Language Bananas

November 11

Rizwan came up and asked how he could get a letter in English translated to Bahasa Malaysia and whom he should enlist the help from. I looked up and asked what kind of letter it would be. "It's a cover letter for a proposal," came the reply. "We have not had such request before. Why don't you email over and let me see if I would be able to help you," I suggested.

The file came and I opened. Hmmm, three pages long and quite a bit of IT terms and jargons. Unfortunately after running a search over the Internet, I was unable to find a free electronic online version of Kamus Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka for English to Bahasa Malaysia translations. I did however find a number of online translator for English to Bahasa Indonesia. As our national language is a little different from the Indonesian Malay language, I was unable to use those free softwares. As I did not want to waste more time on searches, I proceeded to attempt the best I could.

Minus the letters to government ministries and agencies that I had done in my previous jobs, and which were a lot easier and straight-forward, my last use of Bahasa in full fledge was in university ten years ago.So after two hours, I had a draft in Bahasa with two words italicised because I could not find a Bahasa version for them - online and login. Is login called 'daftar masuk'?

No doubt some words were borrowed from English although some actually have the Bahasa version such as modul (module), praktikal (practical), pedagogi (pedagogy), akses (access), informasi (information), implementasi (implementation), adaptasi (adaptation), diskusi (discussion), korridor (corridoor), klik (click) and emel (email). As far as I can remember, some actually have the Bahasa version like maklumat (information) and perbincangan (discussion). If they are in existence, why borrow? Are these coined for and confined within the IT industry and IT communications?

Some, of course were direct translations like layari (surf), jalur lebar (broadband), tetikus (mouse), muat turun (download), meja bantuan (helpdesk), whilst some other have the same spellings but bakunised pronunciations like digital, global, multimedia. These are very common words, used daily in verbal and written communications.

Perhaps that what it means when a language evolves and mature. Coining and creating new terms and words when the need arises, for the sophistication and maturity of the language, especially in this age where things, trends, solutions, ideas are constantly invented and re-invented. Change is inevitable and I guess sometimes changing an original word / term to one that sounds more globalised is not always a bad thing. The other question is however, would such thing kill the language? Would students get confused and get the spellings mixed up? The words got murdered?

Well, at the end of my attempt, I made a mental note to buy and read a Bahasa paper weekly to keep my grasp of the language intact. I was glad that I still managed to translate a letter rather well. Thanks to the extra lessons in the language during my high school years.

On a personal note, I wished I was sent to a chinese medium school. I would have had knowledge of an additional language which would have been an advantage to my work. I am what the chinese-educated referred to as banana person (yellow on the outside, off white on the inside). This is the term for chinese that cannot read, write or speak chinese language and dialects. Chinese but not chinese.

I have no problem conversing in some chinese dialects - Cantonese, Senning, Hokkien, Hakka although less in the latter two. I could manage simple conversations with the extremely limited Mandarin that I know, only read numeric one to ten, some simple words, and write my own name. I am not a parent yet, but when the time comes, I would certainly hope my hubby and I would be able to expose our kids to as many languages and dialects as possible.

Perhaps it is still not too late to learn, though Mandarin does require more practices for both writing and reading. The question I have for myself is whether I am interested and disciplined enough to take up this challenge to become a less-banana person.