25 Jan 2010
Ivan Lanin: Indonesian Language Evangelist (1)

For most of us, what he does seems irrelevant. Why should we translate the word “email” into Indonesian when the world seems to understand perfectly well when we use it?

But for Ivan Lanin, it is a simple cause worth fighting for, as he wants Indonesians to still be able to appreciate their own language in an era when most languages are swarmed with new English technology-related terms.

Thus, in his everyday life, Ivan replaces “email” with surel (an acronym derived from surat elektronik or electronic mail), uses daring (dalam jaringan) instead of “online” while trying as hard as he can not to mix words from his native language and English ones.

“Unlike concise English words, the Indonesian translation is often long. That’s why acronyms like surel, daring and luring [off-line] are more suitable,” he said.

Nicknamed the language evangelist, Lanin, who works as a linguist-cum-editor for Google, is armed with a Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (large Indonesian dictionary) as his bible and faith in his mother tongue.

“People tend to take their own language for granted,” the 35-year-old said.

“When we find a new English word we don’t understand, we’d quickly open a dictionary. But, when we find an Indonesian word that we’ve never heard of, we’d dismiss it by saying that such word doesn’t exist,” he pointed out.

“Have you ever heard the word mendaras [to recite], for example?”

Rather than a knowledge test, his question is more of a gentle reminder we should remain inquisitive about a language we think we know everything about.

It was also meeting people who are proud of using their own language in the right context that inspired him to do what he does just for the sake of personal satisfaction.

“I remember in a Wiki gathering in Argentina, the head of the group there delivered all his speech in Spanish despite the fluent English I had noticed from previous emails,” Lanin pointed out.

“He’s using the most proper language to address his mostly Spanish-speaking audience. It’s something that we rarely see here.”

But Lanin does not hold any qualifications in Indonesian, nor he is a professional writer or translator.

“I’m just interested in understanding more about formal Indonesian and how to use it properly,” says the man who works as a chief technical officer for his risk-management joint-company by day.

bersambung/to be continued S. Febrina , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 01/25/2010 12:16 PM | People

Sumber Berita: Jarod ClickMedia