Translate: Outreach

I was in my class last Saturday when the facilitator told us the handouts that he was supposed to give us was not yet ready (for whatever cause).


He then started to churn out some tips in translating. A few tips led to more tips before a good part before the class having a tea break, turned into Q&A session about tips and how to.


One of the words, he explained, was taking them years to find the right translation. It was then they realize, Malay, just like English, have dialects. So they resolved that as long as we resourced the translated words from the same root (The Malay Archipelago) there should not be much dispute. Using phonetic of outreach to spell 'outric' seem to be inviting controversy than resolution. Scouring our neighbor Indonesia's vocabulary, they found out that, in Indonesia, they have long been using a perfect translation for the word.


The word is : Outreach
The Malay translation : Anjangkarya


In Indonesia, unlike in Malaysia, the word karya will always mean work. Indonesians translate 'workers' as 'karyawan' where as in Malaysia a karya means a work of art, thus a karyawan in Malaysia is an artist or an author. As for the word anjang, it means to visit (Reference: Kamus Bahasa Indonesia). The combination of the two words to become anjangkarya perfectly fits the meaning of the translation for the English word outreach, which is a visit while at the same time performing the work meant for the visit.


I couldn't agree more.