Alam Bahasa Indonesia

The atmosphere in Alam Bahasa turned warmer as 2 groups of teachers and students were competing to make vegetarian lunch.
After exploring the traditional market near Alam Bahasa to get all the ingredients, all group members worked hard to make the most unique and delicious creation.

In less than 3 hours everything was ready. The group which presented sayur alam jogja, sup alam raya, jamur alam nikmat, and buah alam segar was happy to be the winner of the competion. However, everyone was also happy. All the menu that the groups served (those mentioned above plus the other group’s creation: bola-bola tahu, bening ceria, and melon cha cha cha) was successfully finished.

sayur=vegetable
sup=soup
jamur=mushroom
buah=fruit
bening=clear (in this context: clear soup; bola-bola tahu=tofu balls)

Before the 1980s, if you went to mosques in villages in Yogyakarta, you would easily find a big round earthenware vessel containing water. Its base colour is reddish or blackish brown, but the colour can also be different; it depends on its age. The old tends to have green colour because it has been covered in moss. The older a padasan is, the colder the water inside it. That is the so-called padasan, a reservoir of air wudu. Air wudu is what Moslems use to clean up themselves before praying. The activity of cleaning up oneself before praying in Islamic teachings is called berwudu.

In the near future padasan might be left forgotten. In the meantime, padasan craftsmen also may not know where to sell their products. As soon as the electricity had been available in villages, many villagers stopped their habit of drawing water from a well using a pail. Now, they would rather use an electrical water pump which is more practical; it can pump out a large amount of water from a well rapidly. In line with this technological advancement, padasan, which was previously used to store water in small quantity, is not needed anymore. As a result, this craft is less liked. The limited storage capacity of padasan makes people prefer to use water tank equipped with a tap. By turning on the tap, water will come out heavily. People do not need to work hard to draw water from a well in order to fill in water into the padasan, a reservoir of air wudu.

Padasan is made of clay. It is round with a big hole on top of it to fill in water. This hole has a diameter of around 20 centimetres. It is as big as its flat bottom which is used as the platform. The middle curve is the biggest part, 50 centimetres in diameter. At the bottom, near the platform, there is a small hole where water comes out. If the hole is not used, it is closed with a cork. The cork is made of a piece of wood or plastic taken from used slippers. If someone wants to take wudu, he or she has to pull the cork. Cold water will soon come out.

For Moslems, air wudu must be clean and untouchable. Therefore, when drawing water from a well using a pail to fill in the padasan, a person has to prevent his or her hands from touching it. To protect the water from dirt, the upper big hole of a padasan is covered with cobek, an earthenware vessel for making spicy sauce whose shape is like a big bowl.

Clay is needed to make a padasan. Clay is special soil which cannot be found in any places. Traditionally, clay that has been cleaned from pebbles is made stickier and smoother by mixing it with sand. Craftsmen then step their feet on it. Next, the mixture is shaped into padasan or other crafts with a movable tool (craftsmen call it puteran). After being shaped, the inside and outside parts are polished with red soil which has been mixed with water. Next, the unfinished padasan is dried in the sun. Then, the dried padasan is ready to bake. It is baked with wood, hay, or dried sugar cane in a special stove.

Craftsmen usually market padasan through merchants who buy ceramics from them to be resold. The sellers then carry padasan, together with other crafts such as cobek, fire stoves, or vases, to be marketed. They also put them on a bicycle. The price of a padasan is also varied; it depends on the size and the distance, how far the product will be sold. The farther, the more expensive.

According to a craftsman from Desa Semampir, Kalurahan Panjangrejo, Kecamatan Pundong, Kabupaten Bantul, Yogyakarta, the marketing of padasan is now difficult. Compared to other ceramics, padasan is more difficult to sell. Sometimes, craftsmen have a large stock because the market demand is low.

Nowadays, padasan is only owned by Moslems in villages who do not have an electrical water pump. Even most mosques in villages do not take advantage of padasan as a reservoir of air wudu any longer. padasan has been replaced by a long water tank. On one side of the tank, some taps have been placed to flow water.

There are many ways to improve the Bahasa Indonesia competency. The most effective way is by using it to keep in touch effectively with friends, college, mass media or electronic media. Lately, SMS (Short Massage Service) is one popular way to communicate. Almost all people are familiar with SMS which use cellular phone (hand phone) as the means. This way is believed to be more practical, efficient, cheap and fast. Even the limited letters that required for one SMS has never been obstacle for sending SMS. There are many ways to shorten the massage so it does not need to be sent many times. Other languages such as traditional language and English, are often used to shorten the massage.

According to the writer there are many ways to shorten the massage in SMS:

1. Shortening the words by omitting all or some vowels of the words.

Example: sdh (sudah), sby (Surabaya), jkt (Jakarta), yk (yogyakarta), jln (jalan), gmn (bagaimana), rmh (rumah), klo (kalau), smua (semua) etc.

• bsk mlm km bs ke rmhku? (besok malam kamu bias kerumahku?)
• jgn plg trlmbt lg, ya! (jangan pulang terlambat lagi, ya!)
• smpkan slm untk bpk n ibu! (sampaikan salam untuk bapak dan ibu?)

2. Changing the word or syllable into letter or certain symbol

Example: 4 (untuk/for), t4 (tempat), I (saya), U (kamu), q (-ku), n (dan0, b4 (sebelum/before), ñ (-nya), etc.

• I tngg b4 jm 5 sr, ya! (Saya tunggu sebelum jam 5 sore, ya! )
• Kpn dtg ke yk? Mmpr ke rmhq, ya! ( Kapan dating ke yogyakarta? Mampir kerumahku ya?)

3. shortening the phrase that consist of several words

Example: cu (see you/sampai jumpa), tks (terima kasih) IMU ( I miss you/aku kangen kamu), IC ( I see/ saya tahu/ok), ILU (I love you/aku saying kamu), etc.

• sdh lm kt tdk btm. IMU (sudah lama kita tidak bertemu, aku kangen kamu)
• Tks atas undgnmu, bsk kt btm di mall sj, cu. ( terima kasih atas undanganmu, besok kita bertemu di mall saja, sampai jumpa)

4. using symbols for expressions

Example: (tersenyum, senang), (sedih, kecewa, tidak suka), :-p (meledek, bercanda), ;-p (iseng, bercanda), etc.

• tks oleh2ñ ya, yg srg2 sj! (terima kasih oleh-olehnya, ya, yang sering-sering saja! )
• jgn tlp n dtg ke rmhq lg! (jangan telpon dan datangke rumahku lagi )

Perhaps, above are the ways to sent SMS in short, brief and clear way. However, sometimes people have their own way to sent SMS, to write one word the model maybe varied. Actually the way to write SMS is not only used for SMS but also for some advertisement in newspaper, such as job vacancy, rent and sell house, motorcycle, car, etc. Besides using them for SMS or advertisement, they can be used to train your language competency.

Here is a bonus from PURI’s cooking department. Please, try one of our recipes. This has been a favourite dish for our students. We would like you to enjoy this tasty dish, too. Hopefully, this yummy tongseng will be your favourite as well.

FLAVOURING:

• 500 g beef
• 3 cabbage leaves
• 1 tomato
• 4 shallots
• 2 garlic
• 3 cloves
• 1 tsp pepper
• Salt, as you like
• Sweet soybean sauce, as you like
• 1 tbs oil
• 0.5 glass (100ml) water

COOKING INSTRUCTION:

• Boil beef until tender, and slice it in small pieces
• Slice shallot, garlic, cabbage leaves and tomato
• Sauté shallot dan garlic in 1 tbs oil
• Add beef, water, salt, pepper, cloves, and sweet soybean sauce
• Cook it until a little water left
• Put in sliced cabbage leaves and tomato
• Serve tongseng with rice

  If you’re a vegetarian you can use fried tofu instead of beef.

  Share your experience with us through email.

  Thanks to our cooking teachers from PURI’s cooking department. Do you want to learn more recipes? The teachers are ready for you.

“This crisis hits Indonesia severely. There are more and more kids on the streets. They don’t go to schools. What can we do for them? What can we do for others?” These questions hit us over and over. We are no rich people but we’ve got a better life. We could help them, the kids. We could share the best of very little we have. So, then, on July 1, 1997 we founded a social committee that concerned about the children.

We visited schools and homes, offering help for the ‘poor’ students. All PURI’s teachers and staff are the donors for this project. Once we had 19 elementary school students to help. The crisis does not retain us from helping the students. Even, we now help more. There are 35 students, 25 of them are elementary school students, 5 of them are still learning in Junior High School and 5 of them are Vocational High School students. We thank Miss Junko Higashi and her family, Japan; Mrs. Gina van Vliet Laurens, Holland; Mr. Lucas von Zallinger, Germany and friends; Mr. Per Derefelt, Sweden. We are indebted to you all.

With Miss Julia Toringe, who once was a student at PURI Indonesian Language Plus, KAP try to co-operate with foundations in Sweden to help a school for handicapped children.

Want to join us? Just contact us for further information.

Do you happen to be a fan of the very Indonesian cuisine gado-gado? If you do, you must see how merry this typical Indonesian food is. It contains various kinds of vegetable and other ingredients. Mixing all kinds of vegetables and the ingredients seems to be a ritual upon enjoying the food without which the food will not taste delicious. It will not taste ‘gado-gado’.

Talking about ‘bahasa gado-gado’, we will not talk about vegetables nor other gado-gado ingredients. Bahasa gado-gado (literally meaning gado-gado language) is the phenomenon of mixing two languages, in this case; Indonesian and some foreign languages. Talking sociolinguistics, the phenomenon is termed as ‘code mixing’.

Opening my emails, there are a lot of things I find interesting. There are some letters sent by some friends and some of PURI’s former students. Some of them are now still working in Indonesia and the others are already in their home countries. Ending their letters, they write; “Selamat bekerja, dan stay cool lah!, Ciao!, Balas emailku dan have a nice day “.

When I happened to work in one foreign company, many people working there, Indonesians and foreigners, are very familiar with the idea of mixing Indonesian and English. Take the followings as examples! ” Besok pagi tidak ada induction, Silakan pakai seat belt !, Hasil rapat itu belum ada follow up –nya. Minggu ini tidak ada blasting ”. They have been so familiar with the mix of the two languages.

The above examples are just a few of the non-Indonesian words or terminologies used simultaneously in their Indonesian speeches. There are still a considerable number of other words. Why do they do such?

Many reasons are behind that. Some people feel more keren or more gaul (more or less literally meaning fashionable and not out of date). This symptom is very obvious among young people. They tend to easily accept many kinds of new things, physical or non-physical, including some terminologies. Some words which they very often use now (and are becoming very trendy) are such as  “cool, macho man!, sexy bo’, funky, dan be-te”. The meanings of those words are sometimes not really the same as the original meanings in their original languages. For example, the term be-te is from English words bad tempered.

Bad tempered refers to being not in a good mood and very  easy to get angry.  It refers to someone’s character. As a character, it is permanent. When used in bahasa gado-gado, be- te means being not in a good mood because of being annoyed or disappointed. And it is not permanent. It can be seen that there is a phenomena of meaning change. When the new meaning becomes popular and accepted, they do not care anymore whether or not that word is used properly.

In many other cases, people mix Indonesian with English because they cannot find the Indonesian words which can represent their ideas. Take a look at the Indonesian people learning a foreign language. In Indonesian, people can express anger with (sorry!) “Matamu!” . How peculiar it would sound when someone says “Your eyes!” or “Jouw ogen!” (Dutch) to express the Indonesian swear words of matamu. In English or Dutch, they might have their own expressions which probably have nothing to do with eyes at all. Or maybe they do not even have such an idea.

Then would mixing languages can be considered a wrong act in using a language? I do not suppose that we can say so. That phenomena can take place in every language. If a particular language cannot represent a particular idea from some other language, it would probably feel strange if we just translate it. For example, “Have an ice day”  or “Stay cool!” Indonesian people cannot find the equivalent of those English expressions. Or if they happen to have them, they might not be commonly used in the communication.

Indonesian do have the equivalent of the English words seat belt, induction, and blasting. They are sabuk pengaman, pengenalan, and peledakan. Despite the fact, those words are not commonly used in daily Indonesian. There are many cars in Indonesia but those cars do not have seat belts. Or even if there are, people never use them. If sabuk pengaman can be found in Indonesian cars, the term sabuk pengaman might be more accepted than seat belt.                             

This symptom might be one of the ways how Indonesian ‘get along’ with other languages. Historically, since when the Malay (the origin of the Indonesian language) was not an official language, the language had a lot of influences from many other languages, such as Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Portuguese. With the more rapid development of science and technology, the influence of foreign languages can be more easily felt. No wonder, the existence of many foreign words colours the Indonesian language.

Friday evening till Saturday evening is the best time for me. Sunday is good too, but only until 6 p.m. After that I feel somewhat nervous as I start to check my work programs, plan meetings, and think about business strategies. At the end of long holidays I feel worse. It seems that going back to Yogya to return to work (oh, please…) is the last thing that I want after enjoying several days of comfort in the warm family life in my hometown. It is very likely that I turn to feel uneasy on the first working day after a long holiday. Even once I was sick on my second working day after taking a month off and made wonderful trips to three cities that were far away from one another.

It seems that I am not the only one who faces such a problem. Jennifer Johnston described in Sunday Herald Online of August 2004 that 79% working men and 74% working women in UK feel anxious, stressed, and even depressed at the end of their holiday. Anthony Gleadell, a consultant psychologist in UK, explains this popular symptom which is getting popular in the lifestyle of this 21st century as a result of the people’s tendency to allow the stresses to drift out of their life during holidays. Then, time flies and suddenly it comes to the time when they must go back to work. The idea of work and all its problems grow the stressful feeling.

Ten percent of the working people who experience the post holiday syndrome (PHT) take a day off to recover before returning to office. This is in line with Gleadell’s opinion. According to Gleadell, giving staff the adaptation time will make them more productive staff who will give more advantage to the company. Unsurprisingly, bosses do not agree with Gleadell. “It is a risky step to take,” said Allan Hogarth from Confederation of British Industry in Scotland. In his opinion, in this competitive era people should return to work refreshed after holidays. Hogarth also strengthens his opinion by referring to the fact that UK employees get more holiday entitlement compared to those in North America.

A solution comes from the secretary-general of Trades Union Congress (TUC), Brendan Barber, who thinks that it is human for employees to feel stressed at the end of holiday, especially when the next long holiday is still a long way to go. He said that TUC already suggested to the government that three new bank holidays are added, one of which is on autumn. It is very likely that Gleadell will agree on this suggestion as he considers a one- or two-week holiday is not enough. As part of the holidays is already spent for holiday preparation, departure, trips to and from the holiday destination, Gleadell claims that there are not enough days within the holidays for total relaxation.

Meanwhile, a study by American Psychology Association shows that holiday blues can be caused by some factors apart from work, for example, fatigue, unrealistic targets, too much commercialization, and inability to be with one’s family. Mild sadness to severe depression appear in some symptoms such as headache, excessive drinking, over-eating or not eating enough, and sleeping difficulty.

How can we solve this holiday blues problem? In order to eliminate some stresses dealing with work I think the following tips can help.

• Before starting the long holidays make sure that we already finish all the work that we must finish.
• Make sure that we have given a clear delegation to our staff or colleague
• Imagine how much our job supports our life. If suddenly we were threatened to lose our job, we would certainly choose to defend it by working as well as we could
• Think about the holiday enjoyment that follows our hard work. If we only relax all year long, that may be difficult for us to find enjoyment in the long relax period.
• Enough sleep on Sunday night will help us to be lively on Monday morning. Sometimes we are very enthusiastic about our weekend programs and just go to bed at the dawns. We still feel fresh Sunday evening and stay awake till late. No wonder we get up with a heavy and lazy feeling for work on Monday.
• Breakfast will help keep our concentration and mood at their good condition.

Concerning the holiday blues outside work, the followings are tips from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Psychological Association, the National Mental Health Association, and the Mental Health Association of Colorado.

• Set realistic targets for your holidays. You’d better not label the holiday season as a time to cure all past problems. The holidays will not free you from sadness or loneliness.
• You don’t have to feel festive in holiday season, especially if you have recently experienced a heavy emotional experience such as death of a family member or romantic break-up.
• Set your spending limit and try to stick to it. There is no obligation to make holiday season a time to shop till drop or to party as if there is no tomorrow. Find an activity which enable you to enjoy it for free. Window shopping and noticing the Christmas or Idul Fitri decoration at the shopping mall can be entertaining and inspiring. Or, just stay at home doing your hobbies (gardening, cooking, reading, …).

Hopefully those tips will prevent holiday blues from our days.

Do you have difficulties in understanding and producing sentence using Me(N) ~ kan and Me(N) ~ I verbs? I will give you some tips in a simple sketch which is easy for you to understand. Me(N) ~ kan has some contexts, i.e.:

1. causative. It makes the object become root/base of word. The word category in this context is intransitive verb, (a) base of word, (b) ber~, (c) me(N)~ verbs, and also adjectives which have emotional nuance,
2. using TENTANG preposition,
3. transferring object and action,
4. benefactive. Doing action for others,
5. bringing object to the root of word

Me(N)~kan Sketch

Whereas Me(N) ~ I verb usually has some contexts in

1. causative. It makes the object becomes root of word in adjectives which have conditional nuance and rarely in adjectives which have taste, color, and emotional nuances,
2. using other prepositions, such as: kepada,dengan, untuk, di, ke, dari,
3. repetition or doing activity again and again,
4. giving.

Me(N)~i Sketch

Let’s try to make sentences.

The word DATANG (come in English) usually needs another word or preposition di, dari. You can directly derive that word with me(N) ~ I into MENDATANGI,
but if you want to make other people come to you (causative), you can make derivation with me(N) ~ kan into MENDATANGKAN.

Now you have the word (BER)TANYA. You must need another word that is kepada or tentang. For context kepada, you can directly use the form MENANYAI. For context tentang, you can directly use MENANYAKAN.

Imogiri is a cemetery for Kings from Jogjakarta Kingdom and Surakarta Kingdom. Imogiri was founded in 1645. The founder of this noble cemetery is Sultan Agung. The cemetery is only for the kings from Surakarta and Jogjakarta and their family. Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX was the latest king from Jogjakarta who was buried in this place in 1988 and Sunan Pakubuwono XII was the latest king from Surakarta who was buried in Imogiri in 2004.

The cemetery is built in the upland in order to symbolize the unity of king, and ancestor’s souls, and gods (God). Upland (mountain peak) is believed as a place where ancestor’s souls and gods lie down.

Since Imogiri hill is believed as a special place, the cemetery is founded there. Sultan Agung often visited Imogiri for meditating. Sultan Agung’s grave is located at the peak of Imogiri Hill, the highest place of this cemetery. As Sultan Agung’s whole life has the biggest role in the Mataram history, his grave is the most important in Imogiri. In addition, people believe that he has the greatest supernatural power compared to the other kings.

The door of Sultan Agung’s grave is small and low. The door is deliberately made small, so that people have to enter one after another when they want to pilgrimage the grave. The door is also deliberately made low, so that people have to hump when the want to enter the grave, as a respect to Sultan Agung.

Imogiri cemetery consist of eight cemetery sites, the prime sites are Kasultanagungan and Pakubuwanan sites, both sites consist of Jogjakarta and Surakarta Kingdoms ancestor’s graves. Jogjakarta Kingdom has three other gravesites located on the left side of Kasultanagungan and Pakubuwanan sites, whereas Surakarta Kingdom also has three other gravesites located on the right side of Kasultanagungan and Pakubuwanan sites.