Friday, April 17, 2009

I speak trilingual, do you believe it?

aku bicara tiga bahasa, percaya ngga?

for this weeks sundayscribblings prompt: language

click my blog tittle and scroll down slightly, or you may want to read my post one by one. like doing a psycho test, you'll find a pattern...
klik judul blogku lalu scroll down pelan-pelan, atau mungkin mau baca dengan teliti satu per satu. seperti ketika mengerjakan psycho test, kamu akan nemu sebuah pola.

yup I write bilingually. in English and Bahasa Indonesia. I know my English is not so fluent. my grammar is far from perfect. I never took an English course. I only learned it at school, and listen to or read some "English" I can see or hear around me.
yup. aku menulis dalam dua bahasa. Inggris dan Indonesia. aku tahu sih bahasa Inggrisku ngga sempurna. lha gimana, aku memang ngga pernah kursus bahasa inggris. belajar cuma waktu di sekolah, ditambah baca dan mendengarkan apa yang bisa dilihat dan didengar di sekitar..

do I care at all? oh I did, long ago. but people, from Indonesia and even the English native speakers said that my English, with some mistakes here and there, is understandable. *wow, I thought 'understandable' wasn't a word, but my spelling checker didn't underline it red, so it is a word...*
memangnya aku peduli? dulu, iya. tapi kata orang-orang, bahkan yang native speaker bahasa Inggris, katanya bahasa Inggrisku walaupun salah di sana-sini tapi bisa dimengerti.

did I make a mistake writing my post tittle? no. I do speak trilingual. my third, which is actually the first language I learn in my life, is Javanese.
eh, apa aku salah nulis judul? engga. aku memang bisa bicara tiga bahasa. yang ketiga, adalah justru bahasa yang pertama kali kukenal dalam hidupku: bahasa Jawa

there are hundreds (or may be even thousands?) origin languages of hundreds (and again, may be thousands) tribe in Indonesia. Javanese is only one of those. I know some people don't speak traditional languages any more. for many reasons. some because they married people from different tribe with different language. some, married people from the same tribe with the same language, but live in community of vary tribes. so it will be easier for them and children to communicate each other with Bahasa Indonesia. some even speak English daily for many reasons too.
ada ratusan (atau mungkin ribuan) bahasa asli di Indonesia, yang dimiliki oleh ratusan (lagi-lagi, mungkin malah ribuan) suku. Jawa cuma salah satu. aku tahu sekarang banyak yang lebih memilh bicara Bahasa Indonesia. karena perkawinan antar suku, atau karena lingkungannya memang bhinneka tunggal ika, jadi lebih mudah memakai bahasa Indonesia untuk berkomunikasi satu sama lain. malah ada yang sudah pakai bahasa Inggris untuk percakapan sehari-hari.

I speak Javanese and Indonesia to my children. but they prefer to speak Indonesia more. what can I say, people around us, their friends and teachers, mostly speak Indonesia.
aku bicara bahasa Jawa dan Indonesia kepada anak-anakku. tapi sepertinya mereka lebih suka ngomong bahasa Indonesia. mau gimana lagi. sekitar mereka hampir semua memakai bahasa itu.

how dare I call my self trilingual when I don't speak English daily! oh pardon. I do, some times, with some friends and Dan *but Dan always replies in Javanese... he understands but can not speak it*. and off course I speak English a lot, here in my blog. enjoy....
pede banget aku menyebut diri bicara tiga bahasa! oh maaf. paling tidak aku suka ngomong Inggris juga sedikit-sedikit dengan teman dan Dan *meskipun Dan selalu nyautnya malah pake bahasa Jawa*. dan lihat saja, aku bicara bahasa Inggris banyak, di sini, si blogku.

15 comments:

Claremont First Ward said...

You amaze me.

Most Americans can only speak one language.

fahmi! said...

i speak bahasa indonesia, english, java, and the other java. hehe :D

Granny Smith said...

I have a grandson who graduated recently from collage with a major in oriental studies. He is currently teaching Englisgh in Vietnam and speaks Japanese, Korean and some Chinese. I think our family loves different languages.

floreta said...

you write clear enough english for me! i would consider you fluent :)

Anonymous said...

oh yea u r fluent :)

http://eternitycallsus.blogspot.com/2009/04/just-feel.html

nonizamboni said...

You can definitely call yourself trilingual! Very interesting to learn about the tribal language differences as well as your personal choices to speak at home. Thanks for sharing!

Are You Serious! said...

♥ That's awesome! I'd love to speak even bilingual! Oh wait I do English and baby talk! :) Or maybe I shouldn't claim that anymore since my kids aren't babies! :)

I think your English is fabulous!

Forgetfulone said...

I believe it! Three languages... that's amazing! And your English is fluent, not just understandable. This was a great post for the prompt.

SweetTalkingGuy.. said...

Trilingual! I wish I could say the same. It's embarassing really, the English expect everyone to learn English but very few people here speak another language.

The American Sandwich

latree said...

when I say "I speak trilingual', actually it was kind of a joke. I mean, every one around the world learns english. nothing so special about it.
and as a javanese, it is something so common that I can speak Javanese. (though I know, and am sad, less and less javanese speak jevanese each day)
and as an Indonesian, it is not surprising at all that I speak Bahasa Indonesia.

really, this shouldn't amaze any one at all...

Sherri B. said...

You do such an incredible job...I can't tell you how much I admire you for this gift you have of multiple languages. Great read!

Fa said...

I speak four! haha.. but how can I named it? fourlingual? *unsure*
indonesia, javanese, madurese and english (just a little)
:D

Jennifer Hicks said...

you are so rich! to have so many ways to communicate is such a gift!

Lucy said...

this was a wonderful read! you are so talented! your children are so blessed to be exposed to your languages!

Edo said...

I speak 4 languages ;)
Padang, Java, Indonesian, and English... hehehe...
So back to business Lat? The blogging spirit stikes back? ;)