Bahasa means Language!

I just saw an infographic about native languages spoken around the world. It is a nice infographic.... until I saw what I don't like. Even though there is some data that to me doesn't seem to make sense, but I won't talk about it here. I don't know how they collect the data, so I can't judge whether it's correct or not.

But two things that I know for sure are wrong. There is no language called "Telegu" nor "Bahasa". I mean OK, people make mistakes, the creator surely doesn't speak any of these languages and they are probably not as famous as those other widely known languages. But this infographic is focusing on languages, surely the creator had made some research before. However I will now focus only on the word bahasa, a word from my mother-tongue.

I probably won't get so annoyed like this if this is only a mistake made on this single infographic. My fury began actually long...long...long time ago, when I was still a teenager. There was this foreign guy who lived in Indonesia, he spoke on TV and he mentioned about speaking "Bahasa". What he meant was actually "Bahasa Indonesia". Since the word bahasa means language in English. The way our people say it is, when translated into English, "I speak Indonesian language". So, unlike the usually shorter way in English, "I speak Indonesian", we always use the word "language" (bahasa) together with name of the language itself. This is the common way of saying it in formal situations as well as in slang. So when you speak in English the proper way to say it is "I speak Indonesian", not "I speak Bahasa". And when you speak in Indonesian then it should be "saya berbicara Bahasa Indonesia" not "saya berbicara bahasa".

Since that guy is not a native speaker, his mistake was of course totally understandable. What made it so bizarre was, that the next couple of days later, one of our own officials (I think it was a minister in Soeharto's era) used the word bahasa exactly like the way the foreign guy did. I don't know if he was inspired by the foreigner or I was so old-fashioned that I didn't know the new way of using the word - but instead of giving a good example, the official decided to sound "cool" that day. You know, in those years, slang was not allowed on our television, not even on a soap-opera. But as far as I know, some Indonesian started to speak it this way since then. It really itches my whole body every time I hear it. When translated into English, it sounds: "I speak Language. My language is called Language. Do you speak my language, which is Language? How cool, you speak language Language!" How stupid does it sound?

No wonder foreign people say it wrongly. I can't be mad at them. But I really really do feel like spanking some Indonesian asses.

Lack of Inspiration

It's been very long since the last time i wrote on my blog. It's been over two years now, wow... How I surprise myself for having no inspiration to write anymore. Many things have happened during this two years and some big changes happened to me and some people in my network. I have even changed my status now. Yup, I got married! My unemployed status has been changed too. At least for now life seems a little bit more steady than before. So maybe now it's time for catching up a bit.

There was this period when I was so stressed up especially because of all the heartaches I endured during my quest of finding a job. I think that was also one of the reason that I lost the inspiration to write. I wrote more than a hundred applications, probably almost two hundreds. Every time trying different ways of writing the letter of motivation, changing the look of my portfolio and still wondering, why don't I get any single interview? Even if you are the most confident person, getting so many rejections may eventually destroy your confidence. And I didn't even begin my job search with a lot of confidence. I started to ponder, have I all this time chose the wrong study, if only I studied something else, what if I never went to this country, and a lot of another what if this and what if that. But then I told myself not to regret anything that I already chose, because whatever it is that I have done, it has certainly brought a lot of positive things in my life.

But yeah, getting motivation from other people is important as well. I regret to say I didn't get so much support from my own family members. We all lived so far away from each other and I don't know so many story about their lives as much as they don't know so much about mine. I always avoided getting calls from my sister and dreaded skyping with my dad, because at that time, every time I talked with them, I just felt even worse than I already did. It was more like being interrogated and being told that all your effort was not good enough. Talking with my mom was good though, she didn't dare to ask me about difficult stuffs. Actually what she did by just telling me stories about her daily life, some gossips about our relatives and saying that I should just keep on trying is already good enough for me. It gave me the feeling that she trusted me and believed in me. One thing that I remember the most when she comforted me was, that it is OK, everybody goes through some difficulties at the crossroads of their lives.

My boyfriend at that time, who is my husband now, supported me like my mom did. Saying stuffs like, I know you can do it, you are better than you think, etc. But he was also busy and very much occupied with his own works at that time and well, I didn't think he could help solve my problem. I believed I was the only one who could solve my problem. And I still believe it now actually.

The best support that I found was actually from friends who were in the same situation as I did. They were the ones who totally understood what I was going through, giving the most useful information and advises. There was this one girl that now I admire. We were never been close before, but one day we talked to each other about the difficulty of finding job. I felt like she helped me a lot that day by giving me a bit of my confidence back and raising my hope again. Sometimes she even still write me and ask how I've been doing.

So I guess, when you go through some hardships in your life, the most important thing is to share it with the CORRECT people. Better avoid people who put you down. It doesn't matter who they are, but help can come from the very person you expected the least.

To be continue...

Rainy Season in Bremen

It has been raining the whole spring this year in Bremen. We only had a bit of sun for a week in the middle of the season (plus today), but the rest of it is rain. What also sucks, that it usually comes in drizzles. So they last for hourssss. I guess I like it more when it's a downpour. Quickly start, quickly end. I'm starting to worry, maybe this summer will be soooo hot since all the cooling temperature has been sucked out by the spring.

God's Job

I just saw some pictures from the Syrian war. One pic has left me pondering about it now. It shows a group of rebellions were praying together after losing some friends. I am sure, somewhere else in town, the military group also prays. Both parties will be asking for God's kindness to save their lives, protect their family, for their victory, the end of the war, or whatever it is. Now this is not about who is wrong or who is right. I suppose they all fight for what they think is right (even though I know most of you are pointing a finger to show me whom you think the demon is).

But you know.... if both groups are good and they kill in order to survive, they're giving a hard job for God to decide whom should be saved first, right? Well, I guess not only them, we all give hard job for God. I honestly always pray for my own goodness first. May my lovely friends, my not-so-lovely friends and acquaintances don't get bad or worse thing, but whatever happens to them, may I and the ones I love dearly be saved first!

May I get better marks than my lazy-irritating friend, even though sometimes she has a good reason for being lazy-irritating. May I get a job before those ugly strangers, even though they look as if they are very promising. Still, I am better than them. So which one should be saved first, me or those people? God's job is so difficult....

For religious people, I know you will tell me that nothing is difficult for God. For atheists, I know exactly what you have in mind too. Only creative comment is welcome :)

Christmas Greetings for Mom

Sunny Spring

Yay... it's spring now and the sun has finally shined consistently lately. My popcorn had his first BBQ party (of this year) a few days ago. Later he told me that he got sunburn. I was like, “hhhh....? sunburn?” 'Cos even though it's warm outside, it's not THAT hot that you could actually get any sunburn. Moreover, he's in Norway, the coldest place on earth I've ever visited.

My poor little popcorn.... I'm concern about how he could survive the summer if he gets sunburn so easily. And it's still the beginning of Spring, a long way to go to Summer!

Then I realize, how I've had a false conception this whole time. It begins as I had my holiday in Bali. I got myself a temporary tattoo on my upper arm. I thought it'd be cool. Well, it turned out to be more hot than cool. It was extremely hot to be precise. After some hours dipping in the salty water and grilled under the sun, the place where the black ink was carved felt like burned. It hurt so much as if I had the real tattoo needle pierced into my skin (oh well, I assume so, 'cos I've never had a real one yet).

This experience brought me to the thought, that white people are so lucky during summer, unlike black people or any other dark skins whose colors absorb the heat of the sun.

My sister second my opinion when she had her blonde friend touched her overheated black haired head. Her friend was surprised since his head has never went that hot. Yeah, my people always joke that we can fry an egg on our head.

You know, the companies of “Head and Shoulders” and “Clear” even invented menthol shampoo with the cool sensation only for us, the tropical land people. Mmm... at least I think so, 'cos I've never seen menthol shampoo here in Germany. Even though the summer in Europe can be much hotter than in my homeland.

But now I achieve a new comprehension. Dark skins may absorb more heat and feel hotter, but they don't get sunburn as easily as the whites. Nevertheless, I still think that white people are lucky because they don't get tanned so fast after being exposed to the sun (o yeah, you're lucky. We, asian ladies, use tons of whitening cream to stay yellow!). I even see they become orange instead of brown. But at least, most of color skin people wont have to go through the red-boiled-crab phase before they get darker.

Vegetarian animal for vegetarian people?

Our conversation during meal today. One of my friends mentioned, cows are vegetarians, pigs are also vegetarians. That means vegetarian people should be able to eat them, right? Hehehe... I just think he was hilarious.

God must be working part time in Starbucks' kitchen,

'cos its chocolate truffle cake tastes like heaven...
It's better than McCafe's chocolate cake, only it's smaller and more expensive :(

Nonetheless.... I'm fully satisfied tonight..... aaaah..... a warm bed would be good :D