Gibberish

Over the last 11 months, I've been slowly but surely learning the national language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia. The language isn't too difficult to pick up since it has many recognizable patterns. For instance, the word for "ready" (the adjective) is siap. The word for "to get ready" is bersiap. The language is filled with prefixes and suffixes that allow you to turn one word into another.. If you know one noun, you know the verb and the adjective as well.

I've picked up some of these tricks, but sometimes speaking the local language overwhelms me. So far in my journey in the tropics, I have barely taken the time to study the language. In fact, if I don't know a particular word, I make one up! I've also been known to insert a word from another language. I studied Latin in high school, Mandarin in college, and I grew up in a Gujarati-speaking household. When I'm stumped in Bahasa Indonesia, I just say the same word in a different language. Here's a little chart of a FEW words I've jumbled up in the last 11 months.

English Word	Indonesian word	Word that I made up
To Prepare	Mempersiapkan	Peparasi
Door	Pintu	Barrnu (That's actually a Gujarati word)
To Describe	Menggambarkan	Meng-describe (but I say it with a heavy Indonesian accent)
Mosque	Masjid	Moscow (but I haven't made this mistake since training, I promise)

I'm sure everyone has noticed, but they certainly don't act like it. I say these strange words with such confidence that people don't bat an eyelash. Sometimes I glance back at my students when I make up a word. They'll look at each other, whisper something along the lines of, "I think she means...." and then continue listening to my nonsense. My host mom tries to correct me, but my gibberish has overpowered her attempts to teach me both Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese (the local island language) 

But enough is enough. If I want to continue my Peace Corps journey and be a good volunteer, I have to learn the lingo. So, every night I study 8 new words a day. I allow my students to correct me. I listen to what my host mom says. I quickly write these words down in a journal that my second oldest sister sent me. I will learn the language. Slowly, but surely. 8 words at a time.