Learning Bahasa Indonesia

A common difficulty faced by learners of Bahasa Indonesia is the use of affixes. Different situations call the use of different affixes. On top of that, a particular affix takes different forms, depending on what is the first letter of the word that it will be attached to.

For instance, the affix "men" takes the form of
(a) "me" if the first letter of the word is l, m, n, r, w, y, "ny"
(b) "mem" if the first letter is b, p, f, v (if p, then the p is dropped in the process)
(c) "men" if the first letter is d, t, j, c ,z (if t, then the t is dropped in the process)
(d) "meny" if the first letter is s, but the s is dropped in the process
(e) "meng" if the first letter is k, g, "kh", a, e, i, o, u (if k, then the k is dropped in the process)
(f) "menge" if the word is an one-syllable word.

When explaining this set of rules the other day, Jeremiah's grammar teacher said that there was no need to memorize the rules. Instead, it would suffice to remember the phonetic rationale for the rules as illustrated in the photo.

Hands up and out if you had at one point or another told Jeremiah that Bahasa Indonesia was an easy language.

If I Have a Million Dollars

Jeremiah came across this old ringtone of his in his handphone. It is one of the ultimate ah beng songs. Enjoy!

Excuse Me, Are You a Singaporean?

Jeremiah bumped into a fellow Singaporean today at the water section of a local supermarket. The other Singaporean was in Yogjakarta on business and was staying at a hotel next to the supermarket where Jeremiah was shopping. He looked like a Singaporean and when Jeremiah saw him checking out the price of the various brands of water on sale, Jeremiah knew that he had to be a Singaporean.

Singaporeans, it seems, are always on the lookout for a good deal when shopping.

How Much is Your Trishaw?

Of late, Jeremiah has been taking bacaks, the Indonesian version of the trishaw, quite a bit over the past two weeks. One is supposed to haggle with the bacak operator the cost of the ride before the start of the journey.


A typical exchange would be as follows:

Jeremiah: Ke Galleria Mall, berapa harganya?
*Confused look and after a pause* Becak Operator: 20,000 Rupiah
*Shakes Head" Jeremiah: Mahal sekali! [Very expensive]


Berapa harganya literally means how much is that. However, Jeremiah just learnt today that it should only be used for goods. For services, one should use berapa onkosnya . When Jeremiah asked berapa harganya , the becak operators could have interpreted the question as how much their becaks cost. Hence the confused looks.

Oops.

The Art of Wayang

Over the weekend, Jeremiah visited the Kraton, or Royal Palace, in Yogjakarta. The Yogja Kraton is believed to be one of the grandest in Indonesia. Every day of the week, a show highlighting a particular Javanese cultural tradition is staged. When Jeremiah visited, a Wayang Kulit (puppet shadow play) was being performed.

The set up of the Wayang was quite elaborate. The cast, equipment and screen occupied more than half of the pendopo (Javanese open pavilion). There were all in all about 90 to 100 performers for what appeared to be a simple play. Most of the performers were musicians playing the orchestra. The job of the dalang (puppeteer) is one of the most difficult. He must not only pull the strings but must also give the various cues to the rest of the cast, particularly the musicians. This means that he not only controls the puppet but is also the conductor.

Well, Wayang is definitely not for any Tom, Dick or Harry. Wayang is an art. Staging a good Wayang requires skills.

One Night in Yogja

While exploring downtown yesterday, Jeremiah came across a Chinese-themed pasar malam timed to coincide with the lunar new year. On sale were Indonised Chinese food, lunar new year decorations etc. There was also a Chinese karaoke competition that were attended by about 10 people, mostly elderly folks. When Jeremiah stumbled upon the competition, an elderly Bapak was singing an oldie in Mandarin.

At first, Jeremiah was very excited, for it was the first time in a while that he might not be lost in translation. Then, it quickly dwelled upon him that the folks there would be of a different wavelength, i.e. same language but different frequencies. Thus enlightened, Jeremiah quickly took his leave after taking some photos.

Nerves of Steel

Yogjakarta is by and large a pleasant city. The people are friendly, the pollution is manageable, and the pace of life slow. While there are traffic jams during the peak hours, traffic does not grind to a standstill like in Jakarta.

However, outside of downtown, Yogja, including Jeremiah's neighbourhood, is not easy to traverse on foot. First, there are usually limited pavements to begin with and pedestrians often have to jostle for space on the road with cars and motorbikes.

Second, there are limited traffic crossings and utilizing them is not for the faint-hearted. Pedestrians have no right of way at junctions even if the lights are in their favour. While crossing, pedestrians would have to constantly watch out for vehicles turning left; even if the lights are red, vehicles can still turn left. One would require either nerves of steel or sufficient acclimatisation to make the leap of faith that the vehicles turning left have seen you and would take reasonable care to slow down.

Taking the next least costly mode of transport, i.e. the trishaw (becak), is not exactly smooth on the nerves either. The photo above was taken while Jeremiah was in a becak. It seems ok, except Jeremiah was travelling against the flow of traffic on a one-way artery where vehicles were going at over 60 km/h.

Jeremiah recalls the "solo walks" he used to do when he was a police cadet. Such walks were supposed to make the cadets bolder. Perhaps a better form of training would be to traverse Jeremiah's neighbourhood on foot.

Time to evoke God less often

Jeremiah needs to cut down on his evocation of God.

As you may know, Jeremiah had previously lived in the Middle East, where God's name was evoked daily and frequently as a fact of life (read: Inshaallah - God willing, and Al-Humdulillah - thank God). Perhaps due to divine inspiration, these two words instinctly came back to Jeremiah in Yogja. Since the two words are in the Bahasa Indonesian lexicon and form 10 percent of the Bahasa Indonesian words that Jeremiah knows, Jeremiah had been using them so frequently over the past few days that he had probably put some Arab-Indonesians to shame.

A typical conversation with the gurus would go as follows:


Guru: Apa kabar? (How are you?)
Jeremiah: Al-Humdulillah. (instead of "Baik" - OK)

Guru: Please remember to practice your Bahasa and do your homework
Jeremiah: Baik, Inshaallah
(In some Arab contexts, this would mean that I may or may not practice my Bahasa and do my homework. If I don't, it means God was not willing.)


So, ya, Jeremiah would like to cut down on his use of "Al-Humdulillah" and "Inshaallah".

Inshaallah, he will succeed. Then, he can say "Al-Humdulillah".