Before starting this post, let me tell you that I'm an Indonesian. I have lived in Indonesia for 16 years and have learned bahasa Indonesia for years too. I don't really remember how did I do bahasa Indonesia on elementary school, but what I now know is that I don't think that I'm good in bahasa Indonesia. You can believe it or not and it's not like I'm smart in English or something, my English mark was, indeed, better than my bahasa Indonesia mark. Can you believe it?
As for the beginning, my teacher (she is a bahasa Indonesia teacher!) once had ever said that learning bahasa Indonesia is actually difficult. There are so many things that have to be learned, and I mean it's A LOT OF things. She said that even someone, I don't remember exactly who this person is but my teacher said this person is a litterateur or someone who's keen on literature things, said that bahasa Indonesia can be classified as one of the languages that is difficult to be learned. Once I had ever thought like this, I feel like I'm lucky because I'm an Indonesian, since I don't have to learn a lot about this language from the beginning. For instance, I'm thinking as if I'm a foreigner who wants to learn bahasa Indonesia, I'm thinking like "Oh! I know a good method to learn bahasa Indonesia! I need to look more than my textbook. I'll go online (maybe twitter of facebook) and find Indonesians, follow or add them, then try to understand what they talk about." It seems like a very great idea right? But then when I, as a foreigner, do that, then I will surely make myself more confused. Why is that?
Well, now let's think about it! What if the thing I found on twitter or facebook is like "aku sih nggak suka banget" or "emang loe mau apa" or "cape banget deh!". How can I, as a foreigner once again, can translate it if I haven't even know what kind of person who typed it. Is that person Javanese or Ambonese, or the others? Or in which part of Java does this man live? Because different culture will type different bahasa Indonesia. Moreover if what they write like this "ak sih g suka bgt" or emg lu mw apa" or cape bgtz deh", how can I ask Google Translator to translate it for me? Though it's true that the most correct ones are in EYD, but I still believe that learning bahasa Indonesia via textbook is probably the best especially for beginner. And learning via social network, in order to know the daily language of Indonesian, can be learned later and slowly.
The other thing that makes me happy to be an Indonesian is that it's easy to learn other languages. Maybe it's not so easy for learning certain language such as English which have very different way of pronunciation. But I think for the other certain languages, it's been a benefit for being an Indonesian, such as learning Japanese. For an example, the word "anata" which means "you" would be very very easy for Indonesians to read it, but when we come to a foreigner, such as western, and ask them how to read it, I'm sure they can't read it correctly. For note, if you're not sure whether you've read it correctly or not you can check it on Google Translator.
So I think I'm happy to be an Indonesian but I'm not happy with this subject in my school. But I'll keep on trying to improve my ability in bahasa Indonesia =D
As for the beginning, my teacher (she is a bahasa Indonesia teacher!) once had ever said that learning bahasa Indonesia is actually difficult. There are so many things that have to be learned, and I mean it's A LOT OF things. She said that even someone, I don't remember exactly who this person is but my teacher said this person is a litterateur or someone who's keen on literature things, said that bahasa Indonesia can be classified as one of the languages that is difficult to be learned. Once I had ever thought like this, I feel like I'm lucky because I'm an Indonesian, since I don't have to learn a lot about this language from the beginning. For instance, I'm thinking as if I'm a foreigner who wants to learn bahasa Indonesia, I'm thinking like "Oh! I know a good method to learn bahasa Indonesia! I need to look more than my textbook. I'll go online (maybe twitter of facebook) and find Indonesians, follow or add them, then try to understand what they talk about." It seems like a very great idea right? But then when I, as a foreigner, do that, then I will surely make myself more confused. Why is that?
Well, now let's think about it! What if the thing I found on twitter or facebook is like "aku sih nggak suka banget" or "emang loe mau apa" or "cape banget deh!". How can I, as a foreigner once again, can translate it if I haven't even know what kind of person who typed it. Is that person Javanese or Ambonese, or the others? Or in which part of Java does this man live? Because different culture will type different bahasa Indonesia. Moreover if what they write like this "ak sih g suka bgt" or emg lu mw apa" or cape bgtz deh", how can I ask Google Translator to translate it for me? Though it's true that the most correct ones are in EYD, but I still believe that learning bahasa Indonesia via textbook is probably the best especially for beginner. And learning via social network, in order to know the daily language of Indonesian, can be learned later and slowly.
The other thing that makes me happy to be an Indonesian is that it's easy to learn other languages. Maybe it's not so easy for learning certain language such as English which have very different way of pronunciation. But I think for the other certain languages, it's been a benefit for being an Indonesian, such as learning Japanese. For an example, the word "anata" which means "you" would be very very easy for Indonesians to read it, but when we come to a foreigner, such as western, and ask them how to read it, I'm sure they can't read it correctly. For note, if you're not sure whether you've read it correctly or not you can check it on Google Translator.
So I think I'm happy to be an Indonesian but I'm not happy with this subject in my school. But I'll keep on trying to improve my ability in bahasa Indonesia =D