Phase 1-INDO

Throughout my life, I have known the language English However there was also a secondary language in my brain which is my family’s language Indonesian. As a kid, I  spoke both Indonesian and English since they both were like primary languages but as I got older,  I used more English than Indonesian even with my parents. When reading  Indonesian, I can read quite well like when I’m reading English since the words use the English alphabet, but understanding it is a different story.

Knowing  English is nice but when you are in Indonesia it is a different story. This story starts when I went on a vacation to Indo to visit my grandparents. When I got there I smelled the same polluted air smell as I remember as a kid, the kind of air that would make you scared to breathe, but it had a familiar smell to it. With my proficiency in Indonesian, I can understand what people are saying but I need help to say what I want in Indonesian since it’s hard for me to process. This is kind of a weird situation. It’s kind of hard for me to speak with my aunts, uncles, and grandparents so there is a bit of a language barrier between us so it’s harder to connect. I would just stare at them. Thinking about what to say, I would just say “iyah”, which is “yes” in Indonesian whenever I didn’t understand. I would usually get help from my parents since they translated some of my words, but I couldn’t keep relying on them for the rest of my life. So, it made me realize that I should start learning how to communicate and speak in Indonesian more often. As a few days passed by, I got used to the neighborhood and went to a local store which is like a deli in NY that sells snacks.  

                There I met a boy selling snacks for his mom. He looked the same age as me and was like an average Indo boy. He was tanned from the sun, had spiky hair, and was smiling. He asked me where I was from since he had never seen me, I said America, and his expression looked like he was shocked. He told me his name was Wildan and he asked me to be friends with him so I said yes since it wouldn’t hurt to gain a friend. With my broken Indonesian I tried to understand what he was saying. Some words I knew and some words I didn’t, but I tried to understand the gist of it since Wildan used broken English to help me understand. He told me that he never met anyone who came from the U.S. since he had lived in  Indonesia his whole life. I told him the same that I never met anyone from Indo, using my broken Indonesian. 

                 As time went by, we went to each other’s houses and played games with my little Indonesian vocabulary. It was hard to communicate clearly. One day he asked me to teach him English and in exchange, I asked for him to teach me Indonesian. It seemed like a good deal. We both taught each other words, and I would ask my dad to take us out to malls together. I would practice my Indonesian by buying food from stores, asking about clothes, or asking for directions. It was a fun way to increase my  Indonesian understanding since I was learning my language better. But as time went on it was almost time for my summer vacation to end. The last week of my stay in Indonesia felt bittersweet since it was the last time, we would see each other in a  while. During that last week we would walk around and play with fireworks, which are called “Petasan” We could hear the fireworks cracking “Pop pop, pop”. It was so much nicer to see it in the dark. As we finished playing, we got hungry and smelt the smell of food from a vendor on a cart. I looked closer, and it was the smell of “Siomay”  one of my favorite Indonesian foods I ordered one for me and Wildan, and I could still taste the flavor of peanut sauce and “Siomay” which is what I miss from Indonesia. 

                In the end, it was my last day in Indo, and I would say my goodbyes to everyone in my family and finally my friend Wildan. Thanks to him my Indonesian proficiency had increased, and I had a lot of fun staying in Indonesia. Even though I said, “See you next year”, I don’t know whether he moved or stayed at the same place since it has been more than 5 years since I returned. But I am very thankful to him for being my first friend in Indonesia.