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Folks who love watching foreign shows appreciate the presence of subtitles - they are necessary to understand the conversations that take place between the characters within the drama or movie. Malaysia has always been a strong advocate of providing Bahasa Malaysia (BM) subtitles to their non-BM shows so that the literate community can wholesomely enjoy the programs.

When Indonesian movies and dramas started becoming more mainstream on Malaysian television in the early 21st century, there was a need to have subtitles for them too as Malaysians who are not exposed to spoken Indonesian find it a challenge to watch and understand the storylines.

However when I was growing up in the 1980s, I don't remember Indonesian movies having BM subtitles. Perhaps this is an indication that the use of standard (baku) language in character dialogues now is becoming less prevalent in favor of casual and more realistic colloquial sentences which are typically very local.

In my random observations, the BM translations from the spoken Bahasa Indonesia in the shows aired on TV these days sometime prove to be inaccurate. It was during these mindless moments that I'd be mentally correcting the errors if I stumbled across them in the movie.

Yes, I secretly thought that I would make a decent BM subtitler for these Indonesian movies, mainly because I was so comfortable with Bahasa Indonesia, moreso than the average Malaysian. How I longed for the opportunity!

One fine day I caught a break: a lady from a post-production house in Jakarta emailed me in February to ask if I was interested in freelancing as a BM translator for some Indonesian sinetrons for their client! I couldn't believe my dumb luck.

What was even more amazing was that the production house found me via MyIndo.com and thought that I fit the bill as I was fluent in both Bahasa Indonesia & Bahasa Malaysia. I of course naturally had an interest to do such work. Once again, I was reminded of how much good fortune and blessings I have received from running MyIndo.com!

I started my translation work almost immediately after the offer. The material would be couriered to me from Jakarta to my home in Petaling Jaya in DVD format. I then would watch the sinetrons on my computer and listen to each dialogue line in the episodes while translating them on the fly. After saving my work in text files, I emailed the translations over to my supervisor who would then scan them for spelling mistakes or incorrect syntax.

I'd like to have dialogue sheets to work with and just start translating from there. Unfortunately there were none available from the producers of the dramas as the scripts typically go missing after the sinetrons are shot. Unlike in Hollywood where everything is organized and properly documented, said my editor. Translating shows without dialogue sheets is a very tedious task and requires a lot of time and concentration because you would actually have to watch each and every second of the movie files.

To cope with the workload, I pulled in two friends whom I thought would qualify for the work. Due to the tight deadlines that we had, we were required to translate at the speed of a pink mini bus madly dashing through the streets of KL in the early 1990s (alias really fastlah!). Ah, how sleepless nights plagued my days.

I hit a stumbling block however at the beginning of the project. When the client reviewed my first translation, they thought it still sounded Indonesian.

You have got to be kidding me! Too Indonesian??

Maybe because I was so in tune with Bahasa Indonesia that my Bahasa Malaysia was starting to sound more Indonesian than it should really be. I was contaminating my mother tongue with that of a neighboring country's! :)

I decided to change tactics in translating - I went for what is termed impressionistic translation. Instead of attempting to translate word for word (form), I worked towards getting the gist of the dialogues and translating what is meant and how it would be said in the local language.

This is confusing, but believe me, the change in tactic made my work much easier and more efficient. Plus the board of editors weren't so quick to dismiss my translations anymore. :)

The day finally came when the TV series that I helped translate began broadcasting on satellite TV channel Astro Aruna which specifically broadcasts shows from Indonesia. The series, Wah Cantiknya 2, debuted in Malaysia in April and ended early June 2007. Wah Cantiknya 2 spanned over 34 episodes and was aired daily on weeknights at 7pm with a rerun at 10pm.

My family was very supportive and whenever possible would huddle in front of the TV to watch the sinetron with me. Plus we'd be religiously reading the subtitles!

Wah Cantiknya 2 stars Anjasmara - he plays a poor and mentally-retarded character named Cecep who lives with his mother. Cecep goes through many misadventures in Jakarta, including going to school for the first time (as a 20-something year old man!) while falling in love with his teacher. He is also trying to divorce a woman named Kartika whom he married in season 1. Kartika had cunningly got hitched with him in order to legally inherit a large amount of wealth from her deceased father.

If you can actually tolerate the fact that Cecep speaks in an annoyingly nasal and high voice with many contorted facial expressions and just suck in all the silliness the show has to offer, Wah Cantiknya 2 can be relatively entertaining.

By default on Astro Aruna channel, the subtitles are not visible to viewers.

To see the subtitles on the TV screen, you would have to press on the subtitle button located on the Astro remote controller.

You would then see an option menu shown on the right.

To enable the subtitles, click on the subtitles button again and it should say "B. Melayu." Then click "OK" on the remote to proceed.

Tada! The BM subtitles are now visible at the bottom of your TV screen! Now the sinetron is ready to be read and understood by Malaysians who think spoken Bahasa Indonesia in dramas is too fast!

On Malaysian terrestrial TV (read: free TV like RTM, TV3), subtitles are not an option as they are embedded in the shows and you cannot turn them off. Folks who know English find Bahasa Malaysia subtitles annoying when they appear in English movies. This is understandable because sometimes certain plots are revealed before they appear in the movie because of the mis-timed subtitles! Not everyone enjoys spoilers.

But of course not everyone is fluent in English, so the BM subtitles do help people to understand the show dialogues better.

I'll show you a couple more screen shots of some of the subtitles I did for Wah Cantiknya 2.

This chubby man is plays a funny character named Pak Amir. He is a dodgy gay lawyer who works for Cecep in handling his divorce papers. I liked him because of his obvious campiness and flamboyancy, plus constant usage of Indonesian bahasa gaul, the slang that is the lingua franca of gay society which is also gaining popular usage among non-gays. E.g.:

Akika = aku

Begindeng = Begini

And a lot more which I will not list here. Aduh bow, cape deh (sorry I had to throw that one in there). :-)

Meet Cecep's mom, a sweet elderly lady who is forever seen chomping on dried sireh leaves at the corner of her mouth like a cow chewing on hay. She loves her son and is a patient mother who only wants him to be happy.

And this is a shot of Cecep persuading Ayu, a newly-introduced female character suffering from amnesia and depression, to come back home with him. He had found her trying to jump off a bridge attempting suicide onto an incoming train.

Will someone please get this lady some anti-depressants?

Conclusion

I honestly enjoyed being involved in this project translating Indonesian sinetrons to Bahasa Malaysia and it's plainly because I am very enthusiastic and passionate about language comparison between Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia.

Most people may not give subtitles much thought, but once you understand how much work is involved and the time required to translate even a 30-minute show, then you start better appreciating what subtitlers do and their important role in educating TV viewers.

If anyone is interested to check out Wah Cantiknya 2, Astro Aruna (channel 9 on Astro) is actually rerunning the shows on Saturdays and Sundays at 7-8pm, then 8-9pm. For more channel listings, visit the Astro website and type in "Cantiknya" in the program search field located at the top of the page.

And remember to turn on the subtitles to read my work! :-) (Fairy Mahdzan/9 June 2007)

Setinggi-tinggi terima kasih to Freddy & Desy - without you both, this story will not be possible to write about.

Do you pay attention to subtitles on TV?

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Say what?

#47	Fairy	8-Oct-2008, 15:44 MYT
HALIZA: I just mailed you. We'll talk more.

#46	Haliza Sharif	7-Oct-2008, 17:33 MYT
Hi Fairy, I'm very interested to translate sinetrons too. I speak very fluent Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia. If there is an opportunity soon, please let me know. I'll be eternally grateful Cheers, Liz

#44	Fairy	5-Jan-2008, 14:34 MYT
I saw the most bizarre thing on channel Astro Ceria a few nights ago: an Indonesian sinetron that was dubbed (DUBBED I said, not subtitled) in Bahasa Malaysia! Bizarre!

#42	Fairy	14-Sep-2007, 14:02 MYT
SILIA: I don't watch sinetrons, I only do when I have to translate them. I find it a bit funny but do try to watch them with an open mind. But if you ask me personally would I watch sinetron for leisure? No, I most probably wouldn't.

#41	siLia - Website	14-Sep-2007, 12:51 MYT
Just curious, gak bosen liat sinetron indo? to be honest, fai sinetrons are so boring and so not educated, I hate Sintrons... but... if its give quite good bill, aku pun mau hahahaha.....

#40	Fairy	2-Aug-2007, 11:15 MYT
KANIA: I've not received offers to subtitle Indonesian movies yet, but I suppose that will come in time. I have however been asked to translate Malay dramas to Bahasa Indonesia! That's more challenging as I'm not native Indonesian. The effect would be like an Indonesian trying to write Malay and the results aren't as authentic as a native speaker's work. Sinema-Indonesia is one wacky movie review website, I like their style.

#37	Fairy	1-Jul-2007, 04:36 MYT
JAF: Proud, a bit lah. Worried? Very! I read your blog entry about the plague of Indonesian sinetrons outside Indonesia. I do agree that most of the themes presented in these dramas tend to be absurdly distorted, like glamorizing the rich and downplaying the poor. Those topics are almost always the axis on which some dramas revolve. Like for instance, Wah Cantiknya 2 is forever reminding the audience that being rich is the solution to having a happy life. Some have even regarded sinetrons as pembodohan massal! Extreme thinking? Maybe. But not unwarranted. BTW thank you for linking my piece from your blog and for crediting the photo. Very responsible blogging, I like.

#35	Dee - Website	26-Jun-2007, 17:03 MYT
Mmm, not a big fan, just... takder kerje, lah! My email bounced? well, i'll write to you soon!

#33	Fairy	22-Jun-2007, 12:05 MYT
EBB! I just wrote you! Let's revive Jn2x shall we! I've already started to contact the original folks who joined the revolution, as well as asking help from new parties! DEE, I also wrote you - but somehow email bounced. Can you write me?

#32	Ebb	22-Jun-2007, 05:37 MYT
JN2x is back on?? so i can continue to contribute more???!! yeay!

#31	Fairy	17-Jun-2007, 07:05 MYT
DEE: You must be a big fan of sinetrons! You seem to know so many good ones. Thanks for your encouragement to rerelease JN2x. I actually found the database on my pc, it's got about 1,300+ words. Last updated in 2002. So let's see if I have time to set it up. NORMAN: Yes, freelance gigs usually means you keep your main day job, for most people.

#29	Dee	15-Jun-2007, 17:14 MYT
Good sinetrons? mmm.... apa ya? "Bajaj Bajuri" was a good n funny sitcom. Dan yang sekarang sedang digemari disini, "OB" (office boy), is also funny. One of the cast of OB is Project Pop's Tika Panggabean. "Si Doel Anak Sekolahan" was a good one, although the earlier series, when Benyamin was still alive, were the best ones. Deddy Mizwar's "Kiamat Sudah Dekat" is also good, in fact president SBY loved it so much and invited the whole cast to his residence. There was this sinetron, "Kisah Sedih di Hari Minggu", sebenarnya ga bagus sih, the story went from lumayan sampai gak masuk akal. But I really enjoyed Meriam Bellina's acting.. btw, ya, rilis dong kamus Jom Ngomong2x itu, it'll be great!

#28	Fairy	15-Jun-2007, 11:14 MYT
CIREBONESE: Saya desain template website saya sendiri, pakai Macromedia Dreamweaver. Design-nya basic saja, tidak ada yang terlalu fancy.

#26	Fairy	14-Jun-2007, 22:33 MYT
R. SOARES: Saya tak tau drama Melayu yang mana yang mau diterjemah, saya belum ditawar kerjanya. Semir itu bukan perkataan Bahasa Malaysia. Waktu saya bikin translation, saya tidak tahu apa maksud semir, jadi saya tandakan dulu pakai "*" untuk dibetulkan kemudian. Akhirnya saya dapat tahu semir itu shoe polish, dan perkataannya di dalam Bhs Msia adalah "penggilap kasut". Tentang forum soal jawab kosa kata BM vs BI, itu idea yang sangat bagus. Saya sebenarnya pernah mulai bikin kamus database Jom Ngomong2x sekitar tahun 2000, complete with search function, tapi saya tidak pernah merilisnya. Mungkin sudah tiba masanya untuk saya revive kembali project JN2X itu? Hmmm...

#24	Fairy	14-Jun-2007, 19:00 MYT
FUH, banyak response dari anda semua. Terima kasih! Here's my answers: G VAN JOED: I am not sure kalau Si Doel Anak Betawi pernah ditayang atau tidak di Malaysia, saya tidak banyak tengok TV di sini. Itu sinetron lama juga kan? I've heard of the soundtrack for that sinetron however. Kinda funny. RANI: Yes, ma'am! Memang I nak letak some examples later in another article, terlalu exhaustive kalau ditaruh di sini. I'll choose perhaps 3 random scenes from Wah Cantiknya 2, complete with the original Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia translations. Plus some additional information about the format of the translations. Tunggu ya! Akan dibilang di newsletter yang akan datang. And NO, I have no plans to make this a full time career. It's nice to do as parttime but not fulltime. I simply want to spread myself around doing more things than just translating for work. DANI: No lah, I just pick up here and there. Boleh lah sikit2. See me where di mana nih, KL? I dunno when I'm going back to Jakarta bro. You ajalah datang ke KL. DC: Anda betul sekali! Meatball adalah BEBOLA DAGING, saya tersasul cakap 'bola dedaging.' Chaos, man, chaos.

#23	dc	14-Jun-2007, 17:23 MYT
"bola dedaging" ?.. Fairy, think the correct term dier Bebola daging.. Mcm Fish ball = bebola ikan.. Atau pun saye sendiri yang salah..

#19	Fairy	14-Jun-2007, 10:13 MYT
Some additional response to DEE's question: Why Astro decided to air WC2? As you may know, there is a special Indonesian channel on Astro called Aruna. Since it airs 24 hours day, you'd think the channel owner would be pressed to find as many sinetrons to air as possible to fill up the airtime and avoid redundancy (although I do notice many reruns of the same shows!). And since WC2 had an award-winning actor, Anjasmara, it only makes sense to show it. What I'm surprised at though, is that Wah Cantiknya is considered old news for Indonesians since it was popularized a few years ago. So really, we're getting old sinetrons to watch. Speaking of bad sinetrons to watch, I can't watch the ones that portray evil stepmothers, like Bawang Merah Bawang Putih (is that in the right order?). Jahat gile. I've also been asked to do Bahasa Indonesia subtitles for Malay dramas (terbalik pula!). This one I admit will be even more challenging because although I know Bahasa Indonesia well, I am not native to the language and I may not accurately capture the Malay meaning in the Indonesian sense. So to be honest I'm a bit nervous about doing that type of translation.

#18	Fairy	13-Jun-2007, 21:42 MYT
DEE: welcome to the myindo.com family where everyone talks, eats and dreams Indonesian vs Malaysian pop culture! Trims juga for bookmarking me, although the URL myindo.com is short and easy to remember. Yes translating Wah Cantiknya 2 was very challenging due to the Cecep's speech impairment, I nearly went mad. So you understand now why subtitles are very important for today's Indonesian sinetrons and movies. We've grown somewhat apart linguistically in the bahasa sehari-hari context. Can you name me some good sinetrons? INDONESIAN BOY: WC memang weird, especially when you consider that the 'pari-pari' in the series is Cecep's dead father in law! Haha. What is it with Indonesian sinetrons and fairies!

#17	laung	13-Jun-2007, 21:22 MYT
Hope Astro Aruna plays Nagabonar some time biar di-subtitled sama PakDin

#16	Dee	13-Jun-2007, 11:51 MYT
Dear Fairy, I bumped into your website a couple of weeks ago... love it so much that I have it bookmarked Anyway, I went to Sarawak last month, and I had a chance to see an Indonesian drama (or Sinetron, as we call it) on TV, not Astro though. It was a strange experience as an Indonesian to see a sinetron subbed into BM. It made me realize how both languages have grown so far apart that we barely understand each other. I watched a Malaysian sitcom show, and I was like.. "what are you guys talking about?" My compliments to you, Fairy! I'm sure translating 'Wah Cantiknya' was not easy at all, considering the way 'Cecep' talks... But, I was thinking, why did the Astro TV decided to air that show? Indeed it was a popular show in Indonesia, and the lead actor did win several awards for his performance as Cecep... but, personally, it wasn't a very good show. Well... there are hardly any good sinetrons here anyway...

#15	indonesian_boy	12-Jun-2007, 14:28 MYT
Wah cantiknya iz da weirdest sinetron ever I watched.. Still dis sinetron was so famous 4 years a go, It can be seen from many awards they hv got...

#14	Fairy	11-Jun-2007, 12:13 MYT
MK: I do believe the subtitles in movies in Malaysia are improving by leaps and bounds. It's not so 'kaku' anymore and quality is there. I've also actually picked up a lot of new BM baku words which I would have never known had I not been reading subtitles! PAKDIN: I'll consult you if I come across those dialects! Sorry no bandanas for the myindo merchandise. Won't you consider a tshirt?

#13	pakdin	11-Jun-2007, 09:55 MYT
Need Helps? PakDin is here. 5 years living and gard in Indonesia (of course sometimes i fly back to Penang for Raya). If there are Sinetrons using Batak or Aceh or Minang accent or colloquial Samatrans, do not hesitate to get Pakdin for free he he he. Consider it as my contribution to my alma meter country Indonesia

#12	MK84	11-Jun-2007, 08:34 MYT
Awesome! Hehehe Now that's the way to do translation. Instead of the usual literal and direct translation that often plague us here, especially in the cinema.

#11	Fairy	10-Jun-2007, 21:43 MYT
Everyone, meet IM! One of the two girls I worked relentlessly with to complete the subtitles for WC2. Yes Im those days memang tiring, but we had good fun, right! I hope we can make use of that kamus gaul you just bought from Jakarta one of these days.

#10	im	10-Jun-2007, 20:45 MYT
cayalah! thanks fai sbb kongsi this wonderful tiring job with me. hehe.. bit frustrated coz ada juga sub yang salah walaupun kita buat dah betul. miss those days.

#9	Fairy - Website	10-Jun-2007, 15:36 MYT
Yo CHINO, thanks dude, glad you enjoyed this piece. G Van JOED: So far, I've only worked on Wah Cantiknya 2, when there are more sinetrons to be translated the production house will get in touch with me, so basically I am on stand by. Tapi untuk menerjemah WC2 aja susah memusingkan, but it was a lot of fun! Contoh one of the hurdles I faced was translating words like bakso. Nah, makanan bakso itu khas Indonesia, so really it's not that easy to translate bakso. Bakso is, ya, baksolah. You can't translate words like that easily, contohnya seperti hot dog (sosis), how can you translate it as 'anjing panas'? But my editor was really finnicky about the word bakso (because the client was too) and so we had to translate bakso jadi 'bola dedaging' (meat balls) to ensure all Malaysians knew what bakso was. Bingung kan? Ooh, I have so many more examples. Nantilah ku pikir2, jadiin artikel baru pula. Or you guys can just ask me, I'll answer them here.

#7	G Van Joed	10-Jun-2007, 12:07 MYT
Akika Diana Begindang Begindung Disindang Disindung Menarik juga kerja sebagai penerjemah sinetron Indonesia ke BM. Kamu memang pantas melakukannya. BTW, udah berapa banyak sinetron Indonesia yg kamu translate ke BM? Apa aja sih, pengen tau....

#6	Fairy	10-Jun-2007, 11:19 MYT
LAUNG: Maybe you can start a myjepun.com? I wish the Japanese would start embracing English subtitles on their DVDs. I wanted to buy a set of Ultraman Jack DVDs a few years ago on Amazon JP but found out there weren't any English subs, huhu, sedih deh. Padahal I really wanted those DVDs and was willing to fork out big bucks for 'em. JOEL: Yes those subs on free TV have known to make people a bit jilted, myself included! And trust me I understand what it's like to be confused with BIndo and BMalay, I was all jumbled up when I started out translating Wah Cantiknya 2. Malu bow.

#5	Joel Kandiah - Website	10-Jun-2007, 10:43 MYT
hey fairy! great work must i say. at least when i go back to malaysia this year i hopefully wont get confused with my indo and malay when watching astro hehe. i totally agree with you about the BM subtitles on english movies especially on free-to-air tv, ruins the plot so much lol

#4	laung - Website	10-Jun-2007, 08:21 MYT
Good work Fairy! Now I understand where you had been recently I do appreciate subtitles. Kat sini jarang nonton karena tak ngerti bahasanya. Wish there were myjepun.com

#3	Fairy	10-Jun-2007, 03:55 MYT
Thanks JOHN, NULI! Wah Cantiknya 2 is a rather weird show, apparently one of many sinetrons portraying mentally retarded characters as its main cast. JOHN, you enjoying your time holidaying?

#2	john - Website	10-Jun-2007, 03:38 MYT
Well done Fairy! Sounds like a weird and wonderful show

#1	Nuli - Website	10-Jun-2007, 03:30 MYT
Would love to see sinetrons in usa, subtitled by fairy of course !