A lesson in Bahasa Malaysia

I could remember vaguely when I was still in school and learning Bahasa Malaysia. One word that I remember learning was the word 'angkasawan'.

Strangely, I recalled that the word angkasawan directly translated to English was astronaut. Of course at that time, there were not too many words that we analysed deepy. We were just too busy remembering words to pass exams.

An angkasawan or an astronaut?

Lately, I just found out that angkasawan may have another meaning. It can be translated into "space flight participant" or "space traveller". Actually if you look at the word angkasawan properly, they are not way off either. Angkasawan is derived from the word angkasa, which means space. So an angkasawan could be a person who travels in/to space; or just goes to space; or studies space. So, it's still politically correct to name our space traveller an angkasawan.

What is the difference between an astronaut and a space flight participant? Well, maybe there's no difference, or maybe an astronaut could be someone who job is actually trained to fly to space; or someone who pilots the shuttle; or someone who does actual space studies. Maybe English and Bahasa Malaysia may differ slghtly in translation.