Translation and Interpretation of English Covid-19 Terminologies in Indonesian Context
Rudi Hartono

Universitas Negeri Semarang


Abstract

The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought major changes in various aspects of life. One of them is the use of new terms in daily communication. Dozens of new terms related to Covid-19 appear like mushrooms after rain- they appear suddenly along with the emergence of problems and solutions to the symptoms of the pandemic. These terms appear in various communication media that the public quickly uses directly, although sometimes many do not understand their meaning. This misunderstanding is a linguistic problem in this era of the Covid pandemic. In this study, researchers investigated people^s understanding of all English terms related to this pandemic. Based on their translations and interpretations, we conducted a qualitative to reveal their knowledge and understanding of the terms used during this Covid pandemic based on their translations and interpretations. In the translation problem, the researcher analyzed translation techniques used the respondents, while in the interpretation problem, the researcher investigated their opinions and explanations for the terms they understand. In this study, researchers involved 100 respondents and used two closed-ended questionnaires, using SurveyMonkey Application, as research instruments. The first questionnaire contains 10 questions about 10 terms related to Covid-19 in English and Indonesian. In comparison, the second questionnaire has 10 questions about people^s understanding of these terms in the form of various interpretations. Based on this study, 15 respondents translated the term ^Lockdown^ using the literal technique (LT). In contrast, 85 others translated it using the descriptive technique (DT), ^New Normal^^ = 20 used LT, 15 used calque technique (CT), and 65 used DT, ^Isolation^ = 20 used (LT), 30 used the naturalization technique (NT), and 50 used DT, ^Stay at Home^ = 60 used LT and 40 used DT, ^Swab^ = 15 used LT and 85 used DT, ^Masker^ = 45 used LT, 5 used borrowing technique (BT), and 50 used DT, ^Wor

Keywords: Translation, interpretation, Covid-19, English terminologies, Indonesian context

Topic: The Future of Education Post Covid-19

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