Yang seems to be the hardest word

A read of any Indonesian text will reveal that it's liberally sprinkled with the word "yang". My Indonesian - English dictionary helpfully describes this little word as a "nominalising particle" [I thought that was what they were looking for at CERN?], or "particle forming a specific adjective clause".

I kind of get the first one. "I want the blue one" would translate to "Saya mau yang biru" - "I want the one which is blue". The "specific adjective clause" is causing more problems. In "Saya tinggal di rumah yang kecil" - "I live in the house which is small" - the yang seems fairly redundant. My learning strategy at the moment seems to be to drop in a few yangs before random adjectives and see what the teacher says. Perhaps all will become clear - and if not I'll just stop using it.

Specific adjective clauses aside, the language is all pretty logical. You can construct a verb from any adjective or noun with appropriate suffixes and prefixes. This can lead to some very long words ("mengumpul-satukan" is over 3 times longer than its English translation, "unite"), but it helps that you can see the root within a word and so work out what it means.

The record so far for Indonesian-English letters ratio is "seorang", 7 letters needed to communicate the English word "a". I may need a new laptop keyboard before my two years is out.




















A hard day at the office

More monkey business

Just some photos from the monkey park in Ubud, Bali.

Motorcycle training in Denpasar

Vehicles in Britain tend to avoid each other. Perhaps it's something to do with our reserve, valuing personal space, or just a natural desire to not crash and die horribly every time we take to the roads. Bali's different - lane discipline is along the lines of "the more the merrier", drivers see the slightest gap in traffic as an opportunity for faster progress, and your blind spots are likely to contain at least one motorbike, a couple of dogs and a taxi.

To get us used to the slightly different road conditions here, we've done a weekend's training with VSO staff and guys from the Bali Riders' Club. We've done the usual pootling round a carpark avoiding traffic cones (you never see a traffic cone in Denpasar), riding over dirt tracks, and along a 30cm wide plank as slowly as possible. All very useful - I'm looking forward to the time that I'll have to negotiate a bridge formed from a scaffolding plank slung across a ravine. I hope I'm joking.

But as you might expect, it's the traffic that was most entertaining. For a biker used to European roads, it's disconcerting to be overtaken on either side by a scooter carrying two adults, two kids and possibly the dog too. There are some consistencies though - everybody obeys traffic lights, everybody ignores zebra crossings, and everybody wears flip-flops. I'm surprised you don't see more severed limbs and blood on the roads - but everyone seems to get along fine.

Takes me back to the feeling of negotiating Bristol's ring road when I first learnt to ride. Can't wait to get back out there though.

A trip to the Kantor Pos

Today's challenge was to post a birthday present to my friend Helen in England. After negotiating the busy traffic in the administrative centre of Denpasar on my bike (and meeting the little chap in the photo in a street on the way), I arrived at the post office, took a queue ticket and sat down to wait. For about an hour.

Fortunately it was air conditioned, and even more fortunately a very kind staff member came over to me and gave me the correct form to fill in while I waited. I'm slightly surprised that the form didn't ask for the names of both parents and my religion (most other forms seem to) – but perhaps the post office is trying to cut down on bureaucracy.

After a bit of confusion (and laughter) over their few words of English and my even fewer words of Bahasa Indonesia, it's in the post and I've been charged what I think is the official price. Result – I now have that sense of achievement that can only be gained through a successful trip to the post office. I might buy some commemorative stamps and a dog licence next time.

[Opinions expressed in this post may be subject to change if the package doesn't arrive].
[Update - the package has arrived!]

I've also found my favourite Warung so far – can't remember its name, if it has a name – that serves the best Mie Goreng (fried noodles) and ice tea I've had in Indonesia. All for about 70p. It also had the Indonesian version of “Who wants to be a millionaire?” on the TV – great for learning a few more words. I can't help feeling that this show is a bit of a con – 1m Rupiah is about 80 quid - perhaps we shouldn't take the name of the show literally.

Saya sedang belajar Bahasa Indonesia

[I am studying the Indonesian language, for those of you who don't speak Indonesian.]

In 1972, President Suharto announced certain orthographical changes to the language. One of these was to proscribe usage such as hati². Now in Bahasa, which doesn't have plurals as English speakers know them, doubling the word is use to indicate a plural, a comparative, or to add emphasis. So hati-hati would mean "be very careful!", and could be written hati-squared.

I rather like the use of exponents to add emphasis - and would be tempted, before 1972, to use higher powers. Hati³ in especially dangerous situations, for example.