Correct Translation, Please!!

I thought I was done for the day with today's entry. But I saw something on TV tonight that I simply have to write about.

I was watching Parkinson tonight on channel 70. He had a guest, Bradley Walsh, a British comedian. This guy was telling a story when he met the Queen (the English Queen, not our Queen). Anyway, one of the lines he said was "she turned to me as if saying "Is he taking the piss?". And our translator wrote.. " Nak buang air?" (Do you want to pee?). I couldn't believe my eyes. What the comedian said was a British slang for "Is he making fun?", NOT Is he taking a pee!! Really! We should try to get better translators.

Some years back I read in a newspaper and this guy was complaining about the same thing. He had watched the Oprah show where she was interviewing Jim Carrey (why is it always a comedian??). Mr Carrey was saying something and ended his statement with the word "period". Can you guess what the translation was? Yeap, you guessed it: menstruasi (menstruation). At first the he thought it was a typo mistake. Then when Mr Carrey again said the word "period", again the translation was "menstruasi". What does this show? It shows that the translator, whoever he/she was, did not do their research. Didn't he/she feels weird? Wasn't he/she listening to what Jim Carrey was saying and why would he mention menstruation which has nothing to do with the topic he was talking about?

Ok, so that was only a few mistakes. I've seen worst in a movie at the theatres. The whole damn translation was rubbish. I had to seat through the whole of Harry Potter movie #3 and read all the stupid translation that did not make sense at all; especially the names of characters or places. Not that I don't understand what they were saying, but sometimes when you watch a movie/tv show, your eyes kind of automatically follow the translation at the bottom. Luckily I've read the book or I wouldn't have understood the story. I told Shukri not to read any of the translations because he would never understand the story.

Now, I don't know how these translations get put into the shows. They must have done it beforehand right? It can't be during the air time. That means these translators have time to do their job properly. Well, maybe they don't have enough people so they're pressed for time. Whatever, I don't know. But please, PLEASE get better ones!!

Does anyone know how one can be a translator? I'm not saying that my English is perfect, I'm just saying that I think I can do a hell of a lot better than "menstruasi"!!