TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE AND CULTURAL ADAPTATION IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN’S BOOK TITLED “AKU BISA MENGENDALIKAN AMARAHKU”
A Case Study of an Indonesian–English Children’s Story Using Nida’s Equivalence Theory
Abstract
This study aims to find out the translation equivalence and cultural adaptation in the Indonesian-English bilingual book “I Can Control My Anger” by Nurul Imani. Applying Eugene Nida's (1964) theory of formal and dynamic equivalence, this study centers on how Indonesian as the source language is translated into English as the target language. This study employs a qualitative descriptive method to analyse selected sentences and segments that reflect cultural meaning. The results show that formal equivalence, which sticks to the original words, sometimes sounds both unnatural or overly formal in the target language. In contrast, dynamic equivalence allows the translation to feel more natural and easily understood by English-speaking children. The study recommends that dynamic equivalence is more effective in translating children's books because it keeps the message clear and also makes it feel familiar and meaningful to young readers from other cultures.
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