Oddities & Peculiarities
Odd, peculiar things about language in Indonesia, and more.
Passing Thoughts
As I was thinking…..
Language
There are English words that are accepted in Bahasa Indonesia. A few examples:
confrontation = konfrontasi
globalization = globalisasi
infection = infeksi
Don’t take this seriously but wouldn’t it be :
nasi for nation
(nasi in Bahasa Indonesia is cooked rice)
basi for bastion
(basi in Bahasa Indonesia is: spoil, stale, trite, not funny, stale)
T.V. Language
While watching programs on RCTI and SCTV networks, I noticed that the dialogue in Bahasa Indonesia programs liberally use the words “gue” and “gua”. I was told that these two words are Javanese.
Now, it has gone further. These TV programs have started to intersperse short English phrases and words, “you” and “I” in their Bahasa Indonesia dialogues. Would that encourage Indonesians to take an interest to learn English?
When Everything Is Called Indonesian
Examples:
Question put to a tourist: Have you eaten Indonesian?
Answer from tourist: Yes, I have but I avoid the food that is chilly hot.
Question to a Korowai warrior: Have you eaten Indonesian?
Answer from the warrior: A few times but that was long ago. Mostly men.
Indonesian Currency
The Rupiah notes for 100,000 and 10,000 are coloured with a different hue of red. Apparently, the decision makers did not give it much thought.
Two nights ago, I paid 201,000 Rupiahs for a dinner that cost 21,000. In the dimly lit shop, it was difficult to differentiate the colours between these two denominations. Fortunately, the food seller was honest and returned the money.
Transport Price Comparison
I pay an “ojek” 5,000 Rupiahs for a transport whereas if I travelled the same distance by public transport van, it would cost me 2,500 Rupiahs. Fair enough that the van carries more passengers and therefore the fare is cheaper. But the vans are so many and most of the times they are not transporting with a full capacity.
Traffic Rules
Zebra crossing bears no meaning to motorists at either direction. They might as well do away with zebra crossing for pedestrians.
At traffic lights junctions, when red is displayed, it is ignored when the motorist makes a left turn.
At a round-a-bout junction, the motorist would make an anti clockwise movement when there is no vehicle in sight. Example, at a 6 o’clock position, the motorist would turn right and head for the 3 o’clock road instead of making a left turn, follow the road past 9 and 12 o’clock roads before making his exit from the 3 o’clock road.
Has Indonesia Gone Metric?
I read that Indonesia converted to the metric system at some time during the 1940’s.
Over at the my Indonesian house, I brought PVC elbow joints and PVC connectors from my homeland to do some plumbing improvements. These items are in metric measurements.They did not fit the pipes in Indonesia because those were in the Imperial measurement.
At the hardware shop, it was the same – Imperial measurements. Apparently, the Indonesian manufacturers have not retooled to metric.
Places are still referred to as Batu Lima and not in kilometers.
Price Increases
On my return trip, my travel agent informed me that from January 1st., the price for a single trip would be increased by 12.5 percent. Over the past 7 years the passage fare has been increased by 37 percent!
With the present price, for the one-way ferry fare to Indonesia, I could travel one-way by Air Asia to Bangkok. And that is four times the distance compared to the travel that I make to reach Indonesia.
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