My Word Choice in English and Indonesian
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English and Indonesian have some unique connections. Some Indonesian terms are the correct terms to use in English. Some English terms are the correct terms to use in Indonesian. Sometimes both are wrong.
Note: This blog post is the extra rules for the "Word choice" in the style guide for my writings.
"Allah" and "God"
The term "Allah" is used because the Indonesian language follows the standardized forms of the Malay language which uses "Allah" to refer to God. note 1 In the past, the Malay language developed under the Islamic literature. note 2 That is why the Indonesian language uses "Allah" to refer to God.
The term "Allah" creates confusion for the Muslims. That term is never used in the English translation of the bible. But, in Indonesian translation, "Allah" is used interchangeably with the words "Tuhan" (God) and "Bapa" (Father). As a result, some Indonesian Muslims think that Christians worship the same God.
In Indonesia, Christians and Muslims use "Allah" to pray and worship God. But the name of the Christians' God is not Allah. Allah is the name of the Muslims' God. So, the truth is that Christians are not worshiping the same God as Muslims.
As a result, I avoid using the term "Allah" when referring to my God, Jesus Christ, in the Indonesian language. I always use the word "Tuhan" or "Bapa" when singing or praying. I only use "Allah" when I specifically refer to the Muslim's God.
"Kristen" and "Christian"
In Indonesia, when a person says the word "Kristen," some people think that it refers to the Protestant Christian. Some Indonesian people think that "Christian" is Protestant Christian. That is wrong.
The fact is that anyone who believes Jesus is God is a Christian—regardless of whether the person is following Catholicism or Protestantism.
I heard that some people in the United States also think that "Christian" means a Protestant Christian. Of course, they are wrong.
So, the word "Kristen" is used to mention both a Catholic Christian and a Protestant Christian in Indonesia. In the US, the term "Christian" refers to all people who believe in Jesus.
"Pemanasan global" and "global warming"
Indonesian people agree that the world is not warmer. It is heating. But, some people who use English do not agree with that. They use the term "global warming" which is telling people that the world is getting warmer as if it is not a big deal.
Unfortunately, that misleading term is also the popular term for Indonesian people when talking about global heating in English. I never heard Indonesian people use the term "global heating." They always use "global warming."
The Indonesian word for "warming" is "penghangatan." The base word for "penghangatan" is "hangat," which is the same as "warm" in English. According to the dictionary, "warm" means that something is a bit hot. Just a bit.
The world is not getting a bit warmer. It is getting really hot. That is why I use "pemanasan global" in the Indonesian language and "global heating" in English. Both terms tell the world is heating, and it is dangerous.
As a side note, in this case, the Indonesian language coins the correct term when referring to the global heating phenomenon. One point for the Indonesian language!
"Perubahan iklim" and "climate change"
The term "perubahan iklim" has the same meaning as the term "climate change." Both refer to the global heating phenomenon. But they do not recognize the phenomenon as a bad thing.
The only constant is change.
That quote can justify that climate change is normal. Everything keeps changing.
I agree that the climate change itself is normal. But, when it refers to global heating, the effect is not normal. The effect is really bad.
As a result, I do not use "perubahan iklim" in Indonesian and "climate change" in English when referring to global heating. I use the term "climate crisis" in English and "krisis iklim" in Indonesian.
"Hak cipta" and "copyright"
Copyright law is a set of rules that grants the owner of a work the right to sell, distribute, and change the work. Those rights are granted only to the owner of the work.
Indonesia is following the Berne Convention for its copyright law. This means that copyright law in Indonesia is more or less the same as in many other countries, such as the United States.
Now, the term "copyright" comes from two words: "copy" and "right." "Copy" means to reproduce an original. "Right" means the right to do something. So copyright means the right to reproduce an original work.
In the Indonesian language, the term "hak cipta" is used to refer to copyright law. The word "hak" has the same meaning as "right" in English. But the word "cipta" has a completely different meaning from "copy." The word "cipta" is the same as "create" in English in the following sentence: God creates the world.
Only God can create—or "menciptakan" in Indonesian. What does it mean by "menciptakan" in Indonesian? It means the ability to create something out of nothing. Who can do that? The answer is God.
As a result, the copyright law in Indonesia is intended for God because the name "hak cipta" means the right to create something from nothing which is something that nobody can do except God.
So, I do not want to use the term "hak cipta." Instead, I use the term "hak salin" to refer to the copyright law in the Indonesian language. The term "salin" has the same meaning as the word "copy" in English.
"Pencipta" and "Creator"
This time both in Indonesian and English, they agree to call the owner of a work a "Creator." Effectively saying that owning a work is the same as becoming a God.
The owner of a work is a human. I do not want to be called a God, and I am not a God. I am a human. So, I do not want to call others God for the same reason.
In Indonesia, the current copyright law is the Laws/Acts No. 28 of 2014 uses the word "Pencipta," the same as "Creator" in English, to refer to the copyright holder. But, I do not use those terms. I prefer using the term "copyright holder" and "pemegang hak salin" when referring to the copyright holder.
As a side note, the older copyright laws—Acts No. 12 of 1997 and Acts No. 19 of 2002—in Indonesia also use "Pencipta" which is the wrong term to use.
"Bajakan" and "piracy"
The term "piracy" means acts of violence at sea. In the Indonesian language, the term "bajak laut" is used to describe the same meaning as "piracy."
I have a speculation about the history of how the term "bajakan" is used in the Indonesian language to demonize sharing. At first, that word had one meaning only. It means the result of plowing the land. It even had nothing to do with the sea at all. Then, when people who use English started using the term "piracy" to demonize sharing, the Indonesian people coined a similar word which is "bajakan" which comes from "bajak laut." As a result, the Indonesian language has a similar word to "piracy" to demonize sharing.
Now, some people use the term "piracy" or "bajakan" to demonize sharing. Sharing means distributing the exact copy of a work non-commercially. I agree with Richard Stallman that sharing is not morally equal to attacking ships.
So I do not use those terms in both languages to refer to sharing. I use the term "unauthorized copy," or in the Indonesian language it is "salinan tidak sah."
Why do I call it an unauthorized copy? Because I do not have the permission to share the work from the publisher. If I still share the work without permission, I do not want to be called a pirate. I do not do robbery or criminal violence by ship. I do not kill anybody. I am not even on the sea.
"Bebas" and "free"
In English, "free" has two meanings: zero price and free as in freedom. The Indonesian language has "gratis" for zero price and "bebas" for free as in freedom. Indonesian has a unique term for each meaning of "free." One more point for the Indonesian language!
I adopt Richard Stallman's idea of using "free" in the sense of freedom and "gratis" when referring to zero price.
"Pendapatan pasif" and "passive income"
I disagree that "passive income" means an income that comes passively to a person. The word "passive" is an adjective. It modifies a noun word. In "passive income," the word "passive" modifies "income." It does not change the word "person." Also, the income is the one that actively increases or decreases. The person does not actively do anything in the present moment to get the income.
The definition of the so-called "passive income" focuses on the person's activity. If that is the case, there is no "passive income" and "active income." The reason is that people must work to get any income. Nobody receives an income without doing anything. All income will be called "income," the same as all passengers will be called "passengers"—there are no "active passengers" or "passive passengers"—because they must wait for their transportation and do not work with the traveling agency.
Passive income is an income that must be earned by a person who is doing work. Salary is one example of passive income. If a person does not work, the person will not get any income because the income will not come by itself—it is passive.
Active income is an income that can increase or decrease by itself because a person did some work in the past, and now the person does not need to do the same amount of work as before. For example, real estate investing is one way to get an active income. The person might need to work first to get money to buy real estate. Then, the person can rent or sell the real estate. The value of the real estate, which is the income, can increase or decrease by itself.
I reject the term "passive income" or "pendapatan pasif" to refer to income that can be earned without working. That definition of passive income is misleading as if people can live without doing any work.
I use the term "active income" or "pendapatan aktif" to refer to what most people mistakenly define as "passive income."
Footnotes