From the STAR, Malaysian English language newspaper, Friday 4 February, letter
to the Editor of the Better English section.

Not that kind of period!
========================

WHEN are they ever going to employ suitably qualified translators
to work in Astro?

Last Sunday, I was watching Oprah Winfrey Prime Time featuring Jim
Carrey as one of Oprah's guests.

Jim Carrey rattled on about his latest movie and at one point, to
punctuate his sentences, he used the word "period" to mean full
stop.

Guess what Malay word our wise guy/gal used to translate that word?

MENSTRUASI!

Jim Carrey used the word "period" twice and twice the translated
word "menstruasi" was flashed on the screen.

I didn't know if I should have laughed or cried at the translator's
stupidity.

Madam D. Lee, Penang

** Norman's scatalogical note **
Heavens!  Knowing what Malaysians are like, I wonder if this subtitle guy
had bet with his/her friends that he/she would do this?  Then think of how
an exclamation like "I don't give a shit, period!" would have been subtitled 
in Bahasa Malaysia :-).  Go to your Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesian dictionaries
and you will see that this is the kind of subtitle that I would have 
installed to win a bet with my high school friends (many of us worked part
time in senior high school or at uni on such hack jobs): "Saya ta' beri 
sa-buah tahi, menstruasi!"