Monday 8 May 2006

Lost in Translation

I took these pictures in October last year at the famous KLCC Park.

And of course, the Malay 'equivalent' found near by:

To me, if the Malay sign was to be translated into English, I would say it means "In Action". Does "In Action" tells you that work is being done or it is under review whether a work will be done? It sounds something like the expression "I'll look into it". Whether there is anything done by the speaker or the speaker will try to see what he can do about it, unless we clarify with the speaker, the expression might be interpreted differently by different listener.

No doubt that some semantic might lost when translating from one language to another, but they could just use "Kerja sedang dijalankan&quit; which is more common than "Dalam Tindakan". Think I should go and have a look on the progress so far in the park. I might not even notice what is being done as the work mentioned might be just schedule maintenance of the park, or it is just how it was like in October 2005.

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