His journey as a translator at AQUA CO, Ltd in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, was not an easy one. Raka Radhitia Oktavianto, an alumnus of the Communication Science Department at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus), had to undergo a long and difficult path to reach that point. However, he refused to yield and kept being persistent in learning Japanese.
“Initially, I learned at a Japanese learning institution to learn the language itself, including the letters, sentence patterns, and many other linguistic aspects. I also self-taught myself by watching YouTube videos, other learning apps, and reading books,” Raka revealed.
The JFT Basic Certification has been in Raka’s possession since August 2020. Before he was a translator, he once worked at a pumpkin farm in Hokkaido in May of 2023.
Not long after, his persistence led him to earn the N2 JLPT Japanese Competence Level. This certificate is important for him to be a translator, which he started in November of 2023.
Raka, born in 1996, described his job as a laborer focusing on helping the basic needs of Indonesian workers in Japan. It is mainly concerned with the difficulties of communicating using Japanese.
“In some cases, the company offers me to translate texts concerning events, such as dinners and industrial visits. The company is usually based on Kyushu Island and Osaka, but currently, I am placed on Kyushu Island,” he noted.
Self-preparing To Be A Professional
According to the book-loving alumnus, it takes a high dedication to embark on a career of one’s passion. Becoming a translator is not only about understanding a movie dialog without reading the subtitles but also about being professionally certified and having relations from other countries.
“The most essential skills a professional translator must possess are the abilities to receive, restructure, and convey the message of a text properly. Thus, both parties within a conversation can understand each other well,” Raka uttered.
Even though he majored in Communication Science during his university years, not the Japanese Language, Raka claimed that he still implemented the knowledge he gathered at Udinus. One of which was the interpersonal communication skills to communicate with Indonesian workers daily.
The public speaking course was also useful for him to be confident speaking in front of the public. Furthermore, the story telling course helped him understand the fact that humans can inherently be controlled using their emotions.
In the future, he hoped to further hone his Japanese skills, to the point that Japanese native speakers could fully understand what he says.
“Hopefully, Indonesian people will eventually realize the importance of learning foreign languages, particularly Japanese. This will open bigger opportunities in numerous aspects, including job seeking,” he concluded. (Humas Udinus/Ika. Foto: Humas Udinus)
