David Saxby was born and lived most of his life in Sydney.
He completed a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts at
the University of Sydney where his areas of interest were
Indonesian studies, linguistics and chemistry. After graduating,
he took a job with the Australian Government National Measurement
Institute, working in the chemistry laboratories. Sadly, this
job had nothing to do with what later was to become his true
calling – a love for Indonesian language and culture.
Why did you first take up the study of the Indonesian language?
My high school, North Sydney Boys’ High, had an Indonesian
language program and I found Indonesian relatively easy to
learn compared to the other modern languages offered. My teacher,
Pak Arbon, was a wonderful teacher and he definitely helped
to spark my interest in Indonesia.
When did you first visit and for what purpose?
I travelled to Indonesia in 1996 to take a four week language
course at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, in Salatiga, West
Java. Since then I have returned to Indonesia for one year’s
university study, to participate in the Australia-Indonesia
Youth Exchange Program and for just travelling and visiting
friends.
What is it that you like about the country?
It’s no surprise that Indonesia is very different to
Australia and these differences are what interests me about
Indonesia. Rather than the obvious differences such as food,
language, history and religion, it is the more inconspicuous
aspects of life in Indonesia that fascinate me. For example,
what is likely to be a topic of conversation over lunch? Or
what do friends do for a good night out? And despite the obvious
and not-so-obvious differences, I am also fascinated by the
similarities I have found between Australians and Indonesians.
In your opinion, what is so special about the Indonesian language?
My experience with Indonesian outside the classroom has shown
me that Indonesians are very creative users of their language,
and this makes Indonesian quite a dynamic language. Words
and meanings are frequently created, changed, borrowed or
combined. And it is not just Indonesian vocabulary that is
evolving, but also spelling, pronunciation, word-formation
rules, syntax—every level of language! But this is not
to say that Indonesian has no rules, just that Indonesians
like to play with the rules!
What factors cause Westerners the most difficulty in mastering
good Indonesian?
Indonesian has a reputation as a language that is easy to
learn, probably because it uses the Latin alphabet, has (almost)
phonetic pronunciation and lacks many grammatical complications
such tense, case, gender, number and grammatical agreement.
As a consequence, it is relatively easy to learn basic Indonesian
communication. The difficulty comes when trying to use Indonesian
as Indonesians would. This requires in depth-experience of
the language to gain a better knowledge and wider scope of
expression.
How do you define bahasa remaja or “youth Indonesian”?
Why did you pick this particular form of the language to study?
When I lived in Indonesia, I quickly realised that the Indonesian
I heard being spoken was rarely the same as I had learnt in
Australia. This prompted my interest and research into linguistic
variation in Indonesian. The variety of Indonesian that I
was most in contact with was spoken by other people my age,
university students and younger. In contrast to Indonesia’s
regional language variation, this youth Indonesian, or bahasa
remaja, is relatively uniform across the Indonesian archipelago
due to the widespread dissemination of popular youth culture
via magazines, TV shows, websites and online chatting. These
tend to use and develop a distinct variety of Indonesian that
the youth audience identifies with.
Can you give some useful everyday examples of bahasa remaja?
lagi ngapain aja? what’s goin’ on?
iseng-iseng aja just hangin’ out
nonton yuk! let’s catch a movie!
kok mahal? why is that so expensive?
kamu kok ngerjain aku? why are you having a go at me?
gue sebel ama lo! you’re pissing me off!
gue lagi boke I got no cash
emangnya gue pikirin! I really couldn’t give a stuff!
cepetan dong! hurry up!
What advice can you give to students of the Indonesian language?
Practice! Ask yourself ‘how would an Indonesian express
this idea?’ rather than translating word-for-word from
English. I think it is very important to never stop learning
and continually try to make your Indonesian more Indonesian!
Are there any audio, published or web-based Indonesian language
learning aids you can recommend?
To learn youth Indonesian, find a DVD of Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?
(or any other youth film), turn off the subtitles and follow
the dialogue! Most Indonesian textbooks focus on formal rule-based
Indonesian and this is a very good place to start. It is important,
however, to realize that there are many varieties of Indonesian,
just as there are many different varieties of English. The
varieties of Indonesian vary from place to place, from city
to country and from young to old so it is near impossible
to have a practical Indonesian language learning text that
addresses all of these. The best thing to do is just jump
in and see what you find!
For anyone interested in being considered for Siapa, please
contact : <pakbill2003@yahoo.com>
Copyright@2007 Al Hickey
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