THE ACCURACY OF MESSAGE INTERPRETATION IN THE SIGHT TRANSLATION (INDONESIAN TO ENGLISH) PERFORMED BY THE 7TH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT,
Adventina Putranti
English Letters Department,
ABSTRACT
Interpreting is now playing an important role in international communication. Interpreters are needed to fulfill the demands. As a result, there are a lot of educational institutions providing training for interpreters. The skills needed by interpreters, among others, are language competence in both the source language (SL) and the target language (TL), and giving accurate oral delivery of the message in the TL. Those skills must be accompanied with ability in drawing conclusion, summarizing, note-taking, and concentrating.
At the English Letters Department,
A. INTRODUCTION
Interpreting is now playing an important role in international communication. Interpreters are needed to fulfill the demands. As a result, there are a lot of educational institutions providing training for interpreters. Being responsive to the demand, the English Letters Department,
In this Interpreting class, the students are trained to perform English-Indonesian and Indonesian-English interpreting in two different interpreting modes, consecutive and sight translation. In sight translation, that is the interpreting mode discussed in this article, the students interpret messages from a written SL text into a spoken TL text. In practice the problems encountered by the students when interpreting from English to Indonesian are different from when interpreting from Indonesian into English. In dealing with English-Indonesian interpreting, most of the students find difficulties in understanding the message of the SL due to poor vocabulary, as well as grammar and structure. On the other hand, when they have to interpret from Indonesian to English, many of the students encounter the problem of promptness in finding the appropriate TL expressions, and in delivering the message in natural and acceptable TL. The root of such a problem is the students’ poor mastery of English, which can be observed from their inability in delivering the TL message orally and fluently.
This article intends to describe and explain the students’ problems when performing Indonesian – English sight translation. The data presented in this article are obtained by recording the students’ oral interpretation during the Interpreting test.
B. A BRIEF REVIEW ON INTERPRETING
Interpreting is a skill in reproducing a SL message into a TL orally (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). Since the reproduction of the message is done orally, the interpreter must be concerned more with the transfer message than with the form, such as sentence structure or language style. This is due to the nature of both the SL and TL text. The SL text is presented only once and cannot be reviewed or replayed. Meanwhile, the TL text is produced under time pressure, which barely allows the interpreter to make revision or correction (Kade, 1968 in Pochhacker, 2004).
Basically, there are two modes of interpreting that involve spoken language both on the SL and the TL. They are consecutive and simultaneous interpreting. Consecutive interpreting consists of listening to a speech in one language which, then, is followed by translating or summarizing orally into another, while simultaneous interpreting consists of interpreting the speech while listening to it. Simultaneous interpreting can be done in-booth, such as the ones done in conferences, or out-of-booth like whispered interpreting in court (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). The mode of interpreting that involves a written SL text which must simultaneously be translated orally into a TL is called sight translation, for example when suddenly there is a written text, such as a letter, or a note to be interpreted during the interpreting session (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). This mode is, in fact, frequently practiced in daily life, for example when someone has to read and translate orally instructions written on a package of a product, such as food, beverages, drugs, cosmetics, etc.
Considering the nature of interpreting, interpreters must obtain the skills required to carry out the tasks. Proficiency in both the SL and the TL is the basic requirement for an interpreter to be able to do his job (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). Hamers and Blanc mention that an interpreter generally ‘masters one, sometimes two, active languages and several passive ones (Hamers & Blanc, 1989). This quality must also be accompanied with ability in giving accurate oral delivery of the message in the TL, abilities in drawing conclusion, summarizing, and note-taking (Ginori & Scimone, 2001). As this job is normally done under time pressure, an interpreter must also have “special attributes such as resistance, promptness of speech and of mind, in addition to several intellectual gifts including memory, power of concentration, and sense of responsibility” (Ginori & Scimone, 2001).
C. PROBLEMS OF THE ACCURACY OF MESSAGE INTERPRETATION
In performing sight translation from Indonesian into English, the 7th semester students of the English Letters Department of USD are given a type of texts that they may have to deal with in their daily life, such as instructions for preparing hot tea, or interpreting an announcement below. In this activity, the students are presented with a text in Bahasa Indonesia. Once they receive the paper and read the text, at the same time they have to produce oral translation of the Indonesian text into English. Let us observe the following example.
SL1:
Teh Gopek Hangat
Cara Penyajian:
Masukkan 1 teh celup Gopek ke dalam cangkir. Tuangkan air mendidih ( 150 ml), diamkan selama + 5 menit. Tambahkan gula sesuai selera untuk menambah kenikmatan teh melati ini.
Baik digunakan sebelum 29/10/10. Komposisi: Daun teh hijau, bunga melati
TL1: (repetions considered insignificant are not mentioned)
Student 1:
Heat Gopek Tea
How to serve:
Fill Gopek tea into the cup, then pour the boiled water, 100 ml, keep it for 5 minute. Then add the sugar, depends on our apetite to increase eee…. to decrease the enjoyment during drink the ee…melati tea. It is good to use before the twenty nine ten two thousand ten. Composition is green tea leaves and flower
Student 2:
Warm Gopek Tea
The way to serve:
Get one Gopek tea into the cup. Pour the boiled water for 150 ml and make it there for at least 5 minute. Add the sugar for your taste to add the jasmine tea taste. It’s used best before twenty nine ten and two thousand and ten, and the composition is tea leaves and jasmine flower.
Student 3:
Teh Gopek
How to prepare it?
First enter one Gopek tea in a cup and mix with warm…with boiled water more about one and fifty mililiters. Wait more about five minute, then you can mix with sugar or up to your need to create the jasmine…this jasmine tea. This is good to use before nineteen October two thousand and ten. Ingredients: the green tea leaves and also jasmine.
In the first version of TL 1, it can be seen that Student 1 uses several inappropriate expressions such as ‘heat’, ‘fill’, ‘apetite’, ‘increase’, and ‘decrease’ beside his inability in using good English structure. The hesitation shown by uttering ‘eee…’ indicates that this student’s vocabulary is poor although it may signify the students’ difficulties in working with two languages at the same time. It can be seen from the use of the word ‘melati’ in his interpretation, which later is replaced by the word ‘flower’.
The third student shows incompetence in using English. He tends to translate the message word-by-word with a lot of hesitation and inappropriate expressions and poor fluency. He even misunderstands the meaning of ‘masukkan’ and ‘enter’, mistranslates ‘twenty nine’ into ‘nineteen’, and uses the expression ‘more about’, which meaning is not recognized in the TL.
Student 2 performs better English than the other two. The more accurate expressions used by this student, such as ‘get…into’, as the translation of ‘masukkan’, ‘pour’ rather than ‘mix’ for ‘tuangkan’ shows that this student’s vocabulary is better than the other two.. The sentences he produces is also better-formed although there is still some interference of SL structure, such as translating ‘cara penyajian’ into ‘how to serve’ instead of ‘serving suggestion’. This fact also implies students’ difficulties in working with two languages at the same time.
From the three versions of interpretation above it is seen that the three students could substantially comprehend the SL message, but cold not easily produce the TL message easily due to their limited ability in using the TL, in this case English, and due to time pressure. A student whose vocabulary is poor shows poor ability in making good sentences (Student 1 and 3) and needs more time to produce complete interpretation, while a student who has better vocabulary also shows better performance in making sentences (Student 2). Student 1 and 3 also show that their effort in finding the right expressions is not always successful because at the same time his mind is busy thinking about the correct expressions or sentence structure.
Another example can be observed below.
SL2:
Pengumuman
Bagi seluruh peserta pelatihan kepemimpinan diumumkan bahwa penyelenggaraan pelatihan tahap ke-2 diundur sampai ada pemberitahuan selanjutnya. Apabila ada hal-hal yang perlu ditanyakan, dimohon mengubungi nomor telepon sekretariat panitia: 123987, pada jam kerja. Harap maklum.
TL2: (repetions considered insignificant are not mentioned)
Student 1:
Announcement
To all the organization trainee, the second training is delayed until the next announcement. Should you need information, please call the secretary of committee 123987 in office hour. Please be advised.
Student 2:
Announcement
For all those who follow leadership training… will be announced …that it will be hold… that the second step will be delayed until the next announcement. If there is any question, please contact the committee secretary 123987 in their hour. …Thank you.
Student 3:
Announcement
For all the leadership training ehm… that there is held … there is second training ehm…there is held second training ehm…is delayed ehm…with further information. If there is something to ask, please call the secretariat at 123987 at work hours. … Thank you (whispering).
One obvious mistake that the three students make in TL 2 is the use of the word ‘delay’ as the translation of ‘diundur’, which should more appropriately be translated into ‘postpone’. Student 1 shows more confidence in producing the TL message compared to the other two. Students 2 and 3 show a lot of hesitation. It can be observed through the pauses (… & ehm…), and feeling of uncertainty every time they begin with another part of a sentence. The use of ‘conditional without if’ (should you…), instead of ‘if you/there…’, performed by Student 1 shows her knowledge on more advanced English structure although at the end of her interpretation she misinterprets the idea ‘please be (well-) informed’ into ‘please be advised’. Meanwhile, after some hesitation, students 2 and 3 interpret ‘harap maklum’ as ‘thank you’. Student 3 even whispers that part seemingly uncertain that it is the correct expression.
Of course, inaccurate interpretation is not tolerable because it means the message intended in the SL is not transferred, either. Based on the students’ performance, most of their problems lie on their language competence. The hesitation they show could also be interpreted as their lack of promptness of mind, especially, because they have to work under time pressure. Although this course is given in the seventh semester, in which the students are assumed to have acquired minimum requirements to communicate in English fluently, still, they have difficulties when they have to work with more than one language at the same time. Time pressure is another obstacle because it influences the students’ promptness of mind.
D. CONCLUSION
From the discussion above, it can be concluded that the message interpretation in the sight translation from Indonesian to English performed by the 7th semester students of the English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University, is not accurate due to the students’ poor English competence, lack of ability in working with two languages at the same time. Beside that, due to time limitation, which makes the students work under pressure, their promptness of mind becomes weak, thus, it worsens their performance.
E. REFERENCES
Ginori, Luciano. And Ezio Scimone. Introduction to Interpreting: Background Notes to
Interpreting as a Profession in a Multicultural Society, Sydney: Lantern Press
Publication, 2001.
Hamers, Josiane F. and Michel H.A. Blanc. Bilinguality and Bilingualism, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1989
Pochhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting Studies, New York: Routledge, 2004
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