Friday, May 18, 2007

There is no such thing as Bahasa Indonesian

Now for some nit-picking...

How many times do I here people say things such as - "Do you speak Bahasa Indonesia?" or worse, "Do you speak Bahasa?", or even worse, "Do you speak Bahasa Indonesian?".

What's wrong with keeping your English question fully English - "Do you speak Indonesian?"?

Language Lesson 101 - Bahasa means language in exactly the same way that in Japanese, go means language, as in Nihongo - Japanese (language) in exactly the same way that in English language means language. It would be absurd for a Japanese person to then say "Do you speak 'go'?, or and Australian to say, "Do you speak language?"

When speaking English say 'Indonesian'. When speaking Indonesian say 'Bahasa Indonesia' (without the -n on the end). This also goes to the increasing number of English-speaking Indonesians out there who are adopting this bad habit :-)

2 comments:

johnorford said...

i always try to repress the temptation to say "i speak bahasa" - but when indonesians themselves say "do you speak bahasa", that seems like the natural answer, doesn't it?

will make more of an effort tho in future!!

David said...

I think Indonesians have picked up the habit from foreigners. Just one of my pet hates; if that's the extent of my worries then life must be pretty good :-),