As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I registered for a translation course and attended it beginning the 6th of April. It was held at Institut Terjemahan & Buku Malaysia (ITBM) in Wangsa Maju, about 45 km from my house but due to the heavy traffic, I would usually leave home around 6.30 am and reached there by 7.30 am.
Classes started at 9 am and ended at 5.30 pm. We had lessons for 9 days, with 7 instructors, 4 males and 3 females, their age ranging from 30 to 65. There were 18 students in my class, 6 males and 12 females, age ranging from 23 to 60.
The 1st instructor taught the translation theories for 2 days. On the 3rd day, we had Bahasa Melayu grammar and spelling lessons. Then we had lessons on translation of general text and mass communication text.
The second week started with creative text, followed by social science, law and finally science and technology. We were given a study leave on Friday and then had our exam on Saturday.
The theory part was held in the morning and we were given about 45 minutes to complete it. The 2nd part was the longest exam I’d ever sat for, fortunately the translation practical exam was an open book exam. We were given 5 hours plus a half an hour break for lunch, so altogether 5 and a half hours.
On top of that, we still have to hand in individual assignments. The deadlines are on the 20th, 25th, 28th and 30th of this month. So, that’s the reason why I haven’t updated my blog in a while.
Overall, I benefited a lot from the course. My BM is rusty because many spellings and grammar rules I learnt at school, 30 years ago are no longer applicable. However, on the exam day, I answered 5 out of the 6 texts in Malay. I realize, I was more confident to translate from English to BM. The only text I translated from BM to English was the law text.
I’ll write more on this, some other time, Insya-Allah.
Fragrance in My Garden 
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