So I was updating my Facebook with stuff like:

  1. How to translate “Customize”
  2. Inbox = Peti masuk? lol
  3. I was thinking “Subscribe to this blog’s comments through…” could be “Langgan kepada komen blog ini melalui…” XD
  4. Ok so I decided that “There are no comments posted yet” be translated into “Belum ada komen dikemukakan lagi”. Cool? :P

And I also gave the reason for doing this.

IntenseDebate recently opened up localization to its own users. What it means is it’s allowing ID-ers to help translate it into their own language. Happily, within a week ID has received volunteers to translate it into 26 languages (Korean included! Wow!). Is that cool or not? :P

We even got to see a snapshot of ID in French. Cooooooool!

Well, I’ve been happily accepted by IntenseDebate to help translate it into Malay. Yesterday and the day before I was hard at work trying to translate the myriads of phrases that I was tasked to do. It wasn’t easy, even for someone who was educated in the language back in the school days. But I’m glad to say that I’ve finished it and hopefully *perhaps* my translations will get accepted.

I’m not too sure if translators have to keep the stuff secret. When I was doing the translation I felt that a literal approach was not suitable and would reflect badly on the language. Granted, I don’t use the language often (I’m seeing WP and IntenseDebate all in English :P ), but still it’s a heavy responsibility, and a great honor, knowing that what you have translated will potentially end up as part of a greater work done by brilliant people out there. Hence an example at hand:

English:

Gain readership to your blog or website:

Malay, literally:

Perolehi pembacaan kepada blog atau laman web anda.

(Damn sucky)

My approach:

Tambahkan bilangan pembaca bagi blog atau laman web anda

(Add the number of readers for your blog or website)

Granted, it’s not a literal translation, but nevertheless it’s a faithful one. :P

Other than things like this, I tried to be as literal as possible. It was hard work yesterday, what with experiencing file corruption midway through the process, before I managed to solve the problem. Whew! I was busy, but I liked doing this, knowing that there will be people who will benefit from this. :D

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