Cultural Shock... Or Not
In my country, Indonesia, people commonly speak in Indonesian language, Bahasa. There are some people who speak in their ethnic languages like Sundanese or Javanese, but most people speak in Bahasa. That’s why I find it interesting when I’m talking with my Malaysian friends.
Because they use both Malay and English even in normal conversations.
I had never, never, never, spoken in English with my friends so casually. It was just so not normal. The only time we’d ever speak in English was when we were having English classes, is all. Well I’d tried to have an English conversation with my best friend when we were in high school, but it still felt kind of like, “What… the…” So yeah. No English.
But here? Ooh. One minute we’re talking in Malay (well, my Malaysian friends talk in Malay, I talk in Indonesian), the next we’re talking in English. Seriously! They don’t feel awkward or anything, it’s just normal to have conversations in different languages. Since there are many Indian and Chinese people in Malaysia, they can have like three languages during conversation.
I am deadly serious.
A conversation can go like this:
Me: Gila tes tadi susah banget deh!
My friend: Taklah susah sangat.
Me: Buat kamu sih mudah, buat Gita susah banget…
My friend: Taklah, it’s just normal. You should’ve read the entire chapter instead of just reading the sentences with bolded words, you know.
Me: Tapi kan maleees!
My friend: Eleee, budak ni manja sangat laaa. It’s for your own sake, tahu?
It’s… a pretty dull conversation, but yeah. See? Two languages. No, three: Malay, English and Indonesian. Hahahahahah. I was really confused at first, seeing how people could easily talk in different languages at the same time. I’m a bit used to it now, but it’s still awkward to me to be speaking in Indonesian for one moment and English the next.
Well, I admit I kind of do use more than one language sometimes. That’s when I’m writing like this. You see, sometimes when I’m writing in Indonesian, there’ll be some English words that I put in, or even some Japanese words like yabai or yappari. But then as I think of it, I realize that even before I went to Malaysia, I had been speaking in more than one language at the same time! I sometimes talked in Indonesian and some Sundanese! Right? For example, like this:
Me: Tes tadi susah pisanlah!
My friend: Nggak juga ah. Kamunya we yang nggak belajar.
Me: Ah belajar ge cuma dapet C.
My friend: Ya atuh da kamu mah ‘belajar’ teh cuma baca sedikit-sedikit doang, sisanya nonton anime!
Or when I’m talking with my friends, who are fan girls like me, we sometimes use Japanese or Korean as well!
Me: Tes tadi susah banget ne…
My friend: Ahni… Kamunya aja yang nggak belajar.
Me: Tapi aku belajar juga paling cuma dapet C darou?
My friend: Yee, belajar tuh maksudnya baca se-BAB, bukan cuma sedikit-sedikit aja. Babo.
(Agak maksa sih emang.)
So, yappari talking in Multilanguage isn’t really something new for me, I’ve just realized it lately. It’s kind of fun to add some words from different languages in a conversation, but to use a complete sentence in a different language is still awkward to me.
How about you? Have you ever spoken in a conversation with more than one language? Do you find it awkward, or fun? Oshiete kudasai ne! J