OK Pak

Now that sweetums and I are becoming more "educated" in Bahasa Indonesia we are trying more and more to communicate with the local population using their native language. How's that going you wonder?

My honey is much more bold than I. He is always making up sentences with the new words that he learns from his guru(I swear I am not making it up...that is what teachers are called) and trying them out on people. I seem to suffer from major stage fright. Everything I have learned goes right out the window when it is time to ask a question, give directions, or order food in a restaurant. It is both frustrating and embarrassing. I hope our two gurus don't talk to each other too much and compare notes because mine is going to be very disappointed.

However, there are times that I think our driver is glad that I am more timid about it. For example, when traffic gets really bad, I sit quietly in the back seat and try to act like I don't notice that we are about to be mowed down by a bus or that our mirrors are going to be ripped off by a swarm of motorcycles. I don't say much and just focus on my breathing. Honey bun's strategy is to try out new words and phrases on him when traffic has come to a halt and he has a captive audience. Sweetie talks about the cars around them, or reads the signs and thumbs through the dictionary and tries to figure out the words he doesn't know. It recently dawned on me that it must be like riding in a car with a pre-schooler or a 1st grader who is just beginning to read. They want to read everything, know what that says, what stuff means, practice saying words over and over. Holy moley! I think Akil is going to ask us for hazard pay before too much longer if we don't get immediately better with the language.

I usually walk in the mornings before it gets too hot here. Last week, I was expecting a piece of furniture to be delivered. As I walked I thought, "Be brave. Plan out your sentence and tell the jaga(guard) that furniture will be delivered at 10:00 today." I went over and over the sentence and had it all worked out and my confidence worked up by the time I returned to the house. As I walk up to the jaga and I could feel the words slipping away from me. Oh no! I decide to spit it out quickly before it was totally gone. I open my mouth and words tumble out.

Now, I know that I used the right words. It is highly possible they were not in the totally correct order, but I think they were. I also know that as a non-native speaker, my accent is heavy and I can't for the life of me roll the letter r as it should be done. But, for heaven's sake, it was a short sentence that I was uttering how badly could I mess it up?

Well, apparently pretty badly. That jaga looked at me as if I were speaking Russian to him. So I tried to tell him the same thing in English and got the same response. This kind of reaction is giving me an inferiority complex.

I continue to try. With the help of a great, and patient guru I WILL get better at it. Just wait. Locals will think that I actually have a few brain cells that didn't get lost in the half-way around the world relocation and can converse with a fair amount of accuracy.

The reason I am optimistic is that I am beginning to be able to read some of the ads I see and pick up bits of conversation without having to go through weird gyrations in my head to translate. It is much simpler than many other languages I could be trying to learn. It is just this blasted memory thing that is not helping me out too much.

I have made flash cards for myself. To re-visit the elementary school student analogy, I try to use my "spelling words" in sentences or even a story when I feel especially inspired. This has at least helped me score brownie points with my guru. It is hearing the spoken word at full speed that is keeping us in the no fly zone. I have to say things so slowly; one, very drawn out, word at a time. There is no real flow. People speaking to me are going so fast that my ears and my brain can't keep up. Thank goodness they are not doing the typical American thing and just speaking louder at me. Slower would be so appreciated however.

That is how it is going and nobody seems to be too worse for the wear.

The title of this post is "OK Pak." Well, that is what Akil says to sugar pie when he is blazing new sentence territory. I think it is his way of saying, "Nice try there bud." Or maybe, "You know, that doesn't really make sense and I don't have a clue what you are trying to say. But, you pay my salary so how ever you want to say it, go ahead." It appears to amuse him in a kindly way. I am sure there is lots of discussion about what we are saying and how we are saying it but I don't think it is done in a mean spirited way. I actually believe that they appreciate that we are making the effort to learn. We are not like Jack Benny, who was actually a wonderful violinist but was good enough to know how to make it sound so awful that people believed he couldn't play worth a hoot. Not that they would know who Jack Benny was, but I think they know we are doing the best we can with what we've got.

Terima kasih to our gurus, patient store clerks and staff who don't totally flinch when we open our mouths. We are still at the pre-school level but we are working hard to make it to 10 year old status before the end of the year.