Saturday morning. Bright and sunny. Such a beautiful day, so why am I the only one stuck in the office on this nice Saturday when I can sleep in until noon? This is due to the fact that one of our Indonesian Associates just flew in and my Boss scheduled a meeting with him at noon today. Thus I have to rush out documents, both our documents and the ones from our clients in Taiwan. Imagine having to proof-read and translate a 22-page document from traditional Chinese into English! I hope they do not ask me to translate from English to Bahasa Indonesia (with or without the ‘n’?).
It is no mean feat, considering the fax pages are blurry so I can hardly make out what the characters are. One thing about Chinese characters is that every stroke counts. Just placing a stroke differently means a totally different thing. People should try to fax clearer pages; either that, or we have to change our fax machine into a better one. I struggled with simplified Chinese all through school, and now I have to deal with traditional Chinese! My mother tongue is never that proficient in the first place. I guess this is my punishment for not taking my studies seriously in the past. :-(
Where is my first brother when I need him?! He is the Chinese expert, thus his studies in China. He is proficient in both simplified and traditional Chinese, as well as English. He is the real bilingual in the family, I am the monolingual. Or can I even be considered a monolingual, since my English is not up to par as well?
I am not totally new to translation though. I used to have to translate documents when I was teaching, and when I started working in law firms, I had to do a bit of proof-reading and translation as well, from Chinese to English and vice versa. When my dad’s business was in China, I also had to help him with a bit of translation. Now that he is branching out into Indonesia, I hope he does not ask me to do any translating, at least not until I find someone willing to teach me Bahasa Indonesia and I can at least read, write, speak and understand the language.
Oh we got our new monitor already. My dad managed to buy it before he flew off to Jakarta yesterday. Since it was so rushed, he did not have the time to buy a good one, thus we downgraded from a 17-inch to a 15-inch flat screen monitor. I am not used to the display and icons being so small, so now I have to really squint. Oh well…. at least my CRT woes are over.
It is no mean feat, considering the fax pages are blurry so I can hardly make out what the characters are. One thing about Chinese characters is that every stroke counts. Just placing a stroke differently means a totally different thing. People should try to fax clearer pages; either that, or we have to change our fax machine into a better one. I struggled with simplified Chinese all through school, and now I have to deal with traditional Chinese! My mother tongue is never that proficient in the first place. I guess this is my punishment for not taking my studies seriously in the past. :-(
Where is my first brother when I need him?! He is the Chinese expert, thus his studies in China. He is proficient in both simplified and traditional Chinese, as well as English. He is the real bilingual in the family, I am the monolingual. Or can I even be considered a monolingual, since my English is not up to par as well?
I am not totally new to translation though. I used to have to translate documents when I was teaching, and when I started working in law firms, I had to do a bit of proof-reading and translation as well, from Chinese to English and vice versa. When my dad’s business was in China, I also had to help him with a bit of translation. Now that he is branching out into Indonesia, I hope he does not ask me to do any translating, at least not until I find someone willing to teach me Bahasa Indonesia and I can at least read, write, speak and understand the language.
Oh we got our new monitor already. My dad managed to buy it before he flew off to Jakarta yesterday. Since it was so rushed, he did not have the time to buy a good one, thus we downgraded from a 17-inch to a 15-inch flat screen monitor. I am not used to the display and icons being so small, so now I have to really squint. Oh well…. at least my CRT woes are over.
4 comments:
Urhm...
Even if you started learning Bahasa Indonesia now, I do not think you'll have enough capability to translate into Bahasa until you've been at it for at least 5 years (in Singapore).
Even I still do not dare claim that I can translate well into Japanese, or even Bahasa Indonesia. (Anyhow hantam of course can)
You know quite a few Indonesians, I am pretty sure you can find one who can do reliable English->Bahasa translation for a reasonable fee. (*ask the one in blue*)
Hmmm, the one in blue eh? So should I ask you, or someone else you recommend?
The one with spikes. He has experience, he may even take the job himself.
I got my namecard.. and it says "Translator" on it.
Whee.. so happy. If your dad need convincing, at least you know one "professional" translator who can back you up :P
Ah yes, now I get it, "the one in blue" as in the avatar of the one with spikes. I know he is the best choice so he was the 1st person I asked to teach me Bahasa, but he said he would not make an effective teacher as he would be too busy.
Still, anytime I need anything translated, I'll holler for either of you! Thanks so much!
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