Indonesian Language Interpreters and Translators

Indonesian interpreters and translators

CIT offers Indonesian interpreters and translators with legal, medical and specialty experience, including criminal and civil matters, employee meetings, engineering, patent cases, labor disputes, immigration and more.

Although based in Los Angeles, CIT offers comprehensive Indonesian language services including interpretation, translation and transcription, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide. Our interpreters and translators are native speakers who have been screened, certified, have provided credentials, field tested, and kept up to date with developments in both English and the Indonesian language through means such as lectures, conferences, and travel. CIT’s Indonesian language interpreters and translators possess in depth knowledge of the Indonesian language, as well as of the culture and history of the Indonesian people, allowing them to provide informed and complete interpretation and translation.

The Indonesian Language

The Indonesian language is a standardized for the Malay language and is spoken by about 30 million people in Indonesia. About 140 million more people speak Indonesian as a second language. Although more people in Indonesia speak Janaese, Indonesian is still considered the lingua franca of Indonesia.

When Indonesia was a Dutch colony, the Indonesian language was written in Latin. The alphabet used was called ejaan lama, or Old Script in Indonesian. In the 1930s, while Indonesia was gaining it’s independence, the language became standardarized and the name Bahasa Indonesia became the name of the language. In 1972, President Soeharto made official changes to the spelling system in the Indonesian language.

Indonesia is located near the equator, where the climate is quite warm. The country itself is quite big, about 4,800 kilometers wide. About 6,000 of the local islands are lived by Indonesian people, who are also called Maylay Islanders, Malaysians or East Indians. In 1857, the word “Indonesian” was coined by James Richardson Logan in his writings The Languages of Ethnology of the Indian Archipelago.

The Indonesian people have a certain unity and can be identified by physical features, language and religion. Over 195 million people are referred to as “Indonesian.” Indonesians are usually short, have black hair and a medium-brown complexion. It is said that they are a mix of Mongols, Proto-Malays and Polynesians along with Arabs, Indians or Chinese. About 87% of Indonesians are Sunni Muslims, 9% Christian and the others are Hindu or Buddhist.

Historically speaking, the country of Indonesia had been under colonial rule for a long time by the Portuguese, Spanish, English or Dutch, with the Dutch rule having span from 1627 until 1942. The Dutch’s main interest was to develop the business and crops of the country. They were not interested nor did much to modernize Indonesia or push for the country to follow more Christian rule. The Japanese invasion in 1942 was the first step to the independence of the country in 1949. Indonesia has been expressed in various literatures from countries such as the Netherland Indies, Dutch East Indian, Malay Archipelago, Malaysia or the East Indies.

Writers, specifically anthropological writers, refereed to the word “Indonesia” as to not only include the Indonesian country but also other areas of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Nearby islands of Java, Madura and Bali collectively make up 7% of Indonesia. Together, they make up about 63% of the Indonesian population and are very high in tourism. It has been thought that Indonesia is separated into three cultures: the Hindu cultures practice rice cultivation. The Islamic cultures are coastal merchants and lastly, tribal groups are known for their economic activities.