Back to School

Felicity poses by a rice paddy, on the first of our many Bali road tours...
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As any seasoned traveller will tell you, no one experience while overseas compares to that of spending an extended period of time in one country learning the local language. While making such a decision is easy, it’s not as easy to follow through, and you learn a lot about your own cultural assumptions in the process.

Stepping back from my experiences in China, I’ve realised just how limiting an English-centric attitude to the rest of the world can be. For instance, I remember my shock when I was backpacking through Paris in 1997 and overheard two Americans in a shopping centre food court, one yelling at the top of his voice and wildly gesticulating to the other: ‘Why can’t these stupid frogs speak English?! All I want to tell them is that I want a f!*&ing hamburger and a f!*&ing beer!’

...for better or worse, language unites the world...

A view of green and more green from our terrace balcony...
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At the other – more civilised – end of the spectrum though, we see volunteer language teachers working in developing countries often reluctant to even teach basic English with any reference to western food (such as instructions on how to bake a chocolate cake) for fear of imposing cultural norms on another culture.

But for better or worse, language unites the world, allowing us to relate experiences, challenge ideas, reinvent old ways of thinking, discover our similarties and hopefully celebrate our differences. And by a twist of historical fate, English has prevailed as the dominant modus operandi, all the easier for its native speakers, most of whom do in fact maintain the linguistic and cultural norms of an English-centric attitude, summed up so eloquently by my two beloved Americans a decade ago.

Shot of a palm frond after an afternoon tropical rainstorm, with glistening droplets of water...
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Having been for the most part existing in the sanctuary of Ye Olde Englande’s mother tongue and with only a brief and relatively fruitless school student foray into the langue d’amour, I now find that another door is opening. Where I used to simply say, ‘hello,’ I now have four different greetings – pagi, siang, sore and malam, indicating quite specific time periods in the day. ‘How much?’ has turned into berapa harga? Instead of ‘Do you have a toilet here?’ I’m opting for Apa ada kamar kecil di sini? And the piece de resistance – ‘I’m sorry madam but I only speak a little Indonesian. You see, I’ve been studying for just ten days in Ubud but I’m keen to learn more. In fact, I rather like speaking Indonesian and Indonesian people in general’ – can be achieved thusly: Saya hanya bias berbahasa Indonesia sedikit-sedikit. Saya belajar saja sepuluh hari di Ubud, tapi saya mau belajar lagi. Suka berbahasa Indonesia dan orang Indonesia. I feel great when the standard response to the latter is ‘I don’t believe you can speak so well after only ten days!’

View of the central mountains near Kintimani just before a storm...
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But, lovely though the Balinese and Lombokians are – most of whom speak to me with the same pace and simplicity of loving parents speaking to a three-year old – I’m also finding other cultural vistas emerging. For a long time now, I’ve admired Indonesian pop music, being blessedly free of karaoke backing tracks with a clear preference for the earthy and organic sounds of real instruments and incredible jamming. The delight on the faces of young people I meet when I start singing in their language a line or two from recent songs I’ve heard is indescribable. As I understand more and more of what I’m learning, I find that I’m developing an artistic appreciation not only forthe meanings behind the lyrics, but for the sounds of the words and phrases being sung by some amazingly talented musicians, largely ignored by the western world.

Felicity turns out to be the tourist attraction for these visiting Javanese at Tanah Lot
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And then, of course, there’s the bigger picture. Bahasa Indonesia is really quite an impressive lingua franca, linking a vastly different array of ethnicities and cultures from Aceh in Sumatra through to Jayapura in Western Papua and everything in between. With simple pronunciation and easily mastered grammar, this language allows me to communicate with virtually anyone in the world’s fourth largest country. It’s amazing to think, by contrast, that across English-speaking countries and within China, subtitles on tv shows are often a necessity (as you discover in China, though speaking fluent Mandarin, an Inner-Mongolian still can’t understand a word that a Yunnanese is saying, any more than an Aussie understands a rural Welshman’s English).

My bike on the way to the central mountains after receiving a Hindu blessing - no accidents today!
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When all is said and done, coming to Indonesia and learning Indonesian is something you simply have to try for yourself. Just remember that magical phrase that you’ll no doubt need from time to time: palan palan! Saya tidak mengerti! or, ‘Slow down! I can’t understand a damned word you’re saying!’