Adrian wrote: "It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on Indonesian culture (at least in so far as you witness it) after you have been here for a while and have gained insights into it.
Andreas wrote (17th October): "I would now share some of my thoughts regarding Indonesian culture. As those are my thoughts, they are of course made from my own experiences in Indonesia during the last two and a half month. They may, or may not, match your perception of Indonesian culture. If any of you have something to add or want me to elaborate on something, please feel free to leave a comment. Here we go.
From what I have experienced, Indonesians really love to take pictures when they visit certain, often well-known or famous, locations. If possible the addition of a foreigner on the picture is appreciated. Often it seems like the interest is more in the picture than the actual experience of being at a certain place. To me it seems like the ability to document that something happens is valued highly in Indonesian culture.
Another thing I have noticed is that Indonesia seems to be a collective culture rather than an individualistic, as seen in many western countries. There seems to be a broad focus on how the community feels about the behavior of the people. An example is that many places you are not allowed to make noise in the night, even in weekends. Instead of pleasing the individual’s interests, it is more important that everyone is happy and feels good about what’s going on.
Lastly to mention in this post is the perception of time in Indonesia. From what I have experienced many Indonesians have a rather loose attitude towards time and don’t see it as the most important thing in the world. I have often experienced that people don’t care so much about how long time a certain activity take. Also, I have often met people who have a flexible schedule and therefore easily can adapt it to the situations they will meet throughout the day. This perception of time is called polychromic, whereas monochronic time is often the norm in western cultures. ~ Bless"
Thoughts? Responses? Questions for Andreas? Are things changing? Your own experiences of living abroad? Why not have a conversation with him on this? Your comments may just be short and sweet (and not 150+ words), but why worry about that?
Andreas was an EWS student in 2016. I'm still in touch with him. I'll see if I can get him to answer any questions you might have.
Andreas was an EWS student in 2016. I'm still in touch with him. I'll see if I can get him to answer any questions you might have.
I strongly agree with what Andreas said that Indonesians tend to prioritized documentation rather than enjoying the real experience. This phenomenon is a common thing in Indonesia. Every time I visited a place or an event, people are continuously taking pictures and forget the actual purpose why they came to that particular place or event. Nowadays, there are more people interested to be a vlogger. As I watched their videos, I realized that they are more focused on making the video rather than experiencing and enjoying the life itself. In extreme cases, they also tend to adjust their daily life into an interesting scenario so that they can produced an entertaining content for their vlog videos. This is such an unfortunate way of life, I do believe that we should cherish every second of our life because we will never create an exact moment with the same time, place, or person.
ReplyDeleteTaken from the article above, I agree strongly with Andreas's statement in the last paragraph, regarding the perception of time here in Indonesia. Taken from my experience of living abroad I share the view that the perception of time in Indonesia is polychromic and in western culture it is monochromic. People in Indonesia seem to take a much more relaxed approach to using time in their daily lives. For example if you make an appointment to rendezvous at around 6 pm, people are likely to arrive at 6;30 pm or even 7:00 pm. But if you were to be in Canada the case would be different. If you were to rendezvous at 6 pm then at 6 pm sharp you are expected to be at the place of meeting. In my opinion while it is good to take a relax approach on time, I think Indonesians should place that behaviour in the right manner. So that it does not affect situations which require a much more serious approach.
ReplyDeleteAs one of those Indonesians, I agree that we like to take pictures every time we go to a certain place/ event. Based on my own experience, I think this is because we like to capture every moment, so that someday we if we try to recall it again, we can look into those pictures again without going back to its place. I also agree with the statement ‘Indonesia seems to be a collective culture rather than an individualistic‘. This is true and I think this is a positive thing from Indonesia. We care about each other so much. And Indonesian people mostly know their neighbors well. We like to help and we communicate very well. We prioritizing society’s comfort rather than individual’s. And for the last argument that Andreas said, I personally neutral, I mean, maybe some Indonesians people have those characteristic, and some others don’t. But overall, I agree with Andreas opinion.
ReplyDeleteI can strongly relate to Andreas’ opinion on the perception of time among Indonesians. When I came back home from Sydney, I felt the huge difference in time management here. The time you set for certain appointments or meetings doesn’t really matter because people are mostly an hour late and sometimes more than that. What’s worse is that a lot of people don’t care about others’ activities throughout the day, believing that everybody has the same schedules as themselves. The slang word for being late is “ngaret” which happens a lot and considered normal for most Indonesians. At first, I thought the lack of time management only happens among high school students as I have experienced many late appointments, meetings, etc., during high school. But now I realised that it’s not just high school students who lack time management.
ReplyDeleteIndonesia is very well known for its polychromic identity, even timetable or schedule would not help. Appointments are merely possible if we are committed because we tend to neglect the fact that other people have different schedules. Furthermore, we seem to take our time knowing that we have some to spare; a leeway is something that Indonesians do in between activities. I also agree that Indonesians love to take pictures every time we go to a certain place or event, especially nowadays you see a lot on social media of people updating their current location even mentioning their current location it's like something that is planted in our head to share our activities online or where we are at that time. I can include myself in that category because I also do the exact same thing sometimes, we have this urge to go on social media and just share to everyone. However, there are some people who prefers to keep it lowkey and not capture everything. I don't see the purpose in any of that and still question whether it's a brag or not.
ReplyDeleteAndreas wrote three main points about what he experienced in Indonesia. Those three points include (1) Indonesian like to take pictures, (2) Indonesian tend to be collective than individualist, (3) Indonesian find it hard to commit with time. Unsurprisingly, all of those seems to be correct. I could not disagree more to that since sometime I used that as a topic of discussion to talk with my friends. My mum is one of those who take pictures whenever she travels. Meanwhile, I don’t take pictures as much as my mum since I would like to witness the beauty of the visited place directly using my eyes instead of the camera lense. Being collective is also one of the characteristics that we have. Perhaps, it’s influenced from the regime of Soeharto where we had a very complex government system (Nation → Province → City → District → Sub-District → Village → “RW” → “RT”). Last, I think being on-time is just a part of habit that could and should change.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the reason that Indonesians would rather take a picture instead of enjoying the view for example, is because the fact that Indonesian have a tradition of trying to prove to other people of their capabilities. Let us think about it this way, what are the pictures for in the end? It is for them to show their friends families and workmates. What can be evaluated from this is the fact that the pursuit of happiness for Indonesians is not located in the happiness of themselves but in the happiness that their friend, families and colleague’s feedback. When their chosen one gives a feedback of saying how cool the destination that they choose to go to, that creates a happiness of itself to the person. This is in contrary of what the westerners do, their pursuit of happiness is the happiness that they can create by themselves and for theirselves.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that most Indonesians does not appreciate time and tend to procrastinate or getting late on appointment. Do you think living in Indonesia for a while could ruin your monochronic time perception when you came back to your country?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andreas’ thoughts on life in Indonesia, especially the statement that “Indonesians love to take pictures when they visit certain, often well-known or famous, locations.” Sometimes Indonesians are busy to take pictures until they forget about the experiences or real places that they should see from their own eyes, not seeing it through their camera when in fact the real one is in front of them. Even some people are going to beautiful places, having to take pictures as their main purposes. Aside from documenting, I also agree with the perception of time in Indonesia. Punctuality is one of the common problems Indonesia. Most people, while not all, tend to be late to the scheduled activities such as meetings. It ranges from minutes to hours, while there’s no problem to it. There will always be delays on every appointment that we agreed on, and we do not take it as big issues as other countries do.
ReplyDeleteFrom what Andreas wrote, I strongly agree with the last statement regarding time. He said “From what I have experienced many Indonesians have a rather loose attitude towards time and don’t see it as the most important thing in the world.” I could not agree less with this statement because I myself as an Indonesian know that this is true. For example, it is almost impossible to see Indonesians arriving on-time to events. I might be exaggerating a little but I spent almost half my life in the Middle East where most people there value their time so when I moved back to Indonesia, I was really annoyed with the people’s attitude towards time as I have become someone who is usually on-time. Another example is when Indonesians says “on the way”. Trust me when they say that they are on the way, it means that they are about to take a shower hence why they might take an hour to arrive instead of 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion between Andreas and Adrian about living in Indonesia really intrigued me as I have surprisingly the exact perception. First off, Indonesia is indeed leaning towards collectivism. We value strong bonds within families, and communities. A lot of times my parents taught me that my personal action will have an impact on my surrounding and therefore I need to always think on the bigger scale. I also agree that today’s Indonesian especially the millennial generation prioritize documentation rather than living in the moment. Globalization as well as the vast influence of social media led to a significant change in the dynamics of our society. A lot of youth today go to museum or art galleries to take pictures for their instagram feed. They are missing the point of the art itself and instead prioritize their social media life. Indonesians also have the tendency to take pictures of their food before eating it. It is as if a good presentation of the food is more important than the food itself. A trait that I personally dislike but have to agree upon is Indonesians perception of time. “Ngaret” or the tendency to be late is very common in Indonesia. It is never a surprise to schedule a meeting for instance at 8 AM and forced to postpone it until 9 AM because nobody is simply on time. I personally like to be punctual and living in Indonesia taught me that you need to always set your appointment 1 hour earlier than your desired schedule because people tend to be very late.
ReplyDeleteWhat drives me crazy the most by this “characteristic” of Indonesian is the first thing Andreas mentioned. It is about how Indonesian tends to focus more on the documentation than the moment itself. I’m considering myself as a person who would choose to live the moment than to take pictures. I love the art of photography, but at sometimes, it’s just so annoying how we spent much more time on taking the documentation than other things we could have done. There is also this culture when people get back from the vacation, the first thing to be asked by others is ‘Where are the pictures?’ Not asking about the story. So, sometimes it would happened to be a story that went from a photo neither than a story from the actual experience. That makes some uncaptured moments just being easily forgotten because the focus is too much on the pictures.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the post from Andreas, I strongly agree towards his opinion. Indonesians are indeed popular because of the three points he mentioned above: We love to take pictures, we care more about the environment's welfare than our own welfare, and we are very flexible in terms of timing. I just want to elaborate on the things he mentioned above. First, when he said that Indonesians love to take pictures, it is to an extreme extent. We love to take pictures even before we eat. There is a joke where if other nations would have a prayer before they eat, Indonesians would prefer to take pictures of their food before they eat. Secondly, when we talk about Indonesians would prioritize the social welfare, it is because of the social norms present in our environment. We are taught about "Gotong Royong" where it is about helping and caring about others. Lastly, regarding the flexibility of schedule, sometimes it can become a negative effect on clients/people that are usually on time.
ReplyDeleteThe opinions of Andreas on Indonesian is perfectly right. It is very often that I find Indonesian taking pictures with tourist attraction sites and record most of what they saw. I personally think that as the individual take pictures, there might be moments of something that they missed. Even though the picture can bring back memories, I personally think that they will not open those pictures again when they got home, they just moved it into their laptops or pc and move on. About the collective culture, it has been a thing in Indonesia since back then. Collective culture is really being kept in Indonesia and they are usually used to solve problems. There are various examples of collective culture like helping your neighbor moving, solving problems in the residence and maybe, helping friends with their home works. I personally think there is nothing wrong with this collective culture as it teaches us to be aware of others and not only being focused to ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAs an Indonesian, what Andreas stated above is actually right. While I read the article that he made about Indonesians, I can imagine the situation at that time. Indeed, timing in Indonesia is still a big problem. Like if we are planning to meet at 7 p.m., it should be 7 p.m. not 7.30 p.m. But in Indonesia, when you say that you want to meet at 7, we usually started preparing ourselves to go out at 7. Of course, it is better now (in my opinion) than before. I have a few questions for Andreas. Do you like the traditional food of Indonesia (especially in Yogyakarta)? Because I feel like the food in Yogyakarta is a little bit too sweet and boring. And also, would you live the rest of your life in Indonesia if you got the chance to? Give an explanation of why you would live and why you wouldn't. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I couldn’t agree more with what Andreas said. I can totally relate to all the things he said about living in Indonesia and I have experienced it myself. Personally, I agree when Andreas said that Indonesians love to take pictures when they go to a certain place. If you go to a touristy place or a famous spot in Indonesia, you would see that rather than enjoying the view as well as the vibe there, Indonesians would hold their phone to take lots of pictures or even make a video blog. As a result, a lot of people didn’t get their full experience when they visited such a beautiful place in Indonesia because they’re too busy holding their phone to take pictures and upload it to the social media. I would not say that taking pictures in a famous place is a bad thing, but I think that it’s very disappointing that Indonesians could not just enjoy the beautiful moment there.
ReplyDeleteVarious world survey institutions show that Indonesia is a country that is very happy despite the high poverty rate and the low quality of education. In fact, it can be said that Indonesia is one of the happiest countries in the world, what is the pleasure of living and living in Indonesia? Of course there is no reason we are very happy to live here. Rendang, fried rice and satay are some of the typical Indonesian foods that are included in the list of the best foods in the world, many foreign tourists have acknowledged that Indonesia is one of the countries with the most delicious culinary destinations in the world. You can say anything in Indonesia there are alternatives, ranging from treatment to alternative roads. Although there are also many misguided alternatives ranging from traditional healers to money multipliers, they all indicate that Indonesians are creative and full of extraordinary initiatives with all their limitations.
ReplyDeleteYou can say anything in Indonesia there are alternatives, ranging from treatment to alternative roads. Although there are also many misguided alternatives ranging from shamans to money multipliers, it all signifies that Indonesians are creative and full of extraordinary initiatives with all their limitations. As an archipelago with tropical Indonesia Indonesia has the most beautiful sunrise and sunset views in this world. The many mountains, beaches, and thousands of islands with their own beauty and characteristics. Both rural and urban have their own beauty, the many temples and other historical buildings have a very unique impression for the people of Indonesia, including tourists who come from outside.
DeleteEspecially this is indeed relative, in the end it returns to the personalities of each person, some people think that Indonesian people tend to be ignorant and ignorant, but some others (especially foreigners) consider Indonesian people friendly and full of friendly smiles . In general, it can be said that the Indonesian people are indeed smiling and humble.
Regarding the diversity in Indonesia, not only does it has thousands of islands, Indonesia also has various tribes, races, languages, religions, and cultures, each of which has its own history and culture (ritual). This is what makes Indonesia a very beautiful country, despite the many differences we all remain one Indonesian. The very right state motto describes Indonesia "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" although it is different but still one, we all have pride in the origin of our history and racial or ethnic cultural identity, but far more important we are all proud to be part of a single entity Republic of Indonesia.
DeleteThe entertainment media in Indonesia is also quite unique for foreigners. There are people possessed on TV, "alay-alay" who got hypnosis, supernatural predictions ranging from zodiac, blood type, date of birth, feng shui, characters based on hand line, political drama and artist gossip settings, the point is that media in Indonesia will never ran out of cases of controversy and excited news to shake the Indonesian people.
This can mean both positive and negative depending on which point of view you see, but we take the positives only, meaning in Indonesia we will never run out of entertainment materials, memes (we all know for meme affairs especially in social media the Indonesian people are very creative and energetic ), and funny jokes about the anxiety that is happening in this country.
Indonesia is a country rich in tradition and culture. From Sabang to Merauke, there are various kinds of arts, traditions and customs that can be shown to the outside world. The nation should feel proud of this. But in reality, all these cultural heritage have almost no place among teenagers.
DeleteThe entry of foreign culture has contributed to the color of people's tastes in today's development. Their tendency to adopt outside culture even makes it a trendsetter is far greater than learning their own culture. Indonesian people just want to acknowledge and be moved to preserve it, when their culture is claimed by other countries. After that happens, they have just put considerable attention on their culture. It cannot be denied, if this problem can threaten the existence of traditional culture.
Beyond the cultural aspects of Indonesia, seeing Indonesia's development in economics, technology, governance and education, I believe that one day Indonesia will become a great nation and a developed country especially in the hands of young people who are full of talent, talent and passion in building this beloved country be better.
I have a same opinion with Andreas, where people nowadays care more about documentation rather than enjoying the full experience. People nowadays tends to document every journey that they experienced, one reason is to provide a media to keep the memory and to be remember in the future. The other reason why people nowadays mostly document rather than experiencing the journey fully, it is because it is their occupation as a video blogger we often said as vlogger. It is became a norm where people go on a vacation not enjoying the real life experience but they document it, it is made possible by this era we are living in, the era where the usage of technology are becoming more and more apparent and through time it became a norm. So, we cannot judge someone is living their best life during vacation or not just based on whether they document every single thing they experience, because it might be his or her occupation.
ReplyDelete“From what I have experienced, Indonesians really love to take pictures when they visit certain, often well-known or famous, locations. If possible the addition of a foreigner on the picture is appreciated. Often it seems like the interest is more in the picture than the actual experience of being at a certain place. To me it seems like the ability to document that something happens is valued highly in Indonesian culture. “
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I completely agree with what Andreas has stated. I remember visiting a museum once and people are more interested in taking pictures in front of the arts rather than enjoying the art itself. It is a bit annoying at times whenever people only caring about arts as the background of their photos rather than a piece of work that should be respected and appreciated. The statement above is also relevant to Indonesians during concerts. Not just Indonesians actually. A lot of people worldwide does it too. Some people are too focused on recording the concert they are attending rather than experiencing the concert itself. Sometimes people tend to forget that if you want to live the moment such as during a concert and visiting a museum, it doesn’t involve using your gadget.
As an Indonesian, I do agree with most of Andreas’ perception on Indonesia. The fact that Indonesians’ ability to document an experience is valued highly that the experience itself. From what I have experienced, Indonesians do love taking pictures not only in tourism sites but also restaurants, cafes, and they even love to take picture in the middle of the road just for the aesthetic. It is quite a pity that people are too focused on capturing the moment rather than enjoying the moment itself. I think that this doesn’t only happen to Indonesians but this also happen to a lot of millennials today. The fact that there are lots of places where people are not allowed to make noises at night is particularly true. Even in ‘warung’or ‘burjo’ there’s usually a sign where customers are not allowed to make loud noises and it is important to make everyone feels comfortable. Lastly, I do think that Indonesians should be more aware of their perception towards time and we as Indonesians need to really focus more on time management and punctuality.
ReplyDeleteI find Andreas’s review of Indonesian life to be accurate to an extent. It is true that Indonesians are collective in terms of culture, which contradicts the individualistic nature of most western countries. It’s the norm for people to adhere to social restrictions, like not playing loud music in certain areas or hours. I also find it somewhat true that Indonesians tend to take a lot of pictures when visiting famous, or well-known, locations. I find that trend whenever I visit a popular place of some kind. Andreas’s opinion about this, is that he feels that Indonesians feel a need to document every experience. I cannot disagree with this though, since there are instances where people would be too preoccupied with documenting what they’re doing, that they forgot to enjoy the actual experience and live in the moment. To me, I think that the reason that they document so much, is their so called addiction to social media. I am an exception to this, as I prefer to enjoy every moment of an experience I can get, than to take photos or videos. The last thing Andreas mentioned is how Indonesians perceive time. He mentions that Indonesian are polychromic, and have a very loose attitude about time. I don’t see this as specifically as an Indonesian thing, but I could see where the idea came from. It mostly depends on the individual when it comes to time and scheduling; but there are specific things that come to consideration when it comes to the trends in people’s schedules. The loose attitude about time may come from the older generations, as they tend to have limited activities and are more concerned about those activities being completed rather than the time taken. As for the younger generation, they tend to be faced with deadlines and time constraints which would cause them to adopt the norm of monochromic time, to adapt to the modern environment.
ReplyDeleteAs an Indonesian I couldn’t agree more with what Andreas’ said about Indonesian people. I realized that Indonesian really loves to shares their experience through photography, they tend to capture every single moment from their vacation or holiday and upload them into the social media so that others can also see. I also loves taking picture when I was on holiday because it will make me always remember that beautiful moment. Another thing that is accustomed to Indonesian is not punctual which I think is not a very good thing. Punctuality is important because if we can determine one’s discipline we can just look at their punctuality because someone who is punctual tend to be more discipline, by reflecting to modern countries such as US, UK, and other punctuality is important for them and made them a better country so we as Indonesia has to improve ourselves to become better in the future.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading what Andreas think about the Indonesian culture, there are some thoughts that I wanted to say regarding our peculiar behavior. The first thing that I wanted to express is the culture of taking pictures. Every time when the people of Indonesia visit certain places that they think it’s amazing or the places itself is a phenomenal environment, we would definitely take pictures of ourselves with the “landmark” of the place we visit. Another thing that we would probably do is to take a picture of the place we visit but in the picture themselves, there has to be people in that frame. And just as Andres said, the addition of a foreigner on the picture is appreciated. I think these types of action is caused by our, the Indonesian, instinct to document the places we visit and to make them as an everlasting memory. And due to that, we have to be in the picture. As for my statement that there has to be people in the frame was so that we could emphasize that the places we visit, has a lot of people or visitor.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing that I wanted to express regarding Andres statement is the collective consciences that we have for other people. Every time we went to a certain or a specific place, we have this sort of attitude that makes ourselves aware of what others might think. I think that this behavior exist in our mind was due to the fact that we can’t think about ourselves too much and we have to think what others might perceive about ourselves. In my opinion, the reason for this action is pretty simple, we don’t what others to think badly of us. One of the examples that I could think of is when we visit a mall or a public place, we have to dress in a good looking way so that people wouldn’t comment about our look. Another thing that I would like to add as an example from my own experience, is that when I went to the mosque to pray, the people that’s inside of the mosque would mind their own business by not disturbing the others. it’s a common thing to do because we are in a praying place.
DeleteThe last thing that I wanted to express, is how the people in Indonesia has a loose personality if they were to be connected with the perception of time. Just as Andreas said, “many Indonesians have rather loose attitude towards time and don’t see it as the most important thing in the world.” While it is not a lie that some of the people in Indonesia has a lack mount of concern for their own time management, but there are some people out there that still thinks that time management is an important part of our life. While there are some people who thinks that by not managing their time really right, they could have a large amount of flexible time. As for myself, I think it is a negative thing that shouldn’t be kept because if we don’t manage our time efficiently, such as delaying assignments, it could strain our mind and we will be have trouble if the amount of time we have is little. All in all, as an Indonesian, I can’t help but to relate to Andreas statements about the people of Indonesia and at the same time, I couldn’t help but to be cynical to my own birth country.
DeleteAll i have to say to Andreas is that all the things you’ve mentioned within the article is actually very accurate. Your first point which stated that Indonesians like to take picture in certain places rather than enjoying the moment it self is very true, because i my self experienced such a thing in many different occasion. In my opinion, this behaviour appeared because of two reasons; Indonesian like to enshrined every memorable and interesting moment within their life, and Indonesian also like to share these moment towards their relatives. Besides from that, i also agree when Andreas stated that Indonesian tend to be more collective rather than being individualistic. It is true because according to my social life experience, people in Indonesia are so humble that they tend to uphold others interest rather than themselves, and they also put a high respect towards almost everyone especially strangers and foreigners.
ReplyDeleteSince I was born in Jakarta its represent how to live in Indonesia, I'm going to tell about J- City. Jakarta is Indonesia’s capital. It’s very dense. When tourists say that Indonesians are warm and friendly, they’re not talking about the Jakartans. Here 10000 IDR (0.75 USD) can get you a decent meal with proteins (eggs, fried tofu, or tempeh), vegetable, and rice. It’s cheap. Rent is about 500.000 IDR or 37 USD a month. The lowest income is 2899 USD/year, and I’ve no idea of the average income. To get the job that pays that much (or less depending on how you look at it), you have to have a high school diploma. The job competition is fierce though because of every year the number of people looking for a job in Jakarta increases. People living in rural areas (including me) thought that getting a job in Jakarta will improve our standard of living. Don’t know where we got the idea.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in Indonesia for 18 years and I'm going to say that all of the things Andreas said are in fact, true. First, it is true that Indonesians really like taking photos and videos when they visit famous places, and then upload it in the social media (because according to recent data, Indonesia is in the top third country with biggest facebook users, with 131 millions of users). Second, it is widely known that Indonesia has a collective culture. We have this term called Apa kata Tetangga?so every time we do something, we think what effects it may have on the neighbours. However, it may not happen on the urban country anymore though, as their environment tend to lean towards a more individualistic society. Andreas last opinion regarding time punctuation reminds me of a Javanese quote that said Alon-Alon Waton Kelakon, which roughly translated into slowly but surely, I think this may explain why some of us have a bad time management.
ReplyDeleteI have fall in love with the Indonesia Culture this last 11 months. Coming close to my departure date is just breaking my heart. I have learned so much from my experience here but I am happy I can go back with a whole new knowledge of this culture. One thing that has impressed me is the level of confidence the Indonesians have. I found it very curious that most of the houses in Yogyakarta are always open, and everyone can enter them. This collectivism community is just always open to the needs of their neighbors and like to spend time with friends and family. I also got really touch to see so many youths on the street collecting money to help the communities in Sulawesi after the earthquake and the tsunami. On the other hand, I found it really funny how Indonesians avoid uncomfortable situations and how they panic every time a “Bule” gets angry after a bad service. I am going to miss Indonesia so much but I am happy to bring so many stories and memories with me from this amazing country.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that my opinion and Adreas’s opinion are the same, where people these days care more about documentation instead of getting a charge out of the full involvement. People these days tends to report each adventure that they encountered, one reason is to give a media to keep the memory and to be recollect later on. The other motivation behind why people these days for the most part report instead of enjoying the adventure completely, it is because of the fact that it is their job as a video blogger or we regularly said as vlogger. It is turned into a standard where people go on a get-away hating the genuine experience but rather they archive it, it has become normal by this time we are living in, the period where the use of innovation are winding up increasingly apparent and through time it turned into a standard and normal thing to do. I do also believe that we can't pass judgment on somebody if they are on vacation and living their best life and vlog it and eventually post it on social media or a blog. Because maybe it is their job to do so.
ReplyDeleteFrequently taking pictures, collectivist culture, and polychromic; the three insights of Andreas regarding Indonesians. All of them are true –it might not represent the whole layers but at least, the majority of Indonesians. Taking photos could have different benefits to one another; some wants to create a documentation for the memory they’ve been through, some people see a photograph as an art of to express their own selves, some seek for the prestige of the place they were in, and the other more reasons existed. I don’t see this as a problem, though. Maybe it is just a matter of different characters of people in Indonesia and abroad? Whereas the collectivity of our society is predetermined by the historical matters; the past Indonesians were already used to accept differences to counter the colonials, which continued to be applied to social events, when people contributed to anything occurs in the society they live in. It became a custom that later defined the culture of the Indonesian society. Pathetic but true, polychromic is already being the part of Indonesians’ life. Almost all the events and activities that we have done are always behind the schedule.
ReplyDelete