Three Things We Like…
Semester was just getting going, and I was struggling to keep up – no, struggling to comprehend anything – in the Politik dan Pemerintahan Afrika small group discussion. At the end of 30 minutes sitting there with what I hoped was a pensive (as opposed to blank) look on my face, I was loath to let my group’s piece of butcher’s paper up to the front of the class. Written in English, it said:
Three Things We Like About South Africa Region:
· Colonised by many different countries (England, Holland, Germany etc)
· All democracy except Lesotho (constitutional monarchy)
· HIV/AIDS epidemic.
What the…?!
Nobody else in the group caught the nasty cringe/gasp combination that choked me when I saw it. Three things we like…colonised…HIV/AIDS epidemic…pretty blue squiggle under the heading for emphasis. I looked away. I felt sick. The din of other groups chatting, scribing and scraping chairs across the floor distracted me momentarily. I looked back at our paper. The cringe and sick feeling returned. What was written there was the first I had understood of the group discussion.
Or had I understood?
This was one critical moment where, as the new foreign student who understood a whopping 60% of the lecture content and who misunderstood approximately one in three assignments, I had to decide whether to let this one slip or whether to suggest maybe the heading, particularly the use of the word ‘like’ could be changed.
Not wanting to shy away from opportunities to engage with classmates, I chose to forget the fear of misunderstanding or being misunderstood, and dive right in.
But dive from which angle? I realised that constructive criticism is not done in the same way in Central Java as it often is in the comparatively blunt land of Aus. I realised the danger of appearing to be the bilingual know-it-all that I wasn’t. Just the week prior I had written a page of notes about the many different uses of water in development, when my sosiology lecturer had actually been talking about studying the constant phenomenon of social change. Above all, I realised I was armed only with my smile, manners and existing vocabulary. My dictionary, a Mirota Kampus special that once told me the word for watchtower meant opium, was rather unreliable.
‘Yes,’ I used my Indonesian ‘This list is very good. But this word – like – it means we really like the things in the list – it means suka.’
Six pensively blank faces stared back at me. The scribe looked confused and asked me to repeat. The second time, there was a flurry of gitu, kok, deh and other informal speech as the group conferred.
“But…like,” the scribe said to me in English, “it means menarik.”
Well, she had me there! A linguistic light turned on in my head. Menarik does mean interesting, but with connotation of being interesting in an arguably likeable way because it comes from tarik – to pull. Tarik, to pull. Menarik, to pull something in. I could see how the scribe got English ‘like’ from Indonesian ‘menarik‘. It was right and yet so wrong for the context.
One thing I now appreciate is that language learning really is more than just vocabulary and grammar. It’s also about learning the art of figuring out when that vocabulary and grammar feels ‘right’, ‘less right’ and just plain ‘wrong’ across a range of new and challenging situations. It’s about having to muddle through and explain yourself through situations that cannot always be pre-empted. The roots of mistakes and misunderstandings can indeed be more complex to dig up than occasional vocabulary slip-ups that result in wishing one’s laundry lady a happy birthday instead of a happy new year, or writing about ‘temple sickness’ or penyakit pura-pura instead of ‘lung cancer’ kanker paru-paru in an exam (I am guilty of both).
I may have just had a language learning epiphany, but decisions in this class were by group consensus and the consensus was to stick with ‘Three Things We Like’. A few minutes later I returned to my seat in the lecture theatre so each group could present. I hurriedly wondered how many times I’d said things in Indonesian that didn’t quite translate. How would I ever know?
As the West African region presented their thoughts, the scribe leaned back over her chair. ‘Actually,’ she whispered, ‘we have decided and you are right. We will change it to say three interesting things about South Africa region.’
‘Oh, ya…’ I smiled.
To me, that’s a beautiful thing about language. While there are some words and expressions that are very context-specific there are others that can be applied to a gamut of situations. ‘Oh, ya…’ used with a smile is one of them in Indonesian. It can end a misunderstanding or keep the peace, at least for the moment. It can save embarrassment and time, providing conclusion without the need to retell an entire story. Used by foreign students it can simultaneously mean ‘yes, please go on’, ‘this sounds interesting’, ‘I need to go now as I’m late for my next class’ and ‘I have totally lost what you’re saying’. Plus, it is practically impossible to mispronounce. In fact if I drew up a list of things I liked about Indonesian language, I daresay ‘Oh, ya…’ with a smile would feature in my top three.
Word of the Moment – (BOOM!) DAHSYAT!!
Dahsyat.
Said ‘dah-si-yat’! Also ‘dahsat’. 
Revolutionary Muffins Uprising? Boom! Dahsyat! from Cookie Jar Confessions
1. Awful, terrifying. And on the flip side:
2. Awe-inspiring, imposing.
If I were so inclined, I might call this word a beauty. It’s words like this, with varied connotations and a completely unfamiliar sound that make learning a language so much fun. If I see or use dahsyat in a sentence I know there’s got to be a good day ahead (so easily pleased, nice to be me:0)
I came across dahsyat in an UGM lecture on theories of revolution. I remember it was about two thirds of the way through said lecture, and let’s be honest, my focus was left wanting. Having long ago passed politics 101 and having successfully covered off revolusi, proletar, borguis and komunisme in my vocab I pulled on one of my best interested faces and waited for stroke of 3pm – home time. I was just zoning out to consider the long term effects of low wooden lecture theatre seats on my posture, and how nice a fresh juice would be after the day was over, when my lecturer eyeballed his audience, slammed his hands together and yelled ‘BOOM! DAHSYAT!’
I had no idea what it meant, but I did feel the word really helped the speaker bring home his point.
The impact also made me giggle like the school girl I’d gone back to uni to be.
Dahsyat. Sounded like some kind of shitstorm. Indeed, my Aussie neighbour looked it up on her electronic dictionary. Awful, it said, scrolling down to Terrible.
Aaah, good word. I nodded. My neighbour nodded in kind. We set out to impress our fellow foreign student friends with this new-found knowledge. We learned a great word, we would say, it means bad – but much much worse, we would say. It means total, utter, chaotic dahsyat.
Two weeks later I went to the biggest air-conditioned mall in town and there, at the only place that sold wholemeal bread, sat a muffin. The sign in front of the muffin described its flavour as ‘dahsyat’. Rasanya dahsyat. Huh. A revolutionary muffin.
Confusion led me to check and discover the flip side of the word – awe-inspiring. Imposing. Nice one, Bahasa Indo.
Komedi of Errors.
Ok today has been one of ‘those’ days to the point where I need to post about it!
My mission this morning was fivefold and simple. Stick to the schedule and all five aims would be achieved.
1. wake up early, stop by circle K to buy imitation but not so bad Tim Tams for percakapan class at 9 (student’s turn to contribute snacks).
2. 11am, drop off cardboard box in INCULS common room as a drop off spot for an orphanage collection.
3. Print and deliver group presentation on social change. Social change lecture at 12 noon. Group up til 12 midnight last night finishing it.
4. 2pm After successful group presentation with James, Ada and Hadi, terus to an internet cafe and finish assignment for tomorrow’s African Politics class.
5. Evening – find out what the hell is going on with group presentation for same African Politics class as group haven’t contacted me.
So I slept in, and with 10 mins til class I drive to circle k in the pouring rain, trying very hard to keep cardboard box wedged between my feet dry with emergency poncho. I park just outside and run into circle k for tim tams, trying not to slip on the immaculately polished floor. With tim tam’s in hand I try to go to campus but suddenly my bike lurches to a stop. What’s wrong? I try to reverse a bit. Lurch again. What on earth? I look down and notice I’ve forgotten to remove the extra lock I use on my wheel. Great, I must have forgotten to take it off. Somehow I managed to drive from home to the shop without any trouble but now the lock has decided to assert itself. I can’t move far, it’s raining, and I’ve effectively stolen my own bike with lock still on wheel. Hm.
Of course when I get out my keys and try to remove said lock, the lock has been damaged and the key no longer fits. Sheltering the cardboard box and looking all too much like Darth Vader in my helmet and flowing poncho, I try to extract the lock for 10-15 mins. There’s a bengkel (mechanic) near where I am but of course it’s not open at that time of the morning.
Eventually I decide that if I got that far with the thing on there I can go further – at least somewhere more protected from the rain to find help. I get back on the bike and drive extremely slowly…..something like ‘maju, maju, BOOMF! (when the lock goes round), maju, maju, BOOMF!!) – slow, slow, BOOMF! I get around the corner and find an awning to hide under. I hope this time the key will work on the lock but when I look down the lock is gone, fallen somewhere with only a slightly bent spoke left in its wake! One of those BOOMF!’s must have knocked it off.
By now I’m soaked and very late for class. When I get to campus I make a beeline for free average coffee in the common room to warm up a bit and finally go for the second hour of percakapan. At least the cardborad box didn’t fare too badly. Percakapan (conversation) topic today was ‘cari jodoh’ – finding a soulmate. The teacher had us look at the classifieds to see if there was anyone we liked the look of.
Anyhoo with that done it’s time to print the presentation for 12noon. The time is only 10:55 so I don’t hurry, the printing room is close to where I am. Oh-oh…when I finally get there, turns out only one computer is hooked up to the printer today. It also happens to be the only computer that uses word, and our group has done the assignment in open office. Shit. Time is 11:31. No matter, I hop on the bike and, singing the mission impossible tune (a girl is allowed some concessions) and looking like Luke Skywalker’s dad once more, I head to a net cafe I know to have open office. I’ve been going there all semester and the printing is quick, cheap and reliable.
That net cafe closed earlier this week. As in closed down, computers gone, no one in sight. Totally empty, the business is gone. Kaput. Time is 11:46. Rain continues.
So I go to another, and for some reason can’t print with pictures. Which wouldn’t matter except the presentation outline was to analyse a picture.
I print just the words to read from and hand in, thinking we can show the pic from my flashdisk. I drive back to campus and race to class, late but still, my other group members haven’t arrived yet. They call to say they’re running late from a morning outing and are hurrying back in a taxi as fast as the driver’s skills allow……
…hang on, no one’s giving presentations…the lecturer is talking about dependency theory….the guy next to me says “presentations next week Erin”. How did anyone know this? The lecturer said presentations after field trip which was last week! How did I miss the memo? Nothing on the notice board, no email…. Aaaaaaaah verbal culture strikes again. I’m not in the proverbial loop and as a result am late, bedraggled and laden with 5 useless printed sheets of paper.
Ah well, just relax and try not to draw too much attention (or else will be asked copious questions about Australia in lecture).
Just now I reached the internet cafe. Turns out I got weeks mixed up and my presentation tomorrow isn’t actually til next week either…..again, not sure how that happened! :0)
Time to stop trying to plan and go secret santa shopping!! Adios!:0)
