Bahasa Indonesia
"Can I explain this in Bahasa?"
"Okay, let me answer you in Bahasa."
"How to say blablabla in Bahasa?"
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The question is: What BAHASA did you mean??????????!!!!!!!!
Languages
are rich and unique. There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages in the
world today. Language has become a culture, not just a way of communication. Each
language is different as the identity of a particular country and ethnicity. Every country around the
world of course has its own national language, along with many indigeneous languages inside.
Every national language in this
world has their own name, such as English, as the national language of England,
and French, as the national
language of France.
How about Indonesia?
Similar as English, Japan, and
French, Indonesia has Indonesian language or just Indonesian, as its national
language. However, Indonesian is often be translated just into “Bahasa” in
English. Bahasa itself means language, derives from the Sanskrit word
“bhasa”. If “Bahasa Indonesia” is translated to “Bahasa” again in English, it
is just simply means “language”, without any specification of which language
Indonesian citizens are using.
Anton M. Moeliono once wrote an
opinion letter about the translation or the name of Bahasa Indonesia in
English. He stated that Indonesian language has been acknowledged as de bahasa (means just ‘Bahasa’ or without
any specific information about which language that mentioned) since the
colonialization of Dutch until the early time of Indonesian independence.
Dutch
refused to use the term de Indonesische
taal (means Bahasa Indonesia, stated the specific language instead of just ‘Bahasa’)
as a signal that they didn’t admit the independence of Indonesia. Along with
this habit, other nations mistakenly follow the way Dutch acknowledges
Indonesian language as Bahasa, even though the reasons are not always same as the
Dutch at that time.
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| The reference that I use for the statement |
Well, though it is a mistake, it
seems acceptable.
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| ????? source: kobo.com |
It is an irony that the culprits who did the mistake are the native speakers. Indonesian citizens.
A year ago, there was a viral video of Indonesian YouTuber(s), Arief Muhammad and Tiara Pangestika who had a chance to interview Chris Hemsworth, an Australian actor.
(If you are interested to watch the video, just click this)
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| The contents are interesting, unfortunately they did the same mistake :( |
On the interview, Hemsworth admitted that he chose to learn Indonesian other than German and he started to speak some words in Indonesian. Well, Hemsworth as a foreigner already acknowledges Indonesian language as Indonesian, yet Arief and Tiara as Indonesian natives keep saying that as Bahasa...........
Every language is unique. Every language is also an identity to a nation. Indonesian language is unique and it is the identity of us as the nation. However, Indonesian citizens themselves still mistakenly introduce
their uniqueness and identity to the world.
Perhaps this post is kind of 'lebay' for you because it seems like a trivial mistake,
but Indonesian citizens cannot always see this mistake from a narrow perspective.
It can be a wake-up call since it is
possible that in the future, foreigners will notice Indonesia as a Bahasa
nation, since we introduce our language just as Bahasa, not Indonesian.
I
know this post is like a contradiction. I talk about Indonesian language but I
write the whole things in English. Well, learning, writing, and speaking in
English or other languages don’t mean that we abandon our native language. In
my opinion, when we learn other languages , sometimes
that learning process helps us to love our native language more. It is also a
challenge to keep our identity while learning other cultures.
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