Editor’s Note:
This opinion piece was first published in The Jakarta Post during a period when public debate about language, national identity and the increasing use of English in Indonesia was particularly active. While Bahasa Indonesia has continued to evolve and expand its vocabulary over the years, this article is presented as a personal reflection on language, communication and identity from that period.
This is my favourite linguistic quiz – derived from my childhood, which was heavily ensnared by Javanese aristocrats. I resented almost everything aristocratic with their low bows, squat-walks and at least three different levels of Javanese language to master. Being practical, aside from being slightly negligent, I completely mastered only one Javanese language of the lowest class, which was fair enough as it was most widely used.
Back to the linguistic game, its original version is played in the low-class Javanese language. The solemn purpose of the quiz is purely to ridicule the richness of the national language, Bahasa Indonesia.
If you can tell me what the literal translation of the following sentence in Bahasa Indonesia is, I’ll be your sex slave for a week.
The Javanese sentence is “pite kunduran trek” and the English translation is “the bicycle is reversed over by a truck.”
Yes, the expression can be found both in Javanese and English, the rich languages with long roots and history. Mind you, the sentences in both languages are in passive form and literally mean that there is a bicycle that is reversed over by a truck. And no, kemunduran is not the literal translation for “reversed over.”
The best Bahasa Indonesia translation I can come up with is “sepedanya terlindas truk yang mundur”, which is pretty close but still is not exactly the same. The Bahasa Indonesia version carries a similar meaning, but the action of the truck is not described in passive form. If we literally translate the Bahasa Indonesia version back into English (yes, I do this every day—I love to mess with other people’s brains when I have nothing more meaningful to do), the sentence becomes: “The bicycle was run over by the reversing truck.”
I’m pretty sick of the so-called nationalists relaying their biased criticisms in newspapers and other media about Indonesians who prefer English to Bahasa Indonesia for their daily communication. So tell me, mate, what’s wrong with using English in this multicultural country? Is there something infidel about the Queen’s language? As long as people use the language properly and have their own reasons for doing so, why not?
I mean, we have to admit—Bahasa Indonesia was originally designed as a relatively straightforward language with a practical vocabulary. Over the decades it has continually expanded by adopting words from many other languages, including Dutch, Arabic, Sanskrit and, more recently, English. This is what I find amusing: if an Indonesian converses in English in public, he or she may be labelled arrogant or lacking nationalism. But if that same person speaks Javanese in public, nobody objects, because Javanese doesn’t represent foreign influence. It’s a bit like Soeharto encouraging Indonesian businesses to use Indonesian terminology while speaking Bahasa Indonesia himself with a strong Javanese influence.
Years ago I was responsible for the gastronomic section of the Indonesian edition of an international lifestyle magazine. I had to write in Bahasa Indonesia.
One evening I attended a Chef’s Table at one of Jakarta’s boutique hotels. Notebook in hand, I savoured each course while wondering how on earth I was going to describe the flavours in Bahasa Indonesia.
I wanted to write:
“The lingering flavour of Caesar Salad Soup gave a sensational combination of velvety yet crunchy cos leaves and anchovy.”
Try translating that into Bahasa Indonesia without relying on words like kriuk-kriuk (crunchy) and the all-purpose word enak, which often has to cover delicious, tasty, flavoursome and countless other English expressions. At its simplest, enak just means “nice.”
Without belittling the national language, people who are fluent in both English and Bahasa Indonesia understand that the Malay-based language can sometimes be less concise for certain ideas. On many occasions I found myself needing a dozen words in Bahasa Indonesia to express something that English conveyed in just two. Think of expressions like family tree, infidel, intellectually challenged or hanky-panky.
I once worked with a Kiwi who had lived in Indonesia for years and had learned most of his Bahasa Indonesia from bar girls. Naturally, he thought he spoke it brilliantly, complete with a wonderfully thick kampung accent.
Every sentence ended with dong.
One day he phoned and launched into an explanation entirely in Bahasa Indonesia. I had to lower my IQ several points just to work out what he meant. Finally I told him to stop speaking gibberish and explain it properly in English instead.
He was offended.
He thought I was an arrogant wench.
Served him right.
He was giving Bahasa Indonesia a bad name.
I’m not trying to be arrogant here. There’s another expression: if you have a Porsche, why would you drive a Toyota?
Ouch—that one hurts.
What I mean is simply this: if you’ve found the easiest way to express yourself, why choose the more difficult one? It’s a matter of practicality, not nationalism or arrogance or the “I’ve studied overseas so I speak English” attitude.
Although I do admit that some Indonesian graduates returning from overseas occasionally develop that “cleverer than thou” tendency.
Bahasa Indonesia is Indonesia’s national language, but Indonesians also have every right to use other languages whenever appropriate. People are free to communicate in Javanese, Sundanese, Papuan languages, Chinese languages, English, Dutch, Tarzan—or whatever language best suits the situation.
Choosing to use another language does not automatically make someone less nationalistic than someone who always speaks perfect Bahasa Indonesia.
It is simply their choice of how to communicate.
As our Yankee brothers put it in the First Amendment, freedom of speech is one of every citizen’s basic freedoms.
First published in The Jakarta Post.
