on the not so sunny side of the street

Friday, September 21, 2007

lost in translation

would be lying through my fasting teeth if i'd said that I didnt NEARLY DIE from a english-malay translation overload.

i swear.

firstly, translating 19 pages worth of 4thousand plus plus English into 24 pages worth of 3thousand plusplus words IS SUPER TAK KELAKAR/NOT FUNNY CAN. i swear im amazed at myself for i'd lasted thus far. haha. while it was oh-so-saccharine-sweet to have family members fumbling over my apparently (i still KNOW my malay is NOT so koyak) horrible translating efforts, it was super irritatingly cute la that they'd been soooo sweating-the-small-stuff until television become t.a.l.i.vision!

like hello?
even I know tali means string can -.-''' sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh

secondly, jazz came over to do an interview regarding the life story of gramma. and im ever so fortunate to be the chosen 'gatekeeper'. which also meant that i had to translate stuff for gramma to understand. aside from learning a hell lot more about my dearest nenek who-adamantly-confirms-she's-70-on-the-dot-despite-being-bdayed-as-1934 (but-we-cant-be-awfully-sure-since-she-never-looked-at-her-birth-certificate-
before), i nearly fainted lah finding the appropriately suitable terms to use.

all in all, i bloody hell learnt that while it was utterly impossible for complete verbatim translations from English to Malay, i'd strived to keep the essence of the questions where possible.

at least, i now know ONE profession i will NOT consider in the near (or far) future.

so there. (now gimme my money, tee hee)
_

in other news, i totally UNDERSTAND those days when i just step outta the house major under-dressed and selekeh. for me, usually im wearing something really lapok & old and usually with my extra-two-eyes on. although, of late i've been nerdly wearing hem since i lovelove them.

but i HAD to (yes you, tk pple you. hehe) bump into both colored-contacts-ed muntaz and hafizah. at ntuc, of ALL places! God, while they looked oh-so-pwetty & left me wondering why are simei-ans at bedok, i FELT LIKE CRAB, CAN! and i was ever-ready to nosy on outta there that the cashier (i rememer her name sia, a ms poh cheng cheng) had to run after me because i'd ungladly left my change which would have been too much of a tip by singapore standards. -___-'' i must have been a spectacle, then. (pardon the pun!)
_

in other other news, i feel super loved by abah O:) he's been so kindly bringing home mooncakes for two days in a row. specially for me leh. he would reach home and specially hand-deliver them to me in person leh. hehe. and of course, this is because daddy's not-always-little girl (read: me) has been craving for em since like EVER. but pssssst, between you & me, im still rueful i havent gotten my lotus seed with single (NOT double) yolk. yeah, im anal like that. heh. maybe today. maybe today.

mengharap pulakkkk/wishful thinking

posted at Friday, September 21, 2007 by Husniyati