Read on Twitter
I know we need to have information to social justice language and issues in malay as well to make it more accessible and inclusive to our wider Malaysian context, that is the ideal. But the reality, at least for me, is more complex.
Before moving forward, I would like to preface this with the fact that I'm definitely not on par with activists on social media who consistently create posts and engage in comments on areas of their social justice work on a daily basis.+
I'm just your average young adult citizen who is starting to learn about these issues and reflect on her lived experiences and is pumped to make a difference but is still figuring out how she can best contribute. So I end up writing a thread/making a row of instastories at times+
So from my limited experience and from a practical stand point, these are a few points I have come to recognise. Of course, please do tell me of other perspectives or if my thought process can be improved. I'm no expert, I'm here to learn.+
1. Time. It takes a considerable amount of time to learn about issues, reflect on how it connects with my everyday life and past experiences, organise my thoughts on it, and present it on a social media platform in a way that is most effective for chosen platform.+
There have been times where I have read up on more articles and other people's perspectives and taken notes and googled the thesaurus to find the most impactful words to express my message. In my opinion, twitter is more straightforward, where you can rely solely on your words+
But even then, to think about how best to maximize the character limit or to phrase opinions in a polite/palatable/engaging/original way is clearly a skill. And then if it's instastories, there is the added layer of video where I have to think about visual aspects, angles/light+
And I'm assuming tik tok or making a canva/artwork with points requires more skill/time as you have to say, choose the right music or learn a dance or synthesize large chunks of information into bite sized bits, now this is just the general idea and all this takes time.+
Say an example from personal experience, my instastories talking about say educational theories look simple, but it can take plus minus 6 hours and long threads can take just as long and that's not including the time the issue takes up my headspace.+
And that includes typing out what I'm verbally saying so it is more inclusive of say the hearing impaired and friends have also pointed out how it helps them get through the content when they are in a rush without having to sit through all the stories+
And you could say that I could just type my points out to save the time but I truly believe that there are also mediums that are more suitable/preferred by each individual (creator & consumer), eg. sometimes I need to verbally express my thoughts to get the most out of them+
So with a limited amount of time each day, say when I am in university and have classes/clubs or at home doing an online internship/chores and factor in maintaining friend&famships, these responsibilities already take up most of my day (let's not even think about the future)+
So to use my free time to make content, albeit it giving me joy and being voluntary, to have to add BM translations is going to take me a few more hours or even days and I don't have that capacity which leads me to my second point.+
2. Skill. Again, I'm your average SMK student who got an A for BM during SPM and I can hold daily conversations in BM just fine albeit sometimes sounding like an astro ceria cartoon dubbing, but hey SPM essay questions were predictable, you can prepare for them, but real life,no+
And i hate to admit this but my BM is rusty, people around me generally speak English, and the content I consume and create is generally English, especially since now I am in an English medium private university, the language I feel most confident expressing my thoughts in is it+
Of course there is a colonial something to unpack here and I do recognise that it is also my responsibility to go out there and improve my BM through consuming and connecting with that part of my culture, but that will take time and as it stands, my lack of skill is my reality+
So yes, I can translate say this whole thread but it will take me hours/days I do not have at the moment considering my skill level and it does not help that translated journals on social justice areas from other countries are not easily available or accessible in Malaysia+
And that seeps into language, at the top of my head, I can't tell you what say the equivalent of microaggression or cultural appropriation is in BM, it is not common knowledge, at least to me and my exposure, and that leads me into my next point.
Okay to further make a point, I am hungry and haven't showered but thank god I'm still living at home and my parents are super chill about chores and tend to my needs but that's not always going to be the case. Okay I will take a pause here and go bath/eat/hang out with them.+
Okay I'm back. 3. Energy. The opportunity cost of posting online. Again, it is something I am passionate about but every extra hour I spend is an extra hour I could be hanging out with friends/family, working on other skills (say my writing/poetry), self-care etc.+
And all these extra things are important to maintain my physical and mental health. It takes a lot of courage to put vulnerable/developing thoughts out in the world, especially when you don't know how people will receive it, so you need time to heal from it.+
4. Finance. So I'm not getting paid to put out these thoughts and that's cool, again, I am voluntarily doing it because I want to and really for myself as it helps me organise my thoughts and develop as a person.+
But I can afford to do this right now because essentially my parents are paying for all my needs, but that's not always going to be the case, capitalism is a bij and I will have to get a job and pay bills soon, so I will have less energy for this, I think about: then what?+
See, I don't want this thread to sound like I'm giving excuses, I'm not, I am passionate about making knowledge accessible to more people aka have it in BM and this goal has been at the back of my mind for some time now, and this thread captures some of my thoughts on it+
In fact, this is my shout out for support, if you're fluent in BM and come across an informational post on social justice issues which you are equally passionate about and if you have some time to spare, it would awesome if you wanted to support in translating it+
Better yet would be to normalise activists opening patreon or crowdfunding avenues of the like to support them financially to sustain their efforts and say, with the money, they could hire someone for translation work+
