THE TRANSLATION OF NON-MATERIAL CULTURE IN KOREAN-MALAY TRASLATED TEXT

Translation is a process of transition not only bilingual but also involves two different cultures. Language has elements that include words, phrases, sentences, and discourse. Language is also an important cultural element to establish communication between humans. Translators often experience confusion in selecting appropriate methods in translating, especially in a text that imbeds cultural elements. Culture is divided into two, namely material and non-material culture. Non-material culture is the thoughts, ideas, customs, family patterns, and language. This paper intends to discuss the elements of non-material culture, namely the element of beliefs, idioms, ideology, ethics and moral, and law which has been translated from the Korean to Malay language. The translated anthology of short stories entitled The Road to Sampo was selected as the sample of study for this article. Aixelá (1996:58) states that potential issues occur in translating “culture-specific items” between two languages and two text. The findings in this article are combination and modification of theoretical framework by Keesing (1958), Newmark (1988), Venuti (1995), Aixelá (1996) and Katan (2012) to analize cultural elements in the sellected text. This study contributes new knowledge on translation between two cultures. A good translation requires translators’ cultural understanding of the selected text in order to present its cultural elements into the target language accurately. It is important for translators to understand the culture of the selected text and recipients language first before embarking into translation efforts. This is significant because translators not only translate words, but the author s feelings and cultural values into other languages.