The Mind of Fadhli

Seperti halnya manusia lainnya, saya melakukan kesalahan. Beberapa dari kesalahan tersebut berkaitan dengan karier saya dan saya juga masih merasakan penyesalan karena kebanyakan kesalahan tersebut. Terkadang bahkan saya sering bertanya kepada diri saya apa yang terjadi jika saya tidak melakukan kesalahan tersebut. Orang-orang berkata bahwa tindakan ini merupakan aktivitas paling menyedihkan, tetapi apa yang kita tahu sebagai benar dalam pikiran kita dan bagaimana tubuh kita bereaksi terhadap hal tersebut tidak selalu sejalan. Lantas, kalau kita memiliki penyesalan yang terbesit di kepala kita, apa yang harus dilakukan? Di saat itulah saya menyadari bahwa daripada memikirkan terus kesalahan saya, lebih baik saya membagi pengalaman saya. Masa lalu tidak dapat diubah, tetapi mungkin saya dapat mencegah orang lain untuk melakukan kesalahan yang sama. Banyak hal yang saya anggap sebagai kesalahan saya, tetapi supaya post ini tidak terlalu panjang, saya akan fokus pada beberapa kesalaha...

A s any human do, I made mistakes, some of which are related to my career, many of which I still have pang of regret for to this day. Sometimes I even indulge myself in the game of What-If because of them. What if I had done this? What would have happened if I had done that? I know they say that What-If is the most of pathetic game of all, but what your brain knows and how your body should react are not always consistent.

Saat menjadi pekerja lepas, tidak hanya penerjemah, satu pertanyaan yang pasti muncul adalah seberapa tinggi harga atau tarif yang harus kita tetapkan untuk jasa kita.

When becoming a freelancer, not just a  translator, the inevitable question that comes up is how much we should charge our services.

Kalau berbicara mengenai penerjemahan, ada suatu insting dalam penulis untuk selalu menggunakan bentuk kalimat atau pengejaan yang benar atau baku, terutama bagi lulusan bahasa.

W hen it comes to the act of translation, especially if you have a language major background, there is perhaps a certain instinct that you have to always use the correct form of languages or correct spelling of words.

  Bagi orang-orang yang ingin menjadi penerjemah, pertanyaan yang mungkin muncul dalam pikiran mereka adalah apakah gelar sarjana sastra Inggris (atau bahasa asing lain) dibutuhkan untuk membangun karier di bidang ini.  Ini merupakan pertanyaan yang bagus. Menjadi penerjemah membutuhkan penguasaan atas dua bahasa, maka dari itu dapat dipahami apabila orang-orang bertanya apakah mereka membutuhkan gelar yang setidaknya menunjukkan kemampuan mereka dalam berbahasa. Oleh karena itu, apakah memasuki jurusan sastra Inggris diperlukan untuk menjadi penerjemah? Singkat cerita tidak. Namun, memang gelar ini dapat membantu dalam beberapa kasus. Saya memang telah menemukan beberapa lowongan penerjemah yang secara khusus menyebutkan bahwa posisi itu harus diisi oleh lulusan sastra Inggris (contohnya jika ingin melamar menjadi ahli penerjemah muda di instansi pemerintah), tetapi ini tidak wajib dimiliki. Nilai dari jurusan sastra Inggris adalah pendidikan dan jaringan sosial yang di...

For Indonesians (or perhaps people all over the world in general) who want to become a translator, the inevitable question that comes up is whether or not you need a degree in English (either in Literature or Linguistics), which is understandable. Given that becoming a translator involves mastery over two languages, it’s understandable to think that you need a degree which at least showcases your capabilities in the foreign language that you are translating from and/or into. Bearing that in mind, does having a degree in English is necessary to become a translator? In a word: no. However, I do believe it can help in certain cases. I have come across openings for translator position that specified the necessity for a degree in Englisg, but for the most part it’s not a must-have. The value in English major is really in the education and the network that you obtained in the degree, but even then, it’s something that can also be obtained elsewhere. There is a plenty of English courses...

While I’d love to be able to just attend a single social event and be done with it, networking is, unfortunately, a process that we have to constantly do. Bearing this in mind, I decided to attend another event held by the Association of Indonesian Translator (HPI). This time however, it’s an informal meet-up organized by the West Java branch of HPI. After my first networking event, I was feeling somewhat confident, though I still am afraid of embarrassing myself and offending other people. Luckily though, this time around, a friend of mine from my university days was also attending the event. The presence of a familiar face helped a lot with easing my tension. Because of this, I don’t have to worry about staying quiet in the corner while wondering what to do, I can just talk to him. It also helps that the person that I am sitting across with quite happily divulge not only advices in becoming translator, but also life backstory from what major did he picked during college to how ...

One of the most crucial aspects of the professional life that I’ve learned is probably the importance of networking.

If there is a form of addiction that I would want, it would probably be addiction to work.

I feel like I spent much of my life waiting for the other shoe to drop. A sign of a storm. An unforeseen danger. This is especially true when the circumstance is becoming too peaceful or too quiet. It is not so much that I believe that being happy is somehow an omen for a major calamity, but more like that I do not want to get caught off guard.

 If there is a word I would use to describe my overall experience in 2023, it would probably be "disruption". From 2021 until this year, I had been working as a translator for the Indonesian state news agency Antara. While I have my complaints working there, it is definitely a comfortable place to work for me. As I translate news after news, I can just feel days pass by behind me without noticing.

F or today, I decided to make a post about three things that I have learned while I am working and training to become a translator. There are, perhaps, several contents available out there that already discussed what I wrote here, but I believe that framing this as a manner of sharing my own personal experiences will not only add specificity, but also made the post as more like a series of subjective tips that people can take or leave, rather than lessons that should be accepted from authority that can be completely trusted.

  I have a certain confession to make: sleep is my guilty pleasure.

Whenever we embark on a learning journey inevitably we’d always make mistakes or, in the casual parlance, “sucking”.

Right now, my current job seeking strategy involves focusing on the field of translation (while looking out for other opportunities, of course).

I used to embrace the concept of self-love.

I always thought anxiety as my biggest enemy, especially during social settings.

The arrival of the coronavirus has disrupted every major parts of society’s life.