Us and Indonesia: Boleh cakap Inggeris?
I must admit that I am somewhat of a fan of Indonesia. I like Indonesian writers, films, and since we're coming clean actresses too.
For their talents, of course.
There has always been some amount of culture shared between the two countries. Parameswara was originally from now Indonesia. The KMM, one of the earliest proponents of Malayan independence was heavily influenced by the war of independence against the Dutch. And to this day, our airwaves are filled with cultural products from Pulau Jawa, not to mention the jamus that run through our bodies too.
Despite this, today there seems to be an invisible barrier separating the two countries. Perhaps even more tragically, we seem to have decided that we speak the same language but differently, seeking instead for the clean alien confines of English when we interact with each other.
There is nothing wrong there, but it is unfortunate.
When we sidestep the difficulty of communicating in Bahasa, we leave untouched the centuries of history and development it went through in this region.
In other words, we miss out on the chance to relate to each other on a deeper cultural level, which I think is worth the awkwardness of the faux pas incurred in the process.
Maybe this an area worth looking into.
4 comments:
Oooo. A sociolinguist in the making. Why don't you write an academic paper on this?
Also, why not submit this entry as an article to a newspaper? It looks pretty publishable.
cepatnya!
I don't know how to write academic papers, but I know how to run organisations. hint hint.
boleh jugak try hantar. thanks for the suggestion.
Sokong sokong.
Aku pun kadang-kadang buat macam ni. Tapi cua juga bercakap dalam bahasa melayu dengan orang Indonesia.
Bisa cakap bahasa? tanya mereka pada aku tatkala meminta lauk tambah di kedai.
Some stark differences in the meanings of the words we share is one of the reasons sometimes it's best to just steer clear of lingual faux pas and stick to the common foreign language - English.
For example, with all of my blind bravado is using bahasa with my Indonesian friends, I complimented one of the children running around by saying, 'Comel sungguh budak ini'.
There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by a burst of laughter.
Because I had forgotten, of course, that budak is Indonesian for 'slave'.
At least when communication problems occur while using English, you can blame the foreigners and their 'weird words' for the confusion. It's a bit more jarring when you realize just how different you are, despite centuries of shared culture and history.
Post a Comment