CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Indonesia, the rich country, has many varieties of cultures, customs and languages. That is why many tourists come to Indonesia. Many tourists are interested
in studying cultures in Indonesia like the customs and languages. The tourists know that every area or region in Indonesia has its own customs, cultures and languages
which is different from others. However, from the all of the varieties, the most important thing of the varieties is the language.
Language as a means of communications has been used by human beings for thousands of years. Language is used by humans to communicate to each other, to
express their thought, feeling, or ideas either in spoken or written language. It conveys one message in human mind into utterances. Saussure 1915:16 states that
language is a system of sign that express ideas. As human being, people always feel curious about everything that happen in
this world like news, gossip, and entertainment. People can do it by reading magazines, newspapers, and by browsing internet. And nowadays, many scientific
and non – scientific books are translated into Bahasa Indonesia, such as text – book, novels, articles, etc. So without the ability to master foreign language, the people still
difficult get the information. Finnally, it can be a problem for the people to read and to understand it. Therefore, the way to solve this problem is to translate foreign
language into local language that called translation. Translation work is a complex task. It requres competency in both languages;
the source language SL that is the language to be translated and the target language TL, the language into which it is to be changed and also the cultural background of
both languages. Translation means transferring the meaning of SL into TL Larson 1984:3
whereas Catfortd 1965:1 defines translation as the replacement of textual material in SL by equivalent textual material in TL. And the last, according to Larson
1984:2 cites “Translation, then consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the SL text, analyzing it
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in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and gramatical structure which are appropiate in the TL and its cultural
context.” Every language has different style or ways in conveying ideas or messages.
Adapting Sapir, Blount 1974:120 cites, “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the samesocial reality. The worlds in which
different societies live are distinct world”. In Indonesia language, the word beras, padi, nasi, gabah, only have one equivalent word in English, that is rice. How about
the word sarung in Indonesia language should be translated in English? The society in Britain or the other countries might be do not recognize the object. In this case, the
translator should know the appropriate words for the cultural adjustment to the cultural words.
The most important thing to take into account by a good translator, the meaning which is being transferred must be held constant. And it will not be
succesfully transfered if the translator neglets the cultural adjustment from the SL into the TL.
As Hartley 1982:191 says, “Communication between members of different cultures is possible because of an underlying sameness of human experience the
world over and human’s ability to adjust to new modes of behaviour.” From the statement above, it is obvious that language is a large and
significant role in the totality of culture. The differences between cultures bring about difficulties in the process of translating from one language into another that is
divergent and unrelated. In translating, there is the terms “context of culture” must fully clear to the
hearer or reader to understand a language Bronislaw 1999:72 and Bassnet 1999:126 believes that translation must take place within a framework of culture.
There is a tight relationship between translation and culture. If the translation is related to culture, the translation is not simply matter of seeking other words with
similar meaning. Simply, when the translator wants to translate a text, the translator can not translate it directly. The translator has to analyze it first before reconstructing
it into TL. So, translation and culture are linked.
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The word ‘culture’ has some meanings. For some people, it refers to an appreciation of good art, song, food, and literature. Tylor 1871 says that culture is
“that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, moral, custom, and any other capabilities and habit acquired by man as member of society”.
Newmark 2000:1 defines culture as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of
expression”. Whereas Gohring 1995 says that culture is one need to know to judge wheres people behavior conform or deviates and in order to make ones own
behavior conform to the society. Based on those definiton of culture above, it can be conclude that every
society has own culture, which is different from each other. The scope of the culture is very complex. The culture covers all the human need. The speech, behavior,
thought are influenced by culture and it is clear that understanding of culture enable individuals relate to other people from different place. The expression of culture can
be seen from the behavior, norms, values, and belief of people. Therefore, the people can learn the culture of certain society.
In understanding culture, the cultural terms should be understand. According to Kotter 1992, which formally defines culture as a whole pattern of behavior that
is reflected in social life, religion, art, and institutional as well as all the result of the human mind and work on an entity certain people. Meanwhile, Koentjaningrat
2000 provides systemic understanding of a whole culture of ideas, actions, and works of the context of a society that is used as a human being by means of learning.
Culture has three categories or forms, namely: Firstly, culture as a complexity of ideas, values, norms, and rules. Culture form in this context is a form of cultural
ideal rights are abstract. Example of this culture form is a system of cultural values, norms, laws, and regulations such manner. Secondly, culture as a complex activity
pattern of human behavior in society. Culture form in this context is reffered to as a social system consisting of human activities that interact, hang out, and the basis of
certain behavioral pattern of governance. The second form of this culture more concrete because it can be observed and documented. Thirdly, culture as objects of
human handiwork. The third manifestation of this culture is a culture of physical and culture is the most concrete, such as buildings, temples, artifacts, houses and others.
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This thesis works on cultural terms in the subtitling of “Memoirs of a Geisha” movie. The writer chooses this movie because in the subtitling of “Memoirs of a
Geisha” movie is found some words that is not translated by the translator. Subtitling is a secondary or explanatory title, as of a book or play, a book title repeated at the
top of the first page of text and one or more lines of text, as a translation of dialogue in a foreign language, appearing usually at the bottom of a film or video image.
The problems that is found in the subtitling of “Memoirs of a Geisha” movie is when the writer sees the subtitling of the movie, the writer sees there are some
words that is not translated by the translator. The translator does not get the equivalence of those words. Finally, the translator uses the strategies of translation
and the cultural categories in the translation studies. The strategies of translation and cultural categories of cultural terms are the main discussion of this thesis.
“Memoirs of a Geisha” is a Japanese movie. “Memoirs of Geisha” is a movie that uses some words from Japanese culture. Japan is a rich country with various of
the diversities in forefathers cultures. Eventhought the developing of technology in Japan has up date in every minute, the cultural sides in Japan are still conserved until
now. Samurai, Tempura, Matcha, Sukiyaki, Nigiri-zushi, Norimaki, Sashimi, Shabu– shabu are some words based on Japanese culture.
In this thesis, the writer wants to analyze the strategies of translation and the cultural categories based on the words that are found in the subtitling of “Memoirs of
a Geisha” movie. And in the analysis of this thesis , the writer uses the strategies of translation based on Baker’s Theory and the cultural categories based on Newmark’s
Theory. This study is important to explore the strategies in translating the cultural terms due to one of the most challenging task in translating texts is found in the
differences between cultures Firoozkoohi 2010.
1.2 Problems of the Study
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