RTB translation

Hello again (:


Last night, I happened to watch 'Hawaii Five-O' on RTB 2 with my dad. And there was this one scene that made my dad went "what happened to the translation?"


So here is the overview. In that scene, character A was telling character B about his brother who committed fraud and planned to leave the country to escape punishment.


Character A: "It's my brother, Matt. I said I was going to help him get through this, but he planned on escaping. I just don't know what to do"
Character B: "I'm sorry"


Okay, so the translation was in Malay and the translation for character B's dialogue read "Saya minta maaf" which is the direct translation of "I'm sorry." My dad and I were surprised that the translation just came on as if character B was being apologetic of his wrongdoing, when his words were meant to offer consolation to character A. The translation could be "saya bersimpati" which will directly translated as "I'm sorry to hear that."


Reason being could be direct translation to the original text by character B but such can be misleading to non-English speakers. Now those viewers will think that any "I'm sorry" will mean "saya minta maaf" - as simple as that when this phrase has another meaning. My dad is an English teacher himself and me being an English major student, we can directly pinpoint the issue to this translated phrase. But for viewers who depend solely on the translation, misleading would be inevitable.


Love Love Love
Zyra A.