Fun fact #1) Of course, there are gas stations around here. But, at least in Semarang, there's only one brand. Pertamina basically has a monopoly on gas sales here. However, along with all the various food stalls and motorbike repair stations you can find on the side of the road, there are also folks selling gas. I had no idea what it was at first, as the display consisted of a cart of yellow liquid in glass and plastic bottles, and quite frankly, I tried not to think too hard on that. But there it is.
Fun Fact #2) The national language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia (which, literally translated, means Indonesian Language). However, every Indonesian person speaks at least two languages: Bahasa Indonesian and the language of their region. For instance, the people in Bali speak Balinese. However, the greater the island, the more languages there will be. On Java, where I live, it's Javanese in East and Central Java, but in West Java it's Sundanese. And then, each region has its own accent. In all, Indonesia, throughout its islands, contains over 300 different languages and dialects.
Fun Fact #3) In America, many suburb neighborhoods have a nice, little sign by the entrance, that says something along the lines of "Welcome to Perkiomen Woods".
(Yes, I'm from Pennsylvania, we have weird names, move along.)Here in Semarang, both inside the city, and in the surrounding villages, each entrance to the neighborhood has a big ornate gateway that you pass through, telling you which neighborhood you're entering, and which part of that particular neighborhood.
(I did warn that these were really random fun facts.)
Fun Fact #4) Wanna know a pastime that's really big here? I'll give you a hint. In America, you can usually find it in a smokey bar, on, like, a Tuesday night, on a tiny stage, and see a mix of drunk/tone-deaf/drunk and tone-deaf singers. That's right, it's karaoke! Except you won't find it in the bars around here... mostly because you won't find any bars around here. However, there are entire buildings dedicated to karaoke. You rent out a room with a bunch of friends, order drinks or food or whatever, and sing your heart out for 2 or 3 hours. I was surprised to find that it was more fun than I expected. Karaoke is so popular that you can find it almost everywhere: it's even a perk of various tour buses, right there along with Wifi and a snack. And I'm pretty sure I saw a karaoke machine at my gym...
Fun fact #5) Parts of Indonesia are huge tourist spots. Bali is the most well known, but it's a country of islands, so there are beaches everywhere. Beaches where, among other things, Westerners come to get a nice, solid tan to take back to work and be the envy of all their pale, sickly co-workers. Except... that's just a western thing. In fact, Indonesians are the exact opposite. The majority prefers to stay out of the sun, and they often wear long sleeves and pants for full protection. But the contrast goes even further than that. Almost every single bottle of skin cream or lotion or soap has a "whitening agent," which is designed to do exactly that: make the skin whiter. Talk about opposites, huh?
Fun Fact #6) You won't really find too many pets around here. Sure, there are stray cats that run around the neighborhood, and some Christian families will have a dog or two. (Dog saliva is considered unclean in Islam, therefore, there are very few dogs. [Look at that, a fun fact inside a fun fact! Fun Factception!]) However, you will see birds.
Not only is there an entire market dedicated to selling birds of all shapes and colors, but you'll also frequently see at least one, if not three or four,cages hanging outside someone's house. There's a food vendor down the street from my school who taught his bird to do a back-flip. It's always a little entertaining to see someone on their motorbike with a giant bird cage strapped behind them, but it happens more often than you'd expect.
Fun Fact #7-??) I could probably write an entire post on Bahasa Indonesian. I'm not going to, because who wants to get edjumacated when they only came to this page to read some (hopefully) interesting and (possibly) entertaining tales of Indonesia? However, I do want to make a few interesting notes of some of the details of Bahasa Indonesian. Except, I'm not going to talk about the language itself. I want to share some things about the actual speaking of the language. Cause that's the stuff I really find interesting.
First off, each of the vowels make only one sound. In English, the letter "A" has a bunch of different sounds, like in Father, Fade, Fad, and a few more in between. In Indonesian, "A" just makes an "Ah" sound. Even when it's paired with another vowel, like "I," (which, like in Spanish, makes an "Ee" sound,) the vowels make their own sounds. For instance, Air (which means "water") is pronounced Ah-eer. Now, the consonants are even simpler. Usually, you can't get too much simpler with consonants, since even in English they mostly only make one sound. However, when you listen to native Indonesian speakers, it can be hard to tell the difference between certain consonants. At least for me. I mean, It's no secret that I've had trouble learning this language, but hear me out.
There are a few letter pairs that, when vocalized, are the exact same, they just sound different. In pairs like F/V, P/B, K/G, T/D, S/Z, your mouth does the exact same thing to shape them and make them. The only difference is that one has an audible sound, the other is more like a by-product of air passing through the mouth. (If you want to get technical, this is called "voiced" and "unvoiced". It's a distinction caused by whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating at the time the sound is produced. Thanks Anne Lewis!) Anyway, I've found in many cases that native Indonesian speakers will not differentiate between a voiced and unvoiced consonant, or the will at least minimize the difference. Here's an example. The word Bisa means "can," as in "You can put strawberries and pickles in the blender together, but I'm not sure if you should." But for the longest time, until I saw it in writing, I thought everyone was saying Pisa, as in the Leaning Tower. Here's another example. In English, my name is pronounced "Dae-vid". However, because Indonesian doesn't have the "Ae" sound, and they blend the "F" and "V" sound, I've had to get used to introducing myself as "Dah-fid".
Another part of this whole "learning a new language thing" that I wasn't expecting was the differences in non-verbal communication. For example: hand-motions. One specific motion that has confused me multiple times is the one that means "come here." In America, that motion involves bringing the hand towards the body in a sort of scooping gesture. Here, however, the motion involves putting the hand right in front of you and flapping it up and down. In fact, it's very similar to the American gesture used to shoo someone away, which, of course, is the exact opposite. So, you can understand why I've been confused.
Another difference is the non-verbal sounds that we make. In American English, something like "Mm hm" means agreement, "Mm" means acknowledgement, or surprise if you put an exclamation point on it: "Mm!" "Uh uh" is usually "No." However, in Indonesian, or at least with the native speakers that I'm around, both "Mm!" and "Uh uh" can mean "Yes." It's led me to asking the same question multiple times, thinking that my friend didn't really hear or understand the question and was merely making a grunt of acknowledgement. Oops.
So. There you have it. Wow, that was much more school-y than I intended. My bad. And now that I've given you a headache with a dissertation that wasn't about language, I suppose the rest of my fun facts will actually have to wait until I can randomly insert them in conversation. There are so many more tidbits I can share about TV censorship, and text message spam, of the lack of aftershave, and travelling food carts, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. But alas. That will have to wait for my return. Which, by the way, has been set in stone. My flight has been officially booked, and I shall be back in the States on July 31st. So, if I scared you off, and this is the last blog post you end up reading, I'll see you then. If not, we'll talk next month. Sampai Jumpa!
