Language Learning

September 15, 2016

            Learning Indonesian has become part of our daily routine. Thanks to the patience of Erin (our roommate).  Recently, I have found that not all language learning has to be done in a classroom.  In fact, the days I find most interesting and the most fun are the days we put our big girl panties on and attempt to have conversations with local people. 

Tuesday, I was needing of more pulsa (the equivalent to minutes).  So after learning the phrases for buying it we headed out into the sprinkling rain and muddy streets.  We walked to a stand which is only a block or so away from our house.  I timidly said my new phrase and the man replied a mile a minute.  Thank goodness for Erin!  The stand ended up not having any pulsa. So we thanked him and returned to dogging puddles and pointing to things we knew in Indonesian. 

“Anjing! (dog)” “Hijau! (green)” “Kiri, Kanan! (left, right)” “Merah! (red)”

We walked to the main 4-lane road learning new words along the way.  We crossed the jalan (street) to a small grocery store.  Again, no pulsa.  We jokingly talked about learning how to ride a taxi when Erin says, “Let’s do it!”  The only problem is sometimes taxis are few are far between.  The agreement was if we took the long way home and no taxi passed by the time we needed to turn, we would go home. Just as we reached the dirt road to go home a taxi pulled over.  We all took a deep breath and jumped in. As my luck goes, the only seat available for me was up by the driver.  It was now my responsibility to get the driver to stop at our destination.  *Big gulp* I saw the phone store coming up and with much pointing and one word sentences, got him to pull over and let us out.  We paid him, thanked him, and were left in a cloud of exhaust. 

Thankfully, this store had the pulsa we needed. Soon we were back on the street trying to hail another taxi and do the process in reverse. We made it back safely, but all thanks to Erin!

Thursday, our brains were so overflowing with new words and phrases we couldn’t possibly learn anything more.  So Erin decided to take us for a walk. We would meet people along the way and say our greetings, but it took a bit more nudging from her to get us to have a conversation.   We all eventually had a turn at attempting a conversation with an unsuspecting victim. There were many awkward pauses as I either glanced at my notes or tried to force my tongues to form the strange words.  But more than the awkward pauses there was laughter.  They would laugh at my thick accent and misuse of a word, and I would laugh at myself for… well … being so foreign.  Many of the kids we tried to talk to were oh so shy! Even just looking at them would cause them to hide behind their friend or run back into their home.

As we continued to walk around, many people would stop and stare.  Some would point and talk to their group of friends, some would greet us with big smiles and giggles, and some would call out any English saying they knew (even if it didn’t make since).  The best one we’ve heard yet is, “Hey mister wanita!!” Which directly translates to, “Hey mister woman!!” We soon noticed a girl holding her phone in an awkward way.  Paige immediately turned to me and said, “She’s trying to take a secret photo of us!” We all laughed but didn’t think anything of it.  Not 2 minutes later the same girl and her friend came running up behind us saying (in perfect English), “Miss! Miss! May I take a photo with you?”  We huddled close and took several selfies.  They had already left when it hit us! We should tell them to practice Indonesian with us and we should practice English with them! So we chased them down and invited them to our house. 

On the way home with are 2 new friends, Karisma and April, we stopped by a house full of women and children.  They were so excited to talk with us, and practice their English! We were soon encircled with women and children with only 1 translator.  Erin had her work cut out for her!

All in all, it was a great few days.  We made our first friends in the neighborhood and are becoming more confident in our Indonesian. Perhaps by May, we can walk around BTN (our neighborhood) and not need Erin’s constant assistance.