If you’ve learnt Balinese or Indonesian, you’ll
soon discover that many of those words you can’t find
in the dictionary are actually English. In fact, nearly all
words to do with technology or tourism are borrowed from English.
You’ll often hear those involved in the tourism industry
use words such as airport, pick up, drop, check-out or long
stay in favour of their Balinese or Indonesian equivalents.
An everyday conversation between two shuttle drivers could
be:
Pak Made: Lakar kija ne?
Where are you off to?
Bli Ketut: Lakar ke airport nge-drop tamiu Australie marasan
check out di Bali Beach.
Going to the airport to drop off some Australian guests who
have just checked out from Bali Beach.
Pak Made: Makelo ia dini?
Were they here long?
Bli Ketut: Akejip gen. Kapah-kapah maan tamiu long stay jani.
Just a short while. I hardly ever get long-staying guests
these days.
For words such as kondom (condom), radio, TV (pronounced “tee
pee”), and HP (mobile phone), there are no Balinese
equivalents. Some of the more amusing ones are the tautological
“minyak oil” used commonly in massage circles,
or “sing hobby” to mean that you don’t like
something.
It’s become more common for people to talk about Christmas
instead of Natal or say bankrut (bankrupt) instead of “Sing
ngelah pis” (I’ve got no money). Schedule at work
may be on a ‘rolling’ system. Even the word system
itself is taken from English, although it’s spelt differently:
sistem.
Most Balinese know at least enough English to sell things
to tourists. You’ll hear drivers call out to you as
you walk through the tourist areas: ‘yes terrranspot!’;
or a seller trying to sell you a refreshment: ‘Yes,
kol drin!’.
English is sometimes used in an unconventional context. Whore
houses are called ‘komplek’ and if the police
raid a komplek the locals call ‘sewipin’ (sweeping).
English is so commonplace in Balinese that many people don’t
even realise that it is English, especially kids. It must
be all that Pleysteyshin!*
*Playstation – found spelt like this in an Arts Festival
brochure.
Copyright@ Kulture Kid 2007
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