Avoiding Hate Speech: Ahimsa in Communication Ethics
translates to brother and sister, as there is no one exact word in English to translate “kakak” and “adik”. As another example, the translation of
“I didn’t go” and “I don’t go” into Indonesian is the same, which is “saya tidak pergi”, while the two English sentences tells of two different
occurences. How would we translate “house” and “home” into Indonesian?
The examples given above are only a few examples. However, from these examples, a translator can realize that the English language and
culture horizon is different to the Indonesian language and culture. Within the cultural perspective settings of the English language, gender
differences matters, as evident in the obligation of a British gentleman in protecting women older or younger is irrelevant. Within the cultural
perspective settings of Indonesian language, gender does not come first, it is seniority. An older sibling male or female it is the same is
obligated to protect hisher younger siblings male or female it is the same. A younger sibling is obligated to respect hisher older sibling, it
is not important whether the older siblings are male or female. It is also possible that the cultural perspective settings of the
Indonesian language observe time as a range of presentness that is almost without end, unlimited, abundant polychronic culture.
Meanwhile, the cultural background of the English language observes time as compartmentalized into the past, the present, and the future,
moving on a linear path, one way from the back to the front. The present that is not productively being used would disappear into the past, frozen,
and no longer changeable. The future is highly determined by what we do in the present. The present time spent and wasted carelessly would
make us work much harder in the future. Time is a limited source, hence it must be used to its maximum monochronic culture.
Therefore, the translator, a person who does not close oneself in hisher own culture and open oneself actively to “understand” other
culture, could broaden his culture. The translator need not change
hisher identity as an Indonesian learning English. On the contrary, if shehe were English, the translator need not change herhis identity as an
English person learning Indonesian. People who learn foreign languages and achieve true mastery would broaden their cultural perspective with
the cultural perspective they’ve learned without abandoning and changing the former cultural perspective. In the language of Rorty, they
are capable of “redescription” of their own culture Rorty, 1989. Even in our own linguistic and cultural environment we often have to translate
our same thoughts or opinions several times through various different formulations. Therefore we use the phrase, “thus”, “it can be
concluded”, “in short”, “it can be said that”, “meaning…”, “this means that”, and so on and so forth.