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Thursday, July 21, 2011

My Life in BATI - USM Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) Translation and Interpretation

Editor's note: In Malaysia, only Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) offers translation course at three levels - first degree, masters degree and PhD. We all learnt that translation is very important especially during the Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Malaysia in April this year.
Wen JiaBao Visit Malaysia Translation
Lost in translation: The offending backdrop during the welcoming ceremony for Wen at Putrajaya. Source: The Star Online

When we talked on this incident, c.h.tay commented "The Wen Jiabao incident just showed that Malaysians really don't appreciate our expertise. Every Malaysians think that they can translate, really!"
Written by c.h.tayShare your university life with us and get published here!

At first when I was offered Bachelor of Arts (Translation and Interpretation) from University Sains Malaysia (USM), my former boss yelled, "Does any university in Malaysia offers this course?!" Apparently, this course is not widely known.

I came to register this course as a white paper, as I have not known any seniors that enrolled into this course from my school. And I had changed stream from biology STPM to arts Degree. First day, we met our PA (Penasihat Akademik or Academic Advisor, AA), some sorts of your class teachers in secondary life. Your PA advises you on what class you should take to fulfil the minimum university requirement to graduate. BY THEN, every semester you need to take at least 16 units to graduate. Some universities count units as credit hours. Maximum is 20 units.

First semester, less units = more relax. I had more time to walk around the campus, to stick in the library during interval between classes, and to make a lot of friends, from my own course and other courses as well. I enjoyed free movies offered by foreign language week, e.g. Spanish Language Week, Malay Language Week, Korean Language Week and Japanese Language Week. We even had fiesta or exhibition about the origin country of the foreign language. They cooked their delicacy, show you how to make small crafts, etc. As for USM Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) Translation and Interpretation (Ijazah Sarjana Muda Sastera (Kepujian) Terjemahan dan Interpretasi) students, you get priority in taking foreign language course as your minor. Minor courses offered are Japanese, Chinese (for non-primary Chinese students) and Arabic. I took Japanese as my minor and even keep learning Japanese till now.

The course itself focuses on the history of translations, Bahasa Melayu (BM) and English language system, variety of translating methods to be used in different discourse and even machine translation (computerized translation). We even had to learn about basic computer knowledge from using Microsoft Office to developing your own flash using Adobe Flash. We learnt a bit of everything.

This course would be a piece of cake for those who are fluent in English and BM. They only have to learn about the translating methods. But for me, I needed to brush up my language skills and also enriched my vocabulary in both languages. See, translating is never an easy job!

I like Sociolinguistic this class the most. We got to analyse the language used by all walks of life and found a way to explain why they used that kind of expressions. I also like Malay and English Grammar & Editing Strategy. We could role-play as editor and told our friends what mistakes they made. In exchange, we got the same harsh critics from our friends too! I am weak in Consecutive Interpretation. I stumbled a lot. All of those interpretation classes I think I did not do well. I was lack of confident to speak in English. Till now, English speaking still kills me.

Of all those pains and gains, I really love this course. SO, I'm hard selling to those who love languages and want to be as cool as Nicole Kidman in The Interpreter!
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Comments
15 Comments

15 comments:

  1. Learning any new language is a tough task- I rem my days when I learned in French! To get an easy grip over the pronunciation I use to practice it day in & out!

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  2. i love languages too ! esp english and japanese. Im now studying in lower 6(arts stream). Hmm i dont know whether to study linguistics or this translation course. Anyway thanks for sharing your experience.

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    1. What is the differences between translation and linguistics? Do u knw any major course in korean language?

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  3. i just want to know..THE JOB OPPORTUNITY IF WE TAKE LINGUISTIC COURSES...WHAT CAN WE DO AFTER GRADUATION? i really love foreign languages and now i can write n read in korean but i cant understand the meaning...n i dont know how to form the sentence bcoz it just self-studied through korean drama and friend...never take an official class...SOMEONE PLEASE ANSWER ME...I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE ANSWER FOR YEARS BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THE ANSWER IS STILL IN SECRET...

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    Replies
    1. Do u knw any universities in malaysia which offers courses in translation from english to korean or korean to english? I wanna learn to be a translator.. korean language

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  4. So this course only translate english to malay and malay to english? Nothing like korean to english and english to korean?

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  5. This course sucks and I am your senior from 2007-2009 batch!

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  6. This type of article is interesting and fun to read. I love reading and I am always searching for informative info like this.

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  7. Excellent read, I just passed this into a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that.

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  8. Superb incredible going, I cherish your work and look forward for more work from your side. I am a customary guest of this site and at this point have recommended numerous individuals.

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  9. English to Chinese translationFriday, January 13, 2017 3:23:00 pm

    Our highly-skilled translators are among the best in the Chinese translation service industry. They have outstanding educational backgrounds and are selected based on their experience, proficiency and credentials.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. This course is difficult or not?i mean does all the subjects taken need to memorize or what? Im kind of interested with this course but i want to know is it easy to get job opportunities?..i hope u can answer my questions
    tq☺

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  12. Hello, i am very interested in taking this course BATI. I am a diploma in english graduate, with pointer 3.75. Do you think that i could enter this course? I am afraid that i could not manage to enroll in that course as USM is such a prestigious U. Hope you do not mind to help me

    ReplyDelete

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