"Off" Translation (Update)

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I was watching some old back-and-white movie. In one scene, the army commander instructed his army to fire the guns at the enemies. In the subtitle, they translated "Fire" to "Api" instead of "Tembak". That was years before... in the old days. We used to laugh at the translation

Years later..... Recently, I was watching a movie on the television. To my surprise, we never learn from our mistakes. The same thing happened again. Similar scene, latest movie..... Again they translated 'Fire' into 'Api'. When will we ever learn.

I also do not know whether these people are trained translator or not. Recently, in TV (or maybe Astro), in one movie, two person were arguing and one fellow scolded the other "D***H***" which is vulgar word. Instead of censoring the word with "blip". They put the word "D***H***" in the subtitle as if it is a name. My Gosh! What happen to Malaysia?

Some other famous translation of movie name. They translate "Breathless" to "Sesak Nafas".

2 May 2009
Last night, I was watching a German movie on Astro. In the movie, there was freak accident involving a tanker. When investigating the accident, the inspector was mentioning something about 'acid' (which was supposingly carried by the tanker in the accident) in German language. I look the word 'acid' (German) is also 'acid' in English. To my surprise, they translate the German word 'acid' to 'cuka' in BM ('vinegar' in English). I know both are sour but 'acid', of course, are more corrosive, which tiggered off the accident. Do we understand what we are translating, or the translator just listen to the soundtrack and do not watch the movie.

{Sigh}

PLEASE TRANSLATE IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT.

Malaysia Memang Boleh 2

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Remember I posted an article "Malaysia Memang Boleh" in January. I was mentioning about a sitcom about a language class. Now there is another language class sitcom on NTV7 (Wed, 9.00pm). This one is more interesting. This time, it is about a direct-selling company that employs a Mandarin teacher to teach its member Mandarin because they want to venture into China. The class consists of people from various clans (Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, etc) including an Indian and a Malay. The sitcom is very entertasining and it also teaches you basic Mandarin. The sitcom is called "你好! Mr. Siao" (Mr.Siao's Mandarin Class).

Last time, Media Corp has "Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd" in Singapore and now Phua Chu Kang has moved to Malaysia with Rosie. Now NTV7 has started a new sitcom called "Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd." (Wed, 8.30pm)

MALAYSIA MEMANG BOLEH

The "Paper" Chase

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Today, we have forgotten the idea of formal education. Education is to allow us to learn very fundamental of what we will doing. However, today's students study just to pass their examination. They failed to see that examination is basically to test whether they have attained enough knowledge. They study and study and make sure they can memorize and be able to reproduce "those memorized words" in the examination. Sad to say these will pull down the standard of our education. Students who memorized, do not really understand what they have studies. Neither do they learned. These has reflected in our job or work. In other words, people can produce work but they do not produce QUALITY work because they do not have the basic foundation. These foundation can only be obtained through education.

Through counseling in education fairs, I noticed that people are more concerned with the money and duration of the course rather than what they can learn in the course or quality of the course. Sad to say we are now chasing after paper (certificate). We hope we can get string of degrees, masters and even PhDs.

DO WE LEARN IN OUR STUFIES?

The Wonder of Today's Technology

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Today's technology has made this world look smaller. I managed to find some of my old friends again. We have lost contact for almost 20 years. One of my friends, started a group in Facebook for all the ex- ad present members of Sandakan Red Crescent Society. There, I managed to find some of my long lost friends. This world is not far from our fingertips.

THANKS TO TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY.