Jokes have been circulating on Twitter in the past few days pointing out the distinctive way in which people who live and/or work in South Jakarta talk. The jokes highlight how people in the middle-upper class part of the capital often mix English and Indonesian in their daily conversations.
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anak sastra jaksel kalo bikin acara namanya asian literally festival
— dwiki aprinaldi (@dwikiaprinaldi) September 1, 2018
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Twitter user @dwikiaprinaldi, for example, tweeted “Anak sastra Jaksel kalo bikin acara namanya Asian literally festival”, which translates to “If literature students of South Jakarta made an event, it would be called Asian literally festival”. The tweet satirically pointed out how often they use the word “literally” regardless of its relevance.
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from what i gathered, padinya ditumbuk which is bijinya lepas gitu nah moreafter dikumpulin deh itu hence masi ada kulitnya its fine baru abis itu ditumbuk2 like biar jadi beras literally
-petani jaksel
— nga (@iyajgybg) August 28, 2018
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Another user, @iyajgybg, tweeted “[…] padinya ditumbuk which is bijinya lepas gitu nah moreafter dikumpulin deh itu hence masi ada kulitnya its finebaru abis itu ditumbuk2 like biar jadi beras literally — petani jaksel”.
Those two tweets got over 2,000 retweets since being posted on Sept. 1 and Aug. 28 respectively.
Stand-up comedian and filmmaker Ernest Prakasa through his Twitter account @ernestprakasa on Tuesday joined the fuss by tweeting a post using “South Jakarta-style” plus Hokkian, a Chinese dialect, which according to him was the West Jakarta style.
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Gua lahir di Jakbar, gede di Jaksel. So ya gua ga problem whatsoever sama becandaan lu orang, cengli2 aja. Ga worth it aja gitu kita orang baper sama begituan, a little bit bokamguan IMO.
— Ernest Prakasa (@ernestprakasa) September 4, 2018
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“Gua lahir di Jakbar, gede di Jaksel. So ya gua ga problem whatsoever sama becandaan lu orang, cengli2 aja. Ga worth it aja gitu kita orang baper sama begituan, a little bit bokamguan IMO,” he said, which translates to:
“I was born in West Jakarta and raised in South Jakarta. So I don’t have any problem whatsoever with your jokes, it’s OK. It’s not worth it to sweat the small stuff, which in my opinion is a little bit time-wasting.”
South Jakartan Nomena Hutauruk admitted that she and her friends sometimes talked using both English and Indonesian in one sentence — mostly involving the words “which is”, “literally”, “prefer”, “at least” and “I mean”.
“I don’t say the word ‘which is’ that often. The jokes are exaggerated,” the Jagakarsa resident told The Jakarta Post.
Although not new, communication expert from the University of Indonesia Devie Rahmawati said the phenomenon has shown the city’s youngsters’ potential and eagerness to communicate in the global language, English.
“These youngsters live, work and socialize with mixed-culture communities, including people from English-speaking countries. They work, hang out, even play games with foreigners. They want to be part of the global community,” she said on Tuesday.
“They mix two languages in their conversations to signify their ability to talk in both. The blame is on us, the adults, who fail to equip them with enough skills to communicate properly in English and Indonesian,” she added.
She also mentioned that many state officials and celebrities often talked in mixed languages too — which could not be good examples for the country’s young generations about the proper way to talk. This, instead, showed that Indonesians are not confident in their own language.
“This has become people’s habit, not only in South Jakarta, to showcase that they’re smart and educated. If that’s the case, we potentially lose our true identity: Indonesian,” she said.
Linguistic expert Ivan Lanin said people from generation to generation have been mixing languages in their conversations, a term in linguistics known as “code mixing”.
[Read also: 'Language is my ultimate weapon': Ivan Lanin - HERE]
Code mixing can happen both intentionally and unintentionally in a group of communicators. Such a manner of speaking does not pose a problem as long as people in the group can understand the meaning.
“Though I can’t say whether this is good or bad, I’m still not suggesting people talk in mixed code or languages in one sentence. We don’t expect people to do so once their linguistic skills improve,” he told the Post.
“People have a number of reasons to talk in mixed languages, even if they have the ability to talk properly. Laziness [to find equivalent words in Indonesian] and keeping up with their circles’ talking style are but a few,” he added.
Taken from HERE.
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Bahasa Indonesia is never spoken the way it is supposed to be. No matter where you are, there are always cultural influences from different regions of the country that take part in altering the structure of the language. In this case, Jakarta, Indonesia’s biggest city, is undoubtedly more advanced in pretty much anything than the rest of the nation. People of Jakarta live in a heterogeneous environment, resulting into an amalgamation of cultures. They are given more privilege to access the media, as a result of advancements in infrastructures compared other regions. Due to frequent exposure of media, which includes foreign media as well, people of Jakarta are equipped with an adequate level of English. From my personal analysis, due to the daily use of improper Bahasa Indonesia and the consumption of media that uses English as its main language, people of Jakarta tend to use both languages interchangeably. In certain circumstances, there are words and phrases where it is easier to be said in English. As for example, it is generally understandable to say the word “awkward“ to describe a particular mood than to use “canggung“, the literal translation for the word. The word “canggung“ is not used extensively in social situations, hence the use of English.
ReplyDeleteUp to this point, I think your explanations are the exact one. Raul stated that the privilege and access to foreign medias are the main reason to this use of mixed language, and I couldn't agree with it more. Another comparison would be to the people of North Jakarta. From the cultural perspective, most Chinese descendants reside in the Northern part of Jakarta. As a native Jakartan, I can easily point out where people are from just from their dialects. North Jakartan, since they are mainly influenced by their Chinese culture, often prefers Hokkien words or even Mandarin words as their choice of word. Now in comparison, if the North Jakartans speaks a mix lingo between Bahasa Indonesia, Hokkien, and, Mandarin, I think it is fair to say that the reason behind the mix lingo between Bahasa Indonesia and English that the South Jakartans speak is caused by the exposure to the development of foreign culture through several aspects, like media for instance.
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ReplyDeleteEver since I arrived in Indonesia I noticed that people like to mix both English and Indonesian together. At first I thought the Indonesian language was lacking words, but later on I discovered that people did this on purpose. Not only do they use English to fill up the gaps, sometimes they have complete conversations in English. I come from the south of Amsterdam (Amsterdam-Zuid), which is in many ways very comparable with South Jakarta I guess. However, I am sure that I never heard two people, who share the same mother tongue, switch their conversation to English or any other language. In my opinion it is quite ridiculous and unnecessary. Nevertheless, I do believe that languages should be vital and open for change but I don’t see the need to replace them completely.
For the bourgeoisie in Western Europe, French was once the main language. Even our national motto is still in French even though not everybody speaks French anymore.
Therefore I would like to say: Indonésien maintiendra!
I totally disagree that code mixing showed that we, Indonesians, are not confident with our own language. Indonesia consists of more than 17,000 islands ; home of over 300 ethnic groups who spoke over than 700 languages. Indonesia is a country full of diversity. We Indonesians do proud of Bahasa Indonesia, but we also want to embrace the diversity of our languages by using code mixing on a daily basis. Indonesians who live in Java tend to mix Bahasa with Javanese or Sundanese, and it fact, it does ease the communication. I think it’s fine if the younger generations nowadays speak with mixed Bahasa & English. It showed that we, Indonesians, are now trying to adapt to the globalization by also speak the international language. I personally think that people who think that code mixing makes us lose our identity as an Indonesian should change their mindset. Because, I believe that no matter what language we speak, we are still Indonesians. Language does not determine our nationality.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it is exaggerated for people to make this kind of language habit something to bullied about and talked about. First of all, people has their own rights to say everything they want to talk about, no matter how they deliver it. This is basic human rights and shouldn’t be bothered. Second, making something like this to be an issue is not gonna benefit anyone here. It is just making the habit to talk about other people more. And third, hearing that a lot of Jakarta Selatan’s people use english, no matter if it is just a mix between english and Indonesian, it shows that Indonesian people has been educated globally and wants to reach a bigger vision for them internationally. Because basically english is the important basic to reach international world. And to reach that international world, Indonesian need the ability to speak english. So in conclusion i disagree with people making this habit as an issue to be bullied about.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experiences, it's hard to speak in just a language when you mastered many languages. Of course, each of Indonesian mastered two language as minimum which is Bahasa Indonesia and their own each local language, such as Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, or hundreds of other local language in Indonesia. As the world gets more modern each day, we are required or even forced to learn and master English language. Therefore, most of the Indonesians speak three languages. Sometimes, some words in one of those language aren't available or compatible to be used in another language. I think that's the main reason we mix up the language, just to get the sentence have more specific meaning and not to caused ambiguity. It's not fully right that if we make this as a habit, we potentially will lose our identity as Indonesian, or we aren't confident with our own language. It's just we prefer to mix up languages because that's just the way we think as multilingual.
ReplyDeleteIn my own opinion, combining various languages when talking everyday is common because it often happens. In fact, good and true Indonesian is rarely applied in Indonesia. To be honest, if people speak with full Indonesian, people will hear it as something strange. In my own city, we often mix Indonesian with Javanese. Speaking in mixed languages like this makes us understand each other's intentions, because there are some words that are suitable for using Javanese rather than English. Another example, after I moved to Jogja, I also often heard my friends from Jakarta speak using Indonesian which is mixed with English. Usually English is used as a complement or conjunction. The words 'but', 'why tho', 'since', 'no problem', 'literally', are no longer foreign to the conversation of people today. For me, doing things like that is not a problem, because everyone has the right to determine how to speak.
ReplyDeleteI can vouch for what Raul said about how sometimes it is easier to express some ideas in English instead of Indonesian. Why? This it because some Indonesian words that correctly express said idea seems out of place in a day-to-day Jakartan conversation. For example, saying “as in” in English to exemplify something is way more convenient than saying “seperti halnya”, which is a fairly formal Indonesian phrase that you rarely hear outside of political debates or presidential speeches. Additionally, another important factor that pushes us into incorporating English phrases into our daily vocabulary is the fact that we know that the people we speak to understand our way of speaking; which shows that South Jakartans (or Jakartans in general) are on average, more exposed to English than people from other cities in Indonesia. But, I must say that this trend does not apply to Jakarta alone; in fact, I have to say that being a South Jakartan is not the main determinant of whether one can speak the lingo or not. The main determinant is obviously one’s exposure to English, and exposure to English is in turn dependent on how affluent you are (since affluent people tend to have better access to English literature, either through adequate schooling or through the internet).
ReplyDeleteThe broad usage of slang words in Bahasa Indonesia has shaped the literature for years, and as the majority of South Jakartan came from a middle-upper class of society, the tendency of getting more access to education, information, and so on are higher than the rest of the people. With that being said, a complex change in how people interact with each other is inevitable, hence the mixed words of Bahasa Indonesia and another language, especially English in South Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteIn other parts of Jakarta, it is common to mix languages into a single way of speaking; Javanese language, Sundanese, Mandarin, and others as the capital city or the largest city of a country will always be the melting pot of cultures.
In daily converse between people, the usage of English words such as “literally”, “which is”, and so on are also based on the level of the Bahasa Indonesian version’s usage, in which it is rarer than the English version.
In my experience of living in South Jakarta since i was 4th grade, this phenomenon just started from the last two months. It was never a bother of people mixing two languages into one and them speaking it to each other. This case happens in different stages of age, from teenagers to adults. What i think is the cause of this problem is that i think globalization runs very hard in Jakarta especially in South Jakarta. It runs very hard particularly in South Jakarta because they have an upper class environment rather than other parts of Jakarta. Globalization then cause not only changing cultures and habits but also the way people speaks. It is also caused by the amount of high schools which are international based. These students are used to speak English in everyday conversations and also in school materials. They are used to speak full time English and having the result of mixing both language.
ReplyDeleteI would consider myself as a typical South Jakartan; I was born and raised there, conducted all of my studies from pre-school until high school there, and I speak both English and Indonesian in the same sentence. I think it is more of a habit, and sometimes I do find difficulties to express myself solely in Indonesian because most of my studies are carried out in English. When I was younger, I went to a national plus primary school with Singapore curriculum which allowed me to speak in English on a daily basis. Afterward, I entered a public school which made me use Indonesian much more often, yet I would consider myself to be more familiar with English vocabularies. I would say that there is nothing wrong with speaking multiple languages in a sentence since the aim of communication is so that both parties understand. As long as it is convenient, why not?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it’s something that’s quite normal to mix multiple languages in informal communications like between friends, or sometimes with parents. I am a person who frequently use this way to communicate since for me it’s easier to express some words in English or in Bahasa Indonesia rather than to use only one single language for communication purposes. Since at school, when I communicate with my friends, I usually use both Indonesian and English to express what I’am about to tell them. However, for me the word “Which Is”, “Literally”, “Like” and many more are overused by Indonesians, to be honest, I did not really care that much or even pay a single attention to the choice of words they use. As long as I get the meaning, I would be satisfied and would not complain too much to it, since it’s a personal choice whether people would utilise 100% Indonesian for their daily conversation, full English or mix between multiple languages.
ReplyDeleteI personally find this whole ordeal to be hilarious being a jakartan myself. Throughout the years I seem to realize that the younger generations, not to sound like I'm old or anything, have been more prone to the use of mix language in their day to day conversations. I think this stems from the fact that international media, entertainment and products alike has reached Indonesia and have become very widespread in these last couple of decades. Not to mention the rising popularity of Social Media since the start of facebook in 2007, more and more people have gotten used to being exposed to international literature in their everyday lives. Back in my high school we would usually make fun of those that spoke mix language often commenting the mas 'alay' and accusing them of being the 'stereotypical arrogant middle-class' types, I realize now that it's not the case but still it still brings me joy in reading these kind of posts.
ReplyDeleteLanguage mixing is not a thing just for South Jakartans. In fact, Indonesians do mix up at least a little part of their conversation with foreign vocabulary (English, Dutch, etc.) or local dialects, and it’s not the lack of vocabulary in Bahasa Indonesia that creates this situation; it feels convenient to mix it up. I have been spending my days speaking Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese, and English. Considering both Bahasa and Javanese as my first language, it does feel a lot better when you exchange word to express yourself in a way you feel comfortable; for instance, Javanese vocabulary has 4-5 different word for “falling”, and how you differentiate one from the other depends on how you fall, which direction you fall to, and the reason behind your fall. It’s also a lot more efficient to express what you mean in a single word, rather than explaining in a sentence. The features unique to each language is substitutive to each other in terms of language mixing. My question is, why do people blow their mind over South Jakartans mixing Bahasa with English while when someone mix Bahasa with Javanese or with English people don’t bother themselves creating memes about Javanese mixing Javanese or Indonesian with English while speaking in the distinct Javanese accent?
ReplyDeleteThe thing about mixing Indonesian over English and some overly used words by south Jakarta people is actually not disturbing me at all, as I was the civilian of south Jakarta. What makes me feel uncomfortable is when people are actually mixing the language just to feel like they’re the “superiors” and they want to be cool like a ‘gaul’ Jakartan. It is not true in my opinion regarding that Indonesian do this because we’re not proud of our language. Let’s just see this in a positive way, which this has shown the city’s youngsters’ potential and eagerness to communicate in the global language, English, said the communication expert. Because we know, Indonesian people that were not born in an “English speaking environment” are still many, and by this phenomenon, we can place a hope for Indonesia to learn English more even though only through some words like “which is”, “literally”, “even”, and so on.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who went to school in the South Jakarta area, I am a little confused as to why things like this are made as a joke because I did not find it funny at all (I even felt a little offended hahaha). After reading a few sentences, I realized how often I used the word "literally" in every sentence and how I was very used to using two languages in one sentence. I feel that mixing two languages in one sentence does not make a person less proud of his native language. However, the existence of these jokes makes me realize to use my native language correctly and speak in accordance with the place. The intention is to adapt to speak the proper Indonesian language with certain groups that do use Indonesian, and allow myself to mix other languages within everyday sentences if my environment does it too.
ReplyDeleteThe use of mixed languages in South Jakarta has been going on as a trend recently with memes and jokes booming throughout social media. I can totally relate to what Zaki said regarding the use of mixed languages in other parts of Indonesia such as combining Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese, and English in daily conversations. It is totally normal for people to combine other languages in their conversations to express themselves better in a more comfortable way. From where I come from, we combine Javanese, Madurese, Bahasa Indonesia, and English in our daily conversation, which I find normal. South Jakartans aren’t the only ones combining English to communicate, I’m sure many other people outside South Jakarta often use English or other languages to express themselves better in communicating. As Zaki said, so why not make memes or jokes about other people apart from South Jakartans mixing languages in their daily conversation? Mixing Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia, and English all at once perhaps?
ReplyDeleteAs a South Jakartans myself, I do think that the mix lingo is prominent there. Yet, the mix lingo does not exclusively present among the southeners. It is widely in use across the region of Jabodetabek. In my opinion the labeling of the emerging trend as South Jakartans is it does have a huge popularity there. For many of us it is not something that we do intentionally; it just stick in the ‘literally’ at the back of our minds. My theory for its origins is South Jakarta do have quite a large English speaking population, or at least partial-English speakers, and in the mid of their new found vocabulary there is a confusion in terms usage. Since, ‘literally’ do translate to ‘benar-benar’ in Indonesian; and ‘benar-benar’ is one of the commonly use word in Jakartan dialect; in the end I suppose the lingo is a product of an acculturation.
ReplyDeleteSome people find that mixing languages are irritating. For instance, when talking in Bahasa Indonesia, there are quite a lot of people who slip some English or Chinese words into what they are saying. In my opinion though, it’s a normal thing to do. It isn’t just a thing for residents of South Jakarta. I believe that we could actually find people mixing languages in every part of the world. But why are people mixing languages? Based on my little experience and observation, the reason why a lot of people are mixing languages is because some languages are lacking words or some words just doesn’t sound good enough to be used in everyday conversation. For example, the word “literally” is much used in Indonesia because if this word is spoken in Bahasa Indonesia, the words will be “secara harfiah” and it just doesn’t sound right because it doesn’t used much in everyday conversation. To conclude, I think that it’s people’s choice to say what they want to say and mixing languages is never a problem.
ReplyDeleteSouth Jakarta is widely known to be the center of "cool people". It is an area in Jakarta where everything is available for the people such as fine dining restaurants, nightclubs, coffee shops, hawker centers, etc. The thing about mixing between English and Indonesian language has become viral. This phenomenon is called " Jaksel Lifestyle". Many YouTubers and celebrities are posting their jokes on this topic which made it common to say mixing Indo-English is a stereotype for South Jakarta people. The reason behind mixing these two languages can possibly be because of how easy the word is in English than in Bahasa. It is human nature where we would use the easiest way possible. Since this has become a popular topic, now I really wonder how does it start? how can the mix of two languages become very viral? I realized that even Malaysians and Singaporeans are known for mixing English and Melayu.
ReplyDeleteBeside corruption, pollution, population density, I think the future issue of Jakarta is determination of language usage. We all know that Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia, where people from entire world can meet and communicate; so no wonder why people in Jakarta tend to use both English-Indonesian language. But still, if this behavior does not being solve then it will become a heritage to our young generations. All the songs they listen to, all the books they read, even all the conversations they heard is commonly using English. So don’t ever blame them if they start to prefer English rather than Bahasa; but blame ourselves that can not inherit the beautiful language of ours, Bahasa Indonesia. For all the young parents out there, please be respect, responsible, and assertive towards the usage of language. Teach your kids the proper Bahasa Indonesia, so they can really know the identity of their nation.
ReplyDeleteIndonesia, in itself, has a lot of languages. Starting from Javanese, Sundanese, Bataknese, and all other languages that I couldn’t say in this comment. And now, there is this new language that mixes English and Indonesia language in one sentence. While it is normal to see people mixes English in their daily conversation, especially in Jakarta where most of the people or the businessman there has a connection with foreign people. It sorts of become a joke for the people in Jakarta, mainly in South Jakarta, because they actually mix Indonesia and English language into one sentence or more. I think the problem that solidify this occurrence is because they have sufficient English knowledge and when they, for example, talk in front of public and are giving a speech, they would mix English in their speech so people would think that they are fluent in their English conversation. Another problem that strengthen this event, is because most of their parents encourage them to speak English in their daily conversation. It’s not that bad of a thing because they just wanted the best for their children so that they would be smarter in school. But some people would see it as an annoying thing to do because they think that, why are you using English if you are an Indonesian? While there are people that thought of that kind of thinking, as for me personally, I don’t really care since I would use English words when I forgot the Indonesia word of what I’m going to say.
ReplyDeleteThe use of mixed languages is not only occured in South Jakarta but also in some other schools that use English as their first language. My previous school is in Tangerang Selatan and English is used as the language of instruction. Some of my friends talk in mixed languages which is in Bahasa and also English. They are not doing it on purpose, they accidentally mixed some words due to the extensive use of English in school. In addition, English is commonly used in daily activities and we also use English in academic aspects, there are some words that cannot be explained in Bahasa, therefore, we tend to mix the languages to deliver the context properly. Furthermore, the influence from the social media also contribute to the factors that lead to the use of mixed languages. In social media, English is used to deliver the contents within it. Most of Indonesians think that translating Bahasa into English will be more impressive.
ReplyDeleteThe Indonesian media is currently emphasizing on how Jakarta citizen, particularly the middle-upper class Southern Jakarta citizen frequently use english vocabulary regardless of their relevance. Vocabularies including “literally”, “like seriously”, “at least”, “I mean” are added in between sentences. Now that this habit acquire a lot of attention in the media, a lot of people actually attempt to imitate the way South Jakarta citizen talk in an overly exaggerated way. Code switching in the case of many South Jakarta citizen is indeed an interesting phenomenon to talk about. This phenomenon is to certain extent understandable if we take into account the nature of South Jakarta. Jakarta in general is a metropolitan city with a lot of influence from globalization. Jakarta citizen are really active social media users and therefore are highly influenced with what they see in social media. A lot of South Jakarta citizen in particular come from the middle to upper class. People from the middle to upper class have higher tendency to be exposed to social media earlier and become influenced by it. Not only that, there are a lot of international school or national plus schools located in South Jakarta which might further suggest that a lot of South Jakarta citizen are multilingual. With this being said, it is no surprise that code switching happens a lot to South Jakarta citizen.
ReplyDeleteThis phenomenon actually is not the first time in the world. In the term of language , this phenomenon is called “ code switching “. One of the examples of code switching in USA is called “Spanglish”. It is the combination between Spanish and English. This kind of combination is the result of culture assimilation and it is not weird. In Indonesia the problem is not about the code switching itself but the main problem is that many teenagers use some terms in English like even, literally, which is , and so on in the wrong way. They don’t rely on the proper grammar . For example when we use “even” , we also need to add “if” or “though”, here my example : I don’t want to eat fish even though I am very hungry. We cannot say like , I don’t want to eat fish even I am hungry. Moreover, they have to understand first the using of some English term in the English sentences before apply them into the Bahasa Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteMillennials tend to mix different languages when they're talking, its probably because of their exposure to globalisation. Even though I have no issues with it, I think it is best if we use our mother tongue, foreign language, and mix language appropriately (in the right time and in the right place). However, I find there are a lot of people that seem to be 'disturbed' by others that mix languages, english-indonesian, when they're talking. Maybe most of them despise it because they couldn't understand it, or maybe they just think that when people mix languages they are being arrogant or trying to show off their ability to speak foreign languages. On the context of South Jakartans' habit to mix languages, I think its because they often work and socialize with mixed-culture communities, including people from English-speaking countries. Even though I am not from Jakarta, but I agree with the statement the Jagakarsa Resident said in the article that mix-lingo jokes are overly exaggerated. Nevertheless, I still think we have to use any language that we like on the right term. For example if we talk in front of older people here in Indonesia especially in rural area, we might want to use a proper Bahasa Indonesia, taking into account that not all older people understand foreign language.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard the South Jakartans lingo, I honestly find it hilarious because they overused the words “literally”, “which is”, and “I mean”. However, the act of mixing Bahasa Indonesia and English itself is a very common thing to do because more people are getting exposed and knowledgeable of English. There are also many cases where Indonesians uses English in their daily lives therefore they might find it a bit difficult to speak in Bahasa Indonesia because they are already used to speaking in English hence they will combine the words from both languages in one sentence. For example, I used to live in Qatar and I have a few Indonesian friends who were born and raised there. When asked to speak in Bahasa Indonesia, they could not express themselves fully and they find themselves running out of words so the often mix their sentences with some English words. This happens a lot, especially when you are a bilingual. Not just with Bahasa Indonesia but with other languages as well therefore we shouldn’t make fun of the South Jakartans because they might actually be struggling with speaking in just one language.
ReplyDeleteBefore, most Indonesians can only speak Indonesian language and their respective local language. Then, people are being introduced to English due to globalisation and nowadays pupils are being encouraged and even forced to learn English at school, having an “English language” test included in Ujian Nasional or UN, even though the lesson is still pretty basic. And when your english skills is getting more advanced or your vocabulary is more wide, there are more possibilities where people tend to mix Indonesian and English together. this may ease them to find the correct vocabularies in terms of the context, since their choice of words are getting wider. This is the reason why Indonesians, especially in Jakarta where can be said the most advanced city in Indonesia, tend to mix up two languages they know, commonly Indonesian and English. Personally, this is not a problem for me as long as it is understandable for me.
ReplyDeleteFor starts, I cannot fully relate to this article since I was raised abroad, and I only visit Jakarta every now and then during my holidays. Due to the fact that I’ve lived abroad for a long period of time, studying in an International School, my English has grown fluent. However, even though I’m surrounded in an English-speaking environment, I speak in Bahasa when I’m back home and because of this, my speaking language has been jumbled up between English and Indonesia. It even gets more complicated since I live In the Middle-East. My group of friends consists of Arabs as well and they would add Arabic words or expressions in our conversations or when speaking. This habit has influenced me, making me use Arabic words in my conversations on top of my English and Bahasa. So, going back to this article, despite of some people frowning down on the “Jaksel” lingo, I find it as something positive because our country has started embracing and speaking the English language which is also known as the official worldwide language.
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