FYI: Being Technical Vs Being Sensible

A lot of Malay words, standing alone or within a phrase, are initially and generally accepted as the correct term for its English equivalent. But as we progress, confusions seem to rise as to its exact meaning or when a variation suddenly appears as a result of re-classification (for example a disease that expands into several sub-diseases in the same family). A very good example of this is diabetes.

A generally accepted term for Diabetes in Malay is Kencing Manis. As you may know now, diabetes is not just kencing manis as in 'your urine is sugar-laden' or 'your urine is sweet as gula-kabung, ants just love them'. We are now informed about the various types of diabetes (mainly Type 1, 2 and 3. Know about them HERE). But, I am not going to delve deeper into what they are.


DBP recognised this long ago. That's why now diabetes is the Malay translation of diabetes. The problem is, can all the people in the general population, in this case Malaysians, actually comprehend that diagnostic term especially when a doctor is supposed to relay the bad news? Tell diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus or maybe diabetes berkaitan obesiti, to a Makcik or an Ah Soh or an Achii their 70's, mostly who at best graduated a night reading class circa the sixties a-la P. Ramlee movies. What you get from them is this: Mouth agape, eyes blinking and nervous hands wiping off sweat with tissues or the end of their selendang.


That's why doctors and translators alike address the issue sensibly by telling an uninformed person a more generally understood term of certain words to avoid an unnecessary new coronary-related disease being diagnosed at the same time. Bahasa Melayu translators would normally use diabetes as diabetes in formal translation texts, by reason that those who read it has a certain degree of knowledge to it. In a text known to be distributed to a lesser informed population, we are advised to include terms that minimize confusions.


Did you notice that these days over teh tarik, we sometimes refer diabetes as diabetes and not kencing manis in our normal Bahasa  Basahan conversation? Did you realize also teh tarik is a big contributor to Type 2 Diabetes.. he he..


Well, time and sensibility made us well aware and informed.


Tell me if you agree.