formatting, for example). For small jobs, you may have a minimum fee rather than a per-word rate. You may have surcharges for handwritten texts or for weekend work. Some jobs require a great deal of formatting or might require you to work with different types of software. These are projects that can be charged by the hour rather than per word or per line. A general guideline is to have an hourly rate that reflects what you normally earn on average for an hour of translating. Be sure you're familiar with a particular program before accepting a job in, for example, Power Point.

7. Think about what you write in an email before sending it off to a mailing list. You never know who is reading your posts - your messages could quite possibly end up in the hands of your (agency) client, for example, so always be professional. If you're upset about something, write the email but be careful not to send it: wait until the next day and see if you still feel as strongly. This also goes for correspondence with your clients if you're upset with them for whatever reason. Sometimes, as difficult as it may be, it might be wiser to make a concession and keep the client. Then again, depending on the situation, it might be that you feel the client is not worth keeping. In any case, consider it carefully before you fire off an angry letter.

8. Do not sell yourself short. Emphasize the experience you do have, don't focus on what you don't know. Don't undersell yourself either - charge what you feel you are worth. Rates vary for different countries, language combinations and types of translation, so take all these factors into account when determining a fair market price for your services. Make sure you charge enough to make your business profitable, after all, that's the bottom line. If you start off with low prices, make sure you raise them gradually as you gain experience.

9. Keep all business records and correspondence for at least 12 months. In fact, I would recommend keeping them for at least three years. This includes every email sent to and received from your clients, every fax, invoice, contract, purchase order, translation file and any other correspondence. It's simply good business practice to keep good records.

10. Read every clause very carefully before you sign a contract. See below!

CONTRACTS

If you're working with agencies, they may have a contract they want you to sign. I have signed few such contracts, but it so happens that my biggest and most regular clients have never asked me to sign a contract. I have also refused to sign certain contracts because I felt they were far too biased. Sometimes the agency simply asks you to cross out those sections you do not feel comfortable signing, sometimes they refuse to work with you if you don't sign. The bottom line for me is: make sure you read and understand the contract, and never sign anything you don't feel comfortable with!

Below are some examples of terms and conditions found in actual contracts presented to freelance translators which I personally would never agree to sign. I can understand the desire for a contract, although I must say I have not entered into many contracts with clients and I have never had any problems with any clients so far. I am happy to provide agencies with samples of my work, letters of recommendation, copies of my qualifications and so on, but if our working together is contingent upon contracts which include clauses such as those listed below, then I'm afraid I simply won't agree to it.

- "Translator represents and warrants that he/she has the requisite education and technical knowledge to translate **any and all** business documents, including but not limited to documents which may require the translation of **scientific or mechanical** terminology." [emphasis added by me] I know my limits and although I consider myself to have a high level of competence in both Dutch and French, I am not familiar with specialized terminology in a number of fields, including mechanical and scientific areas, not even in English, my native language. I will not accept work which is beyond my capabilities, I have turned it down before and will continue to do so. It is simply not worth the stress to deal with subject matters with which I am not familiar.

- "Translator warrants that he/she will not keep a copy of any documents translated for [agency]" I keep all translations I have done on file so I can refer to them as it often happens that I do translations for the same client and I like to be consistent with terminology. Not only that, but I keep them just in case a problem arises so I can refer to the translation as I delivered it, prior to any changes made by anyone at a later date. It goes without saying that I do keep all client documents confidential and if I do get rid of hard copies, they do go through the paper shredder.

- "Translator shall not directly or indirectly request, cause, solicit, induce, or otherwise attempt to divert current, **future, or potential** customers of [agency], either directly or indirectly..." [emphasis added by me] Of course, anyone may become a potential client of any agency, signing this contract would therefore effectively kill my career as a freelancer. Of course, I would readily agree not to solicit any clients I know to be current clients of an agency I work for, but I can't agree to the future or potential client part. Besides, I sincerely doubt any agency would provide me with their full client list, so I fail to see how they can enforce such a clause.

- "If either [agency] or its client does not accept a translation, Translator will not be entitled to payment for his/her services." There would have to be reasons given for such non-acceptance and if I disagreed with those reasons, it would have to be presented to an independent third party for assessment and arbitration.

- "The Interpreter/Translator's fee shall not be paid until the client pays the [agency] for the assignment. After the client has made payment, the [agency] will pay Interpreter/Translator on the next date on which the [agency] regularly pays its vendor accounts payable." My business agreement is with the agency, not with the end client. I have nothing to do with determining the terms of payment which the agency and the end client agreed upon. I refuse to agree to have payment for services rendered by me be contingent upon whether the agency's client pays them. After all, I cannot tell the mortgage company that I will pay the mortgage just as soon as agency X pays me. That's ridiculous.

- "The [agency] shall have no liability to Interpreter/Translator for any fees billed to but not received from a client." Again, a similar clause. The role of an agency is precisely to be an intermediary and that involves accepting a certain risk factor. Non-payment is one of those risks, and it should not be passed on to the translator like this.

- Translations are to be "done solely by the Translator without any assistance, whether direct or indirect, from any other person or entity, unless consented to in writing by [agency]." When I come across terms I cannot find translations for, I turn to help from colleagues on lists such as Lantra, and if there is a sentence or paragraph I don't quite grasp or I find ambiguous, I consult a colleague I trust and it seems unnecessary and time-consuming for me to have to request written permission from [agency] each time I do so.

- "Translator shall indemnify [agency] and hold it harmless against all liability or loss, and against all claims or actions based upon or arising out of damage or injury to persons or property caused by or sustained in connection with the performance of the contract or by conditions created thereby, or based upon any violation of any statute, ordinance, and the defense of any such claims or actions. Specifically, Translator shall indemnify and hold [agency] harmless in any suit initiated against [agency] as a result of an inaccurate or unacceptable translation, and shall be liable for all costs, including, reasonable attorneys fees, expended by [agency] in defense of such suit." Oh my... why should I sign away my rights and accept full liability? What exactly is the role of the agency here? Do they not have a system of quality assurance in place?

- "Translator warrants that he/she will not directly or indirectly use any computer program or other type of automatic translation device in the translation of any documents translated pursuant to this agreement." I don't happen to use any translation memory software at this time, but I would still not agree to this clause because it is up to me to decide what tools I deem necessary to do my own job and to do it well. If I feel I can achieve greater consistency and speed through computer-assisted translation tools, then that is entirely up to me

Learning Japanese Language

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:46:00 +0000

Since language represents culture, learning Japanese includes a bonus: it teaches you about the singular Japanese culture that has been evolving for 2000 years. Without understanding what's behind the language, you will never truly learn the language. One of the best ways to understand the relationship between culture and language is to study idioms.

Perhaps the biggest cultural difference between Japan and America is the fundamental value representing social organization. Whereas Americans prize individual differences, the Japanese revere group conformity. Consider Japan's ancient name, Yamato. Literally, it means "Big Harmony." The following three idioms illustrate this value best.

"Deru kui wa utareru" (the stake that sticks up will be pounded down). Because Japanese people generally discourage differences, someone who draws individual attention often evokes jealousy. However, increased competition in the international market requires a change in the traditional thought. In an effort to compete with American companies, some Japanese CEOs have restated the idiom as "Deru kui wa utsuna" (Don't pound down the stakes that stick up).

"Nemawashi" (preparing the roots for transplanting). "Ne" means root, "mawashi" means to circle. This word is a "bonsai" term, bonsai being the Japanese traditional art of growing dwarfed ornamental trees in shallow pots. Japanese people never discuss issues in public. If they want to bring up a new idea in a meeting, they must talk to key figures before the meeting. That is, they must prepare the "roots" thoroughly to obtain a consensus. Otherwise, they will be in danger of wrestling "hitorizumo."

"Hitorizumo" (one-man sumo). "Hitori" means one-person, "zumo" means sumo. As you know, sumo is a traditional Japanese form of wrestling played by two people. Obviously, you cannot wrestle by yourself. Therefore, this idiom is used to show that trying hard without the support of others is pointless in the land where conformity rules.
Food is another measure of culture. Next to communicating in a foreign land, travelers worry if they will like the food. The Japanese are world renowned not only for the kinds of food they prepare but also for the beautiful way they serve it. In fact, it is an art. Sushi chefs, for instance, must apprentice for years. Furthermore, Japanese cuisine has produced one of the healthiest diets in the world. The next three idioms include references to foods found all over Japan.

"Sushizume" (packed like sushi). Have you ever seen a sushi lunch box? If you live in big cities in Japan, the streets are crowded, the trains are packed, and the express highways are jammed...just like sushi in a lunch box. This idiom is similar to the American expression "packed like a can of sardines."

"Sashimi no tsuma" (a garnish for raw fish). Who doesn't know sashimi? "Tsuma" is the name of a garnish made of daikon, a big white radish, shredded and arranged on a sashimi platter. Most people don't eat it or even pay attention to it. Consequently, this idiom means insignificant participant, or uninfluential presence. If you are a "sashimi no tsuma," you would not be involved in "nemawashi" at all.

"Asameshi mae" (before breakfast). "Asa" means morning, "meshi" means cooked rice, "mae" means before. Traditionally, Japanese people eat rice for their breakfast as a source of energy for the day. Tasks that you can complete before breakfast are the ones that you can do without any effort. This idiom is the Japanese version of "a piece of cake."

Most of the idioms mentioned above come from the Edo period (1600 - 1868), when Japan was isolated from the outside world. However, any language constantly evolves and Japanese is no different, especially when influenced by other cultures, typically through trade. In fact, the absorption of foreign words has changed Japanese rapidly. For example, thousands of Chinese words and characters were imported in the 8th to 12th centuries, Portuguese vocabulary came in the 16th century, and English in the 20th century.

Here is the best example of modern slang made from an English word: "Naui." Guess what it means. "Nau" is the English word "now"; "I" is the suffix that makes nouns adjectives. Therefore "naui" is a Japanese word that means modern, up-to-date, or fashionable. Even though it has an English origin, once it's pronounced, you may be surprised how Japanese it sounds. In order to get an authentic Japanese sound, you should pronounce every vowel clearly, saying na-u-i.

If you use some of these expressions when you talk with Japanese people, you'll surely hear, "Nihongo o-jozu desu ne!"

Translation of Proper Names

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:22:00 +0000

“Proper names are never translated” seems to be a rule deeply rooted in many people’s minds. Yet looking at translated texts we find that translators do all sorts of things with proper names: non-translation, non-translation that leads to a different pronunciation in the target language, transcription or transliteration from non-Latin alphabets, morphological adaptation to the target language, cultural adaptation, substitution, and so on. It is interesting to note, moreover, that translators do not always use the same techniques with all the proper names of a particular text they are translating.

Unlike generic nouns, proper names are mono-referential, but they are by no means mono-functional. Their main function is to identify an individual referent. It has often been claimed that proper names lack descriptive meaning:

"An ordinary personal name is, roughly, a word, used referring, of which the use is not dictated by any descriptive meaning the word may have. (Strawson 1971: 23)"

In the real world, proper names may be non-descriptive, but they are obviously not non-informative: If we are familiar with the culture in question, a proper name can tell us whether the referent is a female or male person (Alice – Bill), maybe even about their age or their geographical origin within the same language community or from another country, a pet (there are “typical” names for dogs, cats, horses, canaries, etc., like Pussy or Fury), a place (Mount Everest), etc. Such indicators may lead us astray in real life, but they can be assumed to be intentional in fiction. Titles and forms of address can also be problematic in translation. The translation of proper names has often been considered as a simple automatic process of transference from one language into another, due to the view that proper names are mere labels used to identify a person or a thing. This is exactly what Vendler purports when he writes that “proper names have no meaning (in the sense of ‘sense’ and not of ‘reference’), which is borne out by the fact that they do not require translation into another language” (Vendler1975:117).

In his view, proper names are to be treated as labels, which are attached to persons or objects and the only task of the translator is to carry them over, or transfer them, from the source language text to the target language text.

Basically the same is maintained by Sciarone, who argues, in a much similar vein, that the view that proper names have no meaning (from the point of view of the language system) is corroborated by the general practice of leaving them unchanged in translation (Sciarone 1967:86). It has been shown, however, by authors like Searle (1975) or Strawson (1975) that this view is mistaken: proper names, beyond their identifying function, may also carry ‘senses’. The fallacy of this view thus lies in the incorrectness of the background assumption: not all proper names are mere identifying labels – in fact, most of them turning out to carry meaning of one sort or another. This will entail, then, that the translation of proper names is not a trivial issue but, on the contrary, may involve a rather delicate decision-making process, requiring on the part of the translator careful consideration of the meanings the name has before deciding how best to render it in the target language.

Basically, nouns are classified as common or proper. Common nouns refer to a class of entities (e.g. squirrel), while proper nouns have a unique referent (John, London).

Grammatically, proper nouns behave very much in the same way in the sentence as common nouns. There are, however, well-known co-occurrence restrictions that distinguish them from common nouns. The most important among them are:

Proper nouns (PN) do not accept demonstrative pronouns as determiners. One would not normally say this John just bought a car. However, supposing there are several Johns out of whom you wish to single out a particular one, you are already using John as a common noun meaning 'any person called John.'

PNs do not accept restrictive adjectives or restrictive relative clauses. In the sentence the Old Shakespeare felt the closeness of his death one is implicitly comparing one of several manifestations in time of the person called Shakespeare with the rest, therefore, one is using the word as a common noun in the grammatical sense. The same applies to sentences such as she is no longer the Eve she used to be. One may deny this only at the price of more or less ad hoc explanations about the character of the noun in question. Another way of putting this would be to say that we have to do with two homonymous words John or Shakespeare respectively, one of which is a proper noun, the other a common noun. When in a given speech situation we have a unique reference, we are dealing with a proper noun, otherwise with a common noun.
Opposition between definite and indefinite is neutralized in PNs (a given PN either invariably takes zero articles as in John, London, or invariably takes the definite article as in the Strand, the Haymarket, and the Queen Elizabeth). A seeming counterexample such as that is not the John I was talking about is an instance of John being used as a common noun as seen above. In other words, a noun's status as either common or proper is ultimately determined by situational factors. If in a given speech situation, there is a possibility of what looks like a proper noun having multiple referents (this John, two Johns) we have to do with a common noun homonymous with a proper noun.

All of the above features derive directly from the fact that PNs refer to unique referents. In Randolph was a true Churchill the surname is being used in the sense 'a member of the Churchill family', that is, as a common noun.

Whether a given noun is common or proper is not always easy to decide. There are borderline cases that could be classified either way. Also, a given noun may change category depending on how it is used. For instance, a common noun referring to a given landscape feature may turn into a proper noun with a unique referent. Examples include names such as Saari 'island', Kymi 'large river' etc.

Personal proper names used metaphorically may turn into common names: He thinks he is a Napoleon. On the other hand, surnames such as Smith, Fletcher and Seppä 'smith' have their origin in the trade of the first bearer or rather that of the father of the first bearer. Proper names (used here interchangeably with the expression 'proper nouns') can be dealt with in a number of ways in translations. First, a PN can be transported wholesale from the target text (allowance being made for possible transliteration or transcription depending on the languages concerned). Second, it can be partly transported from the source language (SL) and partly translated. Thirdly, it can be replaced with more or less different names in the target language (TL). Finally, it can be dispensed with altogether.

In a relevance-theoretic framework, the meaning of a concept is made up of a truth-functional logical entry, which may be empty, partially filled or fully definitional and an encyclopaedic entry, containing various kinds of (propositional and non-propositional) representational information about the denotation and, as I understand it, possible connotations of the concept (e.g., cultural or personal beliefs), stored in memory. The concept may also be associated with a lexical entry, which contains linguistic (phonological, morphological, semantic and categorial) information about the natural language item related to it (Sperber and Wilson 1986:83–93). The three different types of information (lexical, logical and encyclopedic) are stored in different places in memory. It is suggested that the content of an assumption, defined as a structured set of concepts, is the function of the logical entries of the concepts that it contains and the context in which it is processed is, at least partly, drawn from the encyclopedic entries of these concepts (Sperber and Wilson 1986:89).

Prototypical proper names (that is, names without a descriptive content) are handled by associating with them empty logical entries. In other (less prototypical) cases a name may also have a logical entry (or, in the case of a composite name, it may include several logical entries which combine to make up the logical content of the name) which is partly or fully definitional (Sperber and Wilson 1986:91–2). Thus proper names seem to be not essentially unlike any other kinds of expression in terms of the structure of their meaning. Rather, what we find here is a continuum of various sorts of proper names. At one end of the scale we find the most prototypical names, proper nouns, which supposedly lack any logical content but may carry several assumptions in their encyclopedic entries. At the other extreme we have composite names, which are no different in terms of logical content from any ordinary phrasal expression. What makes them names, eventually, is that they are used as such in the given context. Names of countries seldom pose a problem to the translator. There are lists of the official names of countries in Persian and English that should be consulted. In a few cases, variation does occur depending on the degree of formality involved. The basic rule concerning personal names is that they are left untranslated. In some cases, transliteration or transcription may be needed depending on the language. There are however, exceptions to this basic rule. A trivial one is that in certain languages (Chinese and Japanese, for instance) the order of a person's first and last name is the opposite to the most common Western order of first name + last name. In Europe, Hungarian last names come before first names. Names of musicals, operas and ballets are sometimes retained in translation. My Fair Lady, West Side Story and Così fan tutte are known all over the world by the original names, a notable exception being Russia, where only translated name are used. Names of international organizations normally have translation equivalents in the member countries. Looking at the number of translation errors actually occurring in texts, a more frequent problem is that of the translator not paying attention to transliteration rules.

In spite of the “translation rule” quoted above, there are no rules for the translation of proper names. In non-fictional texts, it seems to be a convention to use the target-culture eponyms of a source-culture name, if there is one, but if a translator prefers to use the source-culture form, nobody will mind as long as it is clear what place the name refers to. Perhaps the audience will think that the translator is showing off her knowledge too much. Wherever the function of the proper name is limited to identifying an individual referent, the main criterion for translation will be to make this identifying function work for the target audience.

In fiction, things are not quite as simple as that. We have assumed that in fictional texts there is no name that has no informative function at all, however subtle it may be. If this information is explicit, as in a descriptive name, it can be translated – although a translation may interfere with the function of culture marker. If the information is implicit, however, or if the marker function has priority over the informative function of the proper name, this aspect will be lost in the translation, unless the translator decides to compensate for the loss by providing the information in the context. Of course, there are proper names that exist in the same form both in the source and the target culture.

Names of towns, municipalities and villages are examples of settlement names. There is no problem with names of relatively unimportant settlements that are carried over unchanged in translation. The town of Rauma does not change its name, nor does London, Ontario. With smaller places, however, a gloss is often in place to give the reader an indication of the type of place concerned. To sum up, PNs can be treated in a number of ways in translation:

They can be imported unchanged from the SL text;
They can be modified to fit the phonological/graphological system of the TL. This, of course, is something that has or has not been done for the translator by his/her speech community in the case of conventional place names like Prague, the Hague, Rome etc.;
They can be expanded with a gloss to make up for the TL reader's lack of world knowledge in the target culture;
On occasion, they might be omitted altogether (perhaps replaced with a paraphrase) if considered peripheral in terms of the central message of the text or if retaining them would be more likely to cause the reader to pause in puzzlement. True, this would be more likely to happen in interpretation, but could not be ruled out altogether in translation, either;
In rare cases, they might even be introduced in the TL text where, instead of a proper name, the SL text contains a cultural allusion unlikely to be understood by the TL reader.

How to Translate Personal Names

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:17:00 +0000

Abstract:

Translation has many challenges, one of which is the problem of translating proper nouns (PNs), a term used here interchangeably with the term 'proper names,' adequately from one language to another. The focus of this study lies within translation of personal names, which are a subclass of proper nouns. Notwithstanding the fact that a challenge that translators often encounter in their work comes from personal names, this paper presents some translation techniques proposed by various researchers in this regard. It should be mentioned that this paper does not intend to prescribe any special rules.

Introduction

Generally speaking, nouns are divided into common and proper names. Proper names refer to a specific referent, that is, these names serve to distinguish a particular individual from others, for instance, Peter, Mike, Alice. Common names, on the other hand, refer to a class of individuals such as man, woman, and boy. It is noteworthy that distinction between these types of nouns gets blurred in some cases. Since it is outside the scope of this paper to present a full account of this issue, the present study tackles only personal names, which fall into the proper noun category.

There is no doubt that translating personal names should not be assumed to be an easy issue inasmuch as it can turn out to be very troublesome in practice and needs very sensitive decision-making on the part of the translator within the translation process. A growing body of research shows that different translation procedures are applied in the process of translating personal names.

Albert Peter Vermes (2003) asserts that:

"The translation of proper names has often been considered as a simple automatic process of transference from one language into another, due to the view that proper names are mere labels used to identify a person or a thing. Contrary to popular views, the translation of proper names is a non-trivial issue, closely related to the problem of the meaning of the proper name."

Personal names in some cases can reveal some information by themselves. The translator's knowledge of such information can sometimes be very effective in the translation process. In this regard, The Columbia Encyclopedia states that "English surnames developed in the late Middle Ages and, apart from patronymics (Adams, Jefferson), have a variety of origins; they come from places (Lincoln, Garfield) from trades (Tyler, Taylor), from personal traits (Stout, Black), and from the calendar (Noël, May)." In this respect, Mike Campbell (n.d.) states that most surnames fall into four categories: a) they are derived from given names such as Johnson, and Williams; b) they refer to the person's occupation like Clark, and Wright; c) they are derived from the location where the bearer lives; d) surnames can de derived from nicknames such as White, Young.

All languages have particular personal names, some of which are deeply rooted in the culture of the speakers of the specific language; consequently, they can pose unique difficulties in the comprehension of culture-specific texts. It is interesting to note that some personal names have specific connotations, and omitting this implied information results in unacceptable translation. For example, in the Persian culture, Hatam Taaei—the name of a very generous man in Iranian stories—is a symbol of generosity; accordingly, if atranslator, who unaware of this fact, encounters this sentence " My father is Hatam Taaei" in a conversation of two friends talking about their fathers' characteristics, the translator may erroneously assume that the speaker introduces his or her father's name, not his personality.

Bachman (1990) specifically points out that the knowledge of cultural references and of the figurative use of language should be considered as a focal element in thetranslation process. He holds that the readers and listeners need this type of knowledge to make sense of culture-specific names whenever such names occur.

In the case of personal names, there is another point relevant to a peculiarity of some languages; translators must consider the fact that the order of first name and surname is not the same in all languages. In the Korean, Japanese, and Hungarian languages, for example, surname comes before first name, whereas this order is reversed in English, French, and most other Western languages.

The rest of this paper is arranged in three sections: first, the definition of proper name, personal name, and various types of personal names; second, the explanation about some procedures of personal name translation; third, the conclusion.

2. Preliminary Considerations

2.1. Definition of Proper Noun

According to Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia, a proper noun is "a word that serves the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about, but not of telling anything about it."

Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines the proper noun as "a noun that designates a particular being or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usually capitalized in English—called also proper name."

The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary says that a proper noun (or proper name) is "a word that is the name of a person, a place, an institution, etc. and is written with a capital letter" (p.1016).

A proper noun has these distinctive features in English: 1) It will be capitalized, no matter where it occurs in a sentence. 2) A proper name is a mono-referential name, i.e., it refers to a particular person, thing, or place. 3) It is not regularly preceded by a definite or indefinite article. 4) It is not used with limiting modifiers, like a lot of or any.

2.2. Personal Names

Anna Fornalczyk (2007) states that anthroponymy, the study of the names of human beings, encompasses personal names and group names. She also considers that anthroponymy, in literary works, involves names of personified animals and fictitious creatures, as well.

Wikipedia categorizes personal names into human personal names and non-human personal names. Wikipedia defines human personal name in the following way:

"A personal name is the proper name identifying individual person, and usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; the rare exceptions occur in the cases of mentally disturbed parents, or feral children growing up in isolation."

Based on Wikipedia, some humans give individual non-human animals and plants names, usually of endearment. For instance, the names of pets and sporting animals are often the same as human names. Nevertheless, this can be offensive and disrespectful to the person of the same name in some cultures such as the Chinese and the Iranian cultures.

Moreover, Wikipedia mentions that an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that humans are not the only living creatures that use personal names. Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, studying bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, found that the dolphins had personal names for one another. In this case, the interesting point is that a dolphin chooses its name as an infant.

The World Book Encyclopedia talks about personal name in this way:

"Practically everyone since the beginning of history has had a name (...) Almost all names have meanings. Early people bestowed a name with a definite consciousness of its meaning (...). But today, people give little thought to the meanings. Most people have a given name and family name. Many also have a middle name, and some have a nickname” (vol.14, p.5).

Mike Campbell (n.d.) states that a personal name is a name that belongs to a person. He categorizes personal names in the following way:

Given name / first name / Christian name / praenomen / middle name
Family name / surname / last name / nomen / cognomen
Nickname / agnomen / pet name / diminutive / byname
Generation name Patronym / matronym / filiation

2.3. Definitions of types of Personal Names

With this section, the author attempts to approach the concept of different types of personal name in order to delimit the object of the study. It is important to stress that not all types of personal names exist in all languages. Moreover, the translator must take cognizance of these different categories, since familiarity with them helps in the translation process.

In relation to the translation of personal names, translators should take this point into consideration whether or not it is possible or necessary to show that these classifications are different in the source and target languages.

As mentioned previously, Campbell (n.d.) divides personal names into various categories. He defines them as follows:

Number	Type of Personal Name	Definition
1	Given name	A given name is a name that is assumed by a person at or after birth. As opposed to a family name, it is generally not inherited.
2	First name or Christian name	In Europe and North America, where the given name precedes the family name, given names are called first names or forenames.
3	Praenomen	The praenomen (plural praenomina) was the ancient Roman given name. With a nomen and a cognomen it formed a complete Roman name. In Roman documents the praenomen was often abbreviated to one or two letters.
4	Middle name	In the English-speaking world, the middle name is a secondary given name. When the full name is presented, it is placed between the first name and the surname. People can have more than one middle name, though it is unusual to have none. Many people include their middle name as an initial in their usual name, for example George W. Bush. Others prefer their middle name and use it instead of their first name.
5	Family name or last name or surname	It is a name passed from one generation to the next. In many cultures a woman adopts her husband's family name when they are married.
6	Nomen	The nomen (plural nomina) was the Roman gens's (that is clan's) name. In the typical Roman name it was preceded by the praenomen and followed by the cognomen
7	Cognomen	The cognomen (plural cognomina) was one of the three parts of the typical Roman name. It followed the praenomen and nomen. Originally cognomina were nicknames, but by the time of the Roman Empire they were inherited from father to son. Thus the cognomen in combination with the nomen functioned as a surname, breaking families into smaller groups than just the nomen alone.
8	Nickname	A nickname is a substitute for a person's real name. It may be used because it is more familiar, more descriptive, or shorter than the real name. For example, Sue is the nickname of Susan.
9	Agnomen	The agnomen (plural agnomina) formed an additional part of some Roman names, usually following the cognomen. Usually they were nicknames acquired at some point during the lifetime, but, rarely, some agnomnia were inherited.
10	Pet name	A pet name of a given name is a short and/or affectionate form. Often they are only used by friends and relatives.
11	Diminutive	It is the same as a pet name. They can be formed through various methods in different languages. Two of most typical ways in English are presented here: a) are those that are short forms of the original name, very often from the first syllable or sound of the name. For example, Alex is from Alexander; b) they can also obtained by adding a suffix, to the original name or short form of a name. In English, the -y/-ie suffix make diminutives such as, Debbie, Charlie, Johnny, and Abby.
12	Byname	A byname is a secondary name used to further identify a person. They were often nicknames (for example Erik the Red) or patronyms (for example John, son of William). Bynames can be considered surnames when they are inherited from one generation to the next.
13	Generation name	The generation name is used by some Chinese and Korean families. It is a name given to all newborns of the same generation of an extended family.
14	Patronym	A patronym (or patronymic) is a name derived from the name of the father or another paternal ancestor. Some surnames are patronymic in origin, like Peterson = "Peter's son". Some cultures, such as Iceland, use uninherited patronyms instead of surnames.
15	Matronym	A matronym (also matronymic) is a name derived from the name of the mother or another maternal ancestor.
16	Filiation	A filiation attached to a name describes the bearer's paternal descent. The complete Roman name sometimes had a filiation.

Table 1. Types of Personal Name (adopted from http://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/name)

3. How to Translate Personal Names?

Personal names often constitute a major problem in translation. For translating proper nouns, different models are suggested. In this respect, seven models presented by Hervey and Higgins (1986), Newmark (1988), Theo Hermans (1988), Farzane Farahzad (1995), Anthony Pym (2004), Lincoln Fernandes (2006), and Heikki Särkkä (2007) will be defined here.

Hervey and Higgins (1986) present these strategies for translating PNs :
- Exotism: The name should remain unchanged from the SL to the TL. In this method no cultural transposition is occurred (p.29).
- Transliteration: The name is shifted to conform to the phonic or graphic rules of the TL (p.29).
- Cultural transplantation: The SL name is replaced by the TL name that has the same cultural connotation as the original one (p.29).
Peter Newmark (1988b) holds that people's names should, as a rule, not be translated when their names have no connotation in the text (p.214). He adds some exceptions such as names of known saints, monarchs, and popes, which are known in the translated form in the TL (p.214). Newmark (1988a) also recommends that, in communicative translation, a personal name, along with its connotation, should be translated where proper names are treated connotatively (p.151). In spite of that, the PNs must be transferred in semantic translation (p.151).
In addition, with regard to names that have connotations in the imaginative literature such as in comedies, allegories, fairy tales, and some children's stories, Newmark recommends that they be translated. He adds that the previous rule should be followed unless, like in folk tales, nationality is a significant aspect.
In cases where both nationality and connotation are significant aspects, the most appropriate method, in Newmark's opinion, is first to translate the name to the TL, then to naturalize the translated word into a new proper name provided that the personal name is not yet current among the educated readers of the TL (p.215).
Theo Hermans (1988) believes that there are at least four strategies for translation of names. He phrases them, "They can be copied, i.e. reproduced in the target text exactly as they were in the source text. They can be transcribed, i.e. transliterated or adapted on the level of spelling, phonology, etc. A formally unrelated name can be substituted in the target text for any given name in the source text. And insofar as a name in a source text is enmeshed in the lexicon of that language and acquires 'meaning,' it can be translated" (p.13). Hermans contends that some other alternatives are also possible, namely various combinations of the above methods, omitting the source text (ST) proper name in the target text (TT), substitution of a common name in the TT for the PN in the ST, the insertion of the PN in the TT while no PN exists in the ST (p.14).
Farzanne Farahzad (1995) states that transliteration and transcription are used for translation of personal proper names. The latter is the replacement of one letter of the alphabet in the source language (SL) by another letter in the target language (TL). The former occurs when the letter of the target language shows the pronunciation of the PN in the source language (p.43). She expounds that transcription suffers from the following defects:
- There are no established rules for transcription.
- The transcription of personal names varies on the basis of various accents such as American and British.
- The transcription may be influenced by the translator's pronunciation, which may lead to an incorrect transcription.
- The exact transcription of personal names is not always possible; that is, all languages do not have the same consonants or vowels.
- The pronunciation of personal names' transcription is more difficult than that of their translation (pp.43-44).
In view of the foregoing reasons, she concludes that transliteration is a better strategy to be used by translators (p.44).
Anthony Pym (2004) proposes that proper names not be translated (p.92). He also defines the result of transliteration operations as 'absolute equivalence' in that it results in the exact quantitative equality between input and output (p.90). In his view, the most problematic aspect of 'absolute equivalence' is that it is often unacceptable equivalence, unless much language learning is involved. In this regard, Pym contends that alternatives are imperative (p.92).
Lincoln Fernandes (2006) lists a set of ten procedures in the translation of personal names as follows:
- Rendition: When the in the ST is enmeshed in the TL, the meaning is rendered in the TL. For example, translating the word 'Lady' as 'Mulher,' which means 'woman' in Brazilian Portuguese, reveals that the translator has used a 'superordinate' (woman) instead of a hyponym of woman, a specific word such as 'senhora' or 'dama' (= lady).
- Copy: As a matter of fact, in this case, the name of the ST is exactly replicated in the TT—without any orthographic adjustment. As an illustration, Alice King is reproduced in the Arabic text—which has a different alphabet from English one-with no change.
- Transcription: This a method in which a name is transcribed in the equivalent characters of the TL. In order to keep the readability of the TT, some other changes such as addition or shift in the position of the letters may occur e.g. Ahoshta Tarkaan is changed to Achosta Tarcaã.
- Re-creation: A newly-created name in the ST is recreated in the TT so that it reproduces the similar effects in the TL such as Mr. Ollivander that is translated to Sr. Olivares.
- Substitution: A TL name replaces the SL name, although they are formally and/or semantically unrelated.
- Deletion: In this type of strategy, the name in the ST is, partially or totally, omitted in the TT.
- Addition: Extra information is added to the SL name so that it can be more understandable and desirable to the target readers. As a matter of fact, this method may also be used to remove ambiguities in the TT.
- Transposition: This is a change of one part of speech for another one without any shift in the meaning. In fact, this a way for translating titles that have transparent role in literature for identifying particular literary works. Because of this reason, this procedure is taken into consideration here.
- Phonological Replacement: In this procedure, the phonological features of the original name are imitated in the TL. In other words, a TL name, which has a similar sound to the SL name, replaces the original name.
- Conventionality: This strategy is defined as the acceptance of a typical translation of a name in the SL. In view of this case, it is interesting to know that conventionality is often used with historical or literary individuals as well as geographical names.
Heikki Särkkä (2007) reports that there are four strategies for translating PNs;
- They can be transported completely from the TL to the SL (allowance being made for possible transliteration or transcription, depending on the SL).
- They can be partly transported from the SL and partly translated.
- They can be replaced with more or less different names in the TL.
- They can be dispensed with altogether.

4. Conclusion

Generally, personal names represent a real challenge for both professional and novice translators; therefore, they merit attention from researchers and scholars in the field of translation studies. Newmark (1993) reports that proper names, which include personal names, represent a translation difficulty in different text types (p.15).

Being familiar with the culture, translators sometimes can infer some implied information such as gender, nationality, race, class, or religion from personal names. It is clear that translators must be familiar with culture of both the source and target languages, since awareness of these culture-bound names can lead to the most appropriate translation. Based on the foregoing information, it is significant to stress that the influence of culture on translation of personal names is undeniable.

Different translation procedures for translating personal names have been presented. In general, it should be noted that translators do not always use the same strategy for translation of all personal names in all kinds of texts. For example, Farahzad (1995) believes that translators should use transcription and transliteration techniques when translating personal names; however, translators of religious texts must use the most common existing equivalent of a personal name in the TL even if these equivalents do not follow the foregoing translation strategies.

Having briefly discussed some of the translation procedures in this respect, the author strongly recommends that whatever strategies translators use, especially in scientific texts, they should mention the original name with the SL alphabets in the footnotes or endnotes in order to facilitate further research for readers in the target language.

Selamat Datang di BLOG PEMINDO

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:39:00 +0000

Dalam era globalisasi dunia modern saat ini banyak perusahaan yang dituntut untuk mampu memperluas dan mengembangkan jaringan beserta akses pasar mereka baik untuk skala nasional maupun internasional, yang semuanya itu dengan tujuan untuk memperoleh pelanggan dan peluang bisnis baru. Oleh karenanya, pada saat sekarang ini, komunikasi dirasakan sebagai salah satu sarana paling penting yang mendukung terwujudnya apa yang diinginkan guna mencapai perluasan pasar yang lebih lanjut.

Dalam dunia bisnis, China, Jepang dan Korea memainkan peran penting sebagai pemain utama dalam arena bisnis global dan ada banyak manfaat yang diperoleh dengan melakukan bisnis dengan pasar dari ketiga negara tersebut. Dengan bahasa resminya yaitu bahasa Mandarin, Jepang dan Korea - ketiganya merupakan ekonomi terbesar kedua di dunia. Meskipun ketiganya tidak di sebut di bagian dunia lainnya, kecuali sebagai bahasa kedua, namun kekuatan ekonomi mereka telah membawa bahasa Mandarin, Jepang dan Korea terdepan dalam bisnis internasional. Berdasarkan latar belakang inilah maka perlu kiranya mengatasi kendala bahasa saat melakukan bisnis.

PEMINDO adalah kantor penerjemah online dengan layanan terlengkap di Jakarta. Kami menyediakan layananan penerjemah khusus untuk bahasa Mandarin, Jepang, Korea dan Inggris, layanan interpreter, layanan subtitle video dan layanan penerjemah website serta layanan legalisasi dokumen untuk klien korporasi dan individu. Semua layanan ini disajikan oleh sebuah tim yang terdiri dari penterjemah berpengalaman, proofreader dan jaminan kualitas manajer dengan latar belakang profesional yang solid. Jika Anda membutuhkan layanan berkualitas dgn harga bersaing, Anda telah berada di tempat yang tepat!

PEMINDO memang mengkhususkan diri dalam layanan penerjemah tersumpah bahasa Mandarin, bahasa Jepang, bahasa Korea dan bahasa Inggris. Kualitas adalah prioritas utama kami - sehingga mungkin kami tidak selalu menjadi yang termurah. Namun klien kami pasti mendapatkan sesuatu sebagai balasannya: standar kualitas kami adalah sepuluh kali lebih ketat dari standar yang berlaku di Indonesia. Dan juga, semua staf penerjemah kami memenuhi segala persyaratan, mereka hanya menerjemahkan ke dalam bahasa induk mereka dan memiliki sedikitnya sepuluh tahun pengalaman dalam menerjemahkan di bidang keahlian mereka. Kami menjamin kualitas terbaik dalam tejemahan. Hasil terjemahan dapat Anda kirimkan kepada partner Anda di luar negeri tanpa perlu ragu-ragu lagi.

Misi kami adalah membantu komunikasi yang baik dalam berbahasa. Ini termasuk dalam terjemahan, interpreting dan konferensi manajemen, personalia dispatch, perencanaan dan produksi grafis dan multimedia, dan berbagai cara lain dimana kita melayani kebutuhan klien.

Kami memahami nilai kualitas dan pelayanan tingkat tertinggi, dan staf kami yang sangat berpengalaman akan memberikan kualitas dan pelayanan yang terbaik dalam memenuhi berbagai permintaan di bidang bahasa.

Pengalaman kami sekitar 10 tahun sejak tahun 2000 di bidang ini, akan menjamin kualitas yang terbaik dari setiap bidang terjemahan dan mendorong kami untuk memasarkan layanan ini secara lebih global dan hubungan yang saling menguntungkan antara kami dan klien. Dengan mempekerjakan staf yang sangat terampil dan berpendidikan spesialis terjemahan dan teknologi komunikasi, PEMINDO berupaya menghindari kesalahan yang mungkin dibuat oleh penerjemah melalui sebuah pelatihan bahasa.

Staf kami selalu up to date dengan terminologi terjemahan yang senantiasa berubah dengan cepat. Kamus-kamus baru selalu kami evaluasi terlebih dahulu, dan akan dibeli jika memang memenuhi standar kami. Kami juga menggunakan Glosari khusus terbaru yang dipublikasikan di Internet. Dan karena kebutuhan Anda berbeda dari lembaga lain, kita juga membangun dan memelihara sebuah daftar yang disesuaikan dengan istilah yang digunakan dalam teks-teks masing-masing klien. Kesemuanya itu datang dari berbagai latar belakang seperti bisnis, IT, hukum, medis, dan sepenuhnya mampu memahami berbagai subyek dengan bidang yang berbeda dan nuansa budaya yang terkait. Sebagai navigasi dari seluk-beluk Bahasa Mandarin, Bahasa Jepang dan Bahasa Korea tentu saja dapat menjadi sebuah tantangan, penerjemah khusus kami dapat membantu Anda setiap terjemahan bahasa Mandarin, Jepang, Korea dan Inggris yang Anda butuhkan.

Seiring dengan perkembangan teknologi Internet yang kian populer, lebih banyak pengguna yang ingin mengakses sebuah situs Web dalam bahasa mereka sendiri. Menurut sebuah laporan dari World Intellectual Property Organization, dua-pertiga dari semua pengguna internet pada tahun 2004 akan menjadi pembicara non-Inggris dan akan memerlukan layanan terjemahan.

Kami juga menyediakan layanan interpreter, baik secara berturut-turut dan simultan, dalam berbagai bahasa untuk urusan bisnis, rapat, perusahaan pelatihan, panduan, sidang pengadilan, lokakarya, presentasi dan berbagai keperluan lainnya.

Untuk melengkapi layanan kami, kami juga menyediakan jasa untuk terjemahan website, subtitling video, sertifikasi / legalisasi dokumen oleh Notaris Umum, Departemen Kehakiman, Departemen Luar Negeri dan Kedutaan Besar di Indonesia untuk berbagai tujuan seperti studi di luar negeri, permohonan visa, aplikasi penduduk tetap.

HIngga kini, layanan jasa yang kami sediakan meliputi :

Hubungi HOTLINE kami guna memperoleh keterangan rinci untuk setiap jenis layanan jasa penerjemahan yang kami sediakan.

Jasa Penerjemah Dokumen

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:36:00 +0000

Penerjemahan adalah sebuah seni, dimana alur proses kerjanya dimulai dengan mencoba memahami makna yang tersirat dari suatu bahasa yang kemudian berlanjut pada sebuah proses untuk menuangkannya menjadi rangkaian kata demi kata sehingga membentuk kalimat demi kalimat yang selanjutnya terbentuklah suatu arti yang sempurna yang mudah dipahami dan dimengerti oleh setiap yang membacanya.

Untuk mencapai hasil dengan tingkat keakurasian yang tinggi, diperlukan keahlian, pengalaman dan juga kecermatan yang cukup. Tanpa itu semua, mustahil sebuah hasil penerjemahan akan dapat disampaikan dan dipahami oleh klien-klien kami. PEMINDO memiliki staf-staf penterjemah dengan latar pendidikan bahasa yang sangat baik dan berpengalaman guna menerjemahkan objek terjemahan dari berbagai disiplin ilmu, sehingga kualitas dari semua hasil penerjemahannya pun dapat diandalkan.

Sudahkah Anda puas dengan layanan terjemahan saat ini?

Terjemahan yang baik menuntut keakuratan, kecepatan, dan kaya akan kekuatan ekspresi. Kesemuanya itu adalah kualitas yang kami harapkan, dan diterima secara penuh, dari kami staf-staf ahli penerjemah dalam berbagai bidang dan bahasa. PEMINDO menjanjikan kualitas terjemahan terbaik, yang didukung dengan perlindungan yang ketat akan kerahasiaan dan kontrol kualitas.

Penanganan Mutu

PEMINDO menerapkan berlaku tujuh kriteria untuk memantau kualitas hasil terjemahannya. Tujuannya adalah untuk peningkatan mutu dan peringkat, atau kelengkapan serta meningkatkan keterampilan penerjemah-penerjemah kami. Hasil akhirnya adalah terjemahan dalam peringkat tertinggi - ini merupakan buah dari kerja sama antara staf-staf penerjemah kami, dengan menggunakan kekayaan data dan keterampilan mengumpulkan dari hampir 10 tahun dalam dunia industri.

Standar Penanganan Mutu PEMINDO

■     Pengetahuan tentang bidang-bidang khusus
■     Kemampuan penafsiran
■     Kemampuan komposisi
■     Akurasi terjemahan
■     Kemampuan dalam memperkenalkan terminologi yang diformalkan
■     Presisi dalam menghasilkan angka-angka dan simbol
■     Kecepatan terjemahan

Bahasa Yang Tersedia

■    Bahasa Mandarin
■    Bahasa Jepang
■    Bahasa Korea
■    Bahasa Inggris

Bidang-bidang Yang Dikuasai

■    Teknologi Informasi, Komunikasi PR
■    Energi, Komputer (hardware, software)
■    Politik, Ekonomi, Teknik sipil, Arsitektur
■    Luar angkasa, Penerbangan, Pemasaran
■    Kimia, Kedokteran, Farmakologi Mesin, Teknik
■    Keuangan, Perikanan
■    Militer dan Pertahanan Lainnya
■    Lingkungan, Sumber Daya

Jenis Dokumen

■    Laporan tahunan, keuangan, petunjuk service, petunjuk penggunaan
■    Pengenalan perusahaan & profil, bahan PR
■    Rencana proyek, rencana Bisnis, Siaran pers
■    Materi konferensi, materi Presentasi, dokumen-dokumen kontrak
■    Standarisasi & peraturan, undang-undang & tata cara
■    Paten, Theses, Scientific & teknis disertasi dan Lain-lain
■    Dan juga naskah skenario, skrip penyiaran

Format Media

Kami menangani semua jenis media, termasuk situs Web, CD-ROM, DVD, dan tentu saja naskah-naskah lama yang masih dalam kondisi baik. Kami juga dapat menangani semua jenis format file, termasuk Word, Power Point, PDF, HTML, dan Quark Express.

Jasa Penerjemah Lisan

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:31:00 +0000

Jasa penerjemahan lisan (Interpreting Service) adalah layanan yang disediakan PEMINDO bagi klien yang membutuhkan jasa penerjemahan langsung. Berbeda halnya dengan jasa terjemahan teks, jasa interpreter sangat membutuhkan kefasihan dan kepandaian yang khusus untuk dapat menyampaikan suatu arti secara langsung kepada klien tanpa harus membuka kamus lagi.

Untuk itulah, seorang Interpreter atau juru bahasa harus benar-benar memiliki kecakapan dan juga menguasai semua perbendaharaan kata, agar dalam tugasnya dapat dengan baik dan fasih menyampaikan makna yang sesungguhnya kepada klien.
Untuk sementara, saat ini yang dapat disajikan PEMINDO adalah layanan jasa untuk interpreter bahasa Jepang dan Inggris saja. Layanan jasa interpreter yang berlaku di PEMINDO pun terdiri atas 2 jenis layanan, yaitu layanan jasa interpreter biasa dan layanan jasa interpreter tersumpah.

Komunikasi internasional terbaik tergantung kepada baiknya kualitas Interpreter!

Keberhasilan suatu konferensi atau seminar internasional tergantung pada koordinasi yang baik antara juru bahasa dan staf manajerial yang sangat berpengalaman. Kami dapat menyediakan juru bahasa yang sangat baik untuk memenuhi berbagai bidang dan persyaratan, serta layanan manajemen penuh dari perencanaan untuk implementasi.

Juru Bahasa Yang Tersedia

■     Juru Bahasa untuk Bahasa Mandarin
■     Juru Bahasa untuk Bahasa Jepang
■     Juru Bahasa untuk Bahasa Korea
■     Juru Bahasa untuk Bahasa Inggris

Bidang Yang Dikuasai

Jenis Jasa Yang Tersedia

■    Rapat dalam ruangan
■    Konferensi
■    Seminar dan Pelatihan
■    Forum internasional
■    Negosiasi Bisnis
■    Sightseeing
■    Broadcast
■    Perdagangan menunjukkan Booths
■    Panggilan Telepon / Panggilan Konferens (termasuk panggilan Internet
       menggunakan SKYPE, Yahoo Messenger and G-Talk)

Jasa Penerjemah Website

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:28:00 +0000

Jasa penerjemahan web (Web Localization Service) adalah layanan jasa penerjemahan konten atau isi sebuah website. Dengan dukungan tenaga-tenaga muda yang ahli dalam bidang web designing, bahasa html, php, SQL hingga alogaritma website, PEMINDO sejak awal tahun 2000 hingga sekarang menyajikan layanan jasa penerjemahan seluruh konten/isi sebuah website tanpa harus menambah atau pun mengurangi struktur dari website itu sendiri.

Pada prinsipnya, sebuah website tersusun dari berbagai elemen-elemen penting dimana satu dengan lainnya saling berhubungan erat. Untuk itu dalam proses penerjemahan sebuah website, haruslah diawali dengan pemahaman tentang struktur website tersebut. PEMINDO, dalam hal ini sangat menjaga hal tersebut, dan senantiasa berupaya untuk tidak sekali saja menambah atau pun menguranginya. Yang dilakukan disini adalah hanya mengubah konten/isinya saja. Sehingga, hasil yang dicapai pun akan serupa dengan aslinya.

Perusahaan kami memiliki pengalaman lebih dari 5 tahun dalam menerjemahkan dan lokalisasi berbagai website ke bahasa asing seperti Mandarin, Jepang, Korea dan Inggris. Tidak seperti situs penyedia jasa terjemahan lain, kami menawarkan solusi website localization lengkap yang mencakup terjemahan konten, halaman web optimasi (untuk peringkat atas di mesin pencari asing), terjemahan dan pengelolaan database, dukungan yang berkelanjutan untuk semua terjemahan masa depan, dan sederhana, satu titik pemeliharaan.

Salah satu keunggulan kompetitif kami adalah dengan adanya full-time Information Technology (IT) tim di kantor kami di Jakarta. Kami tidak melempar TI ke perusahaan lain. Dan Itu dibuat di Indonesia, seperti yang sudah-sudah! Selain dari bisnis terjemahan, tim IT kami juga sangat akrab degan website-website seperti : www.ConveyThis.com (Widget penerjemah gratis dengan lebih dari 20.000 anggota di seluruh dunia) dan www.Voolkan.com (yang dengan cepat berkembang direktori kerja lokal). Dengan keyakinan : Anda akhirnya menemukan situs perusahaan penerjemah yang kompeten. Hubungi kami sekarang juga!

PEMINDO dalam mengerjakan penerjemahan sebuah website, mengawalinya dengan menyalin (men-download) seluruh konten/isi website menggunakan software seperti webcopier dan lain sebagainya.

Dan langkah selanjutnya adalah membaca dan memahami seluruh struktur website tersebut. Kemudian barulah dimulai tahap-tahap penerjemahannya. Tarif jasa penerjemah web yang berlaku di PEMINDO didasarkan kepada seberapa rumit/kompleksnya struktur yang dimilikinya. Website dengan link eksternal akan di kenakan tarif berbeda dengan website yang hanya memiliki link internal.

Hasil dari layanan jasa penerjemahan website dapat berupa softcopy maupun berupa cetakan. Untuk lebih jelas dan lebih rinci mengenai layanan jasa penerjemahan web ini, silahkan menghubungi kami.

Jasa Alih Bahasa Video

noreply@blogger.com (Penerjemah Mitra Indonesia) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:21:00 +0000

Jasa alih bahasa video (Subtitling Service) adalah sebuah layanan alih bahasa dari objek penerjemahan berupa video. PEMINDO menyediakan layanan jasa alih bahasa video atau jasa subtitling untuk berbagai format video yang ada saat ini, seperti DVD, VCD, SVCD, MiniDV, Video-8, Video Cassete dan lain sebagainya.

PEMINDO memiliki tenaga ahli untuk semua jenis perangkat lunak yang diperlukan dan peralatannya. Lebih jauh lagi, karena kami mengkhususkan diri dalam jasa terjemahan bahasa Mandarin, Jepang, Korea dan Inggris, kami hanya menggunakan penerjemah yang memiliki pengetahuan dan pengalaman luas akan perangkat lunak dan peralatannya. Oleh karena itu Anda akan yakin akan bahwa kualitas terbaik tentunya juga dengan harga terbaik!

PEMINDO menawarkan layanan subtitling dengan kualitas terbaik untuk semua jenis pemrograman. Berbagai pemrograman khusus untuk bahasa Mandarin, Jepang, Korea dan Inggris dengan penonton di seluruh dunia! Staf-staf berpengalaman mampu menyediakan jasa penerjemah untuk keperluan subtitle dalam 4 bahasa yang berbeda.

Lokalisasi, Bukan Hanya Penerjemahan

Sementara penerjemah paling kompeten dapat menyediakan terjemahan harfiah ke dalam bahasa yang dikehendaki, penerjemah subtitle kami amat sangat memahami bahwa tugas mereka bukan hanya untuk menerjemahkan, tetapi untuk juga untuk "lokalisasi." Hal ini memerlukan kefasihan dialek yang sesuai dan penggunaan idiom budaya yang relevan.

Meskipun subtitle bahasa biasanya kata demi kata, namun sering kali subtitle yang diterjemahkan diparafrasekan untuk memberikan arti penting dari sebuah dialog dengan keterbatasan waktu tampilan di layar video, dan mempertahankan tingkat kenyamanan untuk dibaca oleh penonton.

Penerjemah kami adalah penutur asli dari sebuah bahasa target, dan benar-benar fasih dalam bahasa sumber, serta sangat berpengalaman dalam seni terjemahan subtitle. Dan untuk senantiasa mampu memelihara kualitas terbaiknya, masing-masing terjemahan akan ditinjau oleh sekurang-kurangnya dua penerjemah.

Pilihan Format dan Style

Kami menawarkan layanan subtitle yang diterjemahkan dalam format standar dan subtitle bahasa Inggris untuk penonton yang memiliki kekurangan pada indera pendengaran (SDH). Dengan menggunakan teknologi yang paling canggih, kami dapat menyesuaikan gaya dari subtitle Anda dengan pilihan Anda dengan berbagai pilihan font, ukuran dan jenis teks warna, serta latar belakang, bagian tepi, drop shadow dan anti-aliasing. Kita juga dapat merekomendasikan berdasarkan gaya pemrograman tertentu.

Klien Kami

Kami telah menyediakan jasa subtitling sejak tahun 2001 untuk berbagai organisasi, termasuk perusahaan, produsen independen, sekolah, perpustakaan, dan lembaga pemerintah. Bagaimana pun ada kebutuhan untuk kualitas subtitling, dam kami ada untuk memenuhi kebutuhan itu!