An example of English translation of Indonesian colloquial speech

SO, (as anybody may not know), I'm currently pursuing a degree in translation and interpreting studies. Stream: Indonesian (of course!).

One time we had a tutorial, doing translation from Indonesian source text to English, as the target language.

As I always have this difficulty, to translate Indonesian text to English, I felt especially relieved when my tutor, an Australian lady who has incredible skills in Indonesian, thought that my English translation of Indonesian colloquial speech was veeery nice. Teehee.

Just so you know, this particular speech was from a Minister of Indonesia... so then, translating it was kind of, uhm, hard? Hard that his speaking was very LOVELY that my classmates and I had a terrible time understanding his messages... Duh.

Anyway, here is what I had done in that tutorial

The Indonesian source speech:

"Misalnya ambil tema tentang sungai, sudah ada bahan IPAnya di situ. Sungai itu ada airnya, rumusnya H₂O, bisa mengalir kenapa karena ada perbedaan tekanan. Juga memiliki derajat kejernihan, bisa wudhu, satu mata pelajaran bisa dikaitkan kemana-mana, kotoran sungai tercemar, dan seterusnya. Dengan demikian anak-anak memiliki kemampuan utuh. Anak-anak SD tidak mendapat pendekatan yang terpisah-pisah, tapi utuh. Mudah mempelajari sesuatu yang kecil-kecil jika sudah dewasa," paparnya.

The English translation: 

“Take a topic about river for example. The materials for the Natural Sciences are already there. In the river, there is water. The water’s formula is H₂O. The water can flow, why, because there is a difference of water pressure. Water also has degree of clarity. Water can also be used for washing before prayers. So, one subject can be linked to anything. Say, there is waste in the river, the river gets polluted, and so forth. Therefore, the children have a complete competence. The primary school children will not get separate approaches, but an integrated one. It will be easier to learn from small things when they grow up,” he explained.

My tutor commented:

The translation was nice because I kept the colloquial feeling in the English translation, therefore, the translation is quite faithful to the source text. 

My thought:

Phew! What a task!