Maybe two or three weeks before I left to, I remember talking on Facebook with a YES Abroad 2011-2012 alum who also went to Indonesia. At that time I already knew I would be hosted in Jogja, so I asked him about what the city was like. Asides all the sweet food and prominent culture, he said everyone here is very 'Javanese'. He told me it would be a great opportunity to learn Javanese as well as Indonesian, because everyone will always be speaking it. As he said this, I remember starting to feel unprepared, very very very unprepared, unprepared, scared and newly aware. Newley aware that not only do I have to learn Indonesian because i'm going to Indonesia, but I honestly might be expected to learn Javanese because i'm living in on Java, in Jogja, known as the center of Javanese culture in Indonesia. Two weeks before I left, I hadn't studied any Indonesian at all, much less Javanese... needles to say I was feeling extremely in over my head. The only thing I knew how to say was "I don't speak Indonesian" "Saya tidak bisa bicara bahasa Indonesia", my name is "Nama saya..." good morning "selamat pagi" , etc. etc.
As you might be able to imagine, coming into a country not knowing how to communicate with the population is rather daunting. The first couple weeks, months, were terribly difficult for me here, even though in all actuality, Indonesian comparatively is not a difficult language at all to learn. I remember my first week/month at school, I felt so helpless. Even though lots of people could speak english well, and helped me translate and learn, I felt so out of everything. This crazy foreign language rolled off all my friends tongues so beautifully with no problem and I sat there in awe, only knowing how to say 'I don't speak Indonesian', if that. Everyone would always ask me, can you speak Indonesian yet? Can you speak Javanese yet? It took maybe three months until I felt comfortable with Indonesian, and now after 7/8 months I feel extremely confident if not almost fluent. As for Javanese, or 'Basa Jawa', i'm just now starting to pick it up. I promised myself that I would focus on Indonesian first, because Indonesian is what links all of Indonesia together, so it has a more practical use. At school now, when my friends speak Javanese, I feel the same way I did in the beginning of this year with Indonesian. It's been a couple weeks since i've started studying, so things are slowly becoming clearer and clear. The cool part about learning Javanese now, is that I'm learning it from Indonesian, not English... so in a way it's much less stressful than learning Indonesian in the beginning was. Everyone at school is also really excited that I want to learn Basa Jawa... Its really not necessary for me to learn it but I thought why not if I can? So I picked up a few kids study books, and a couple of my friends at school have become my official basa jawa gurus. Right now the extent of my Basa Jawa is.. I can't speak Javanese "Kulo ora isa basa jawa" my name is .. "Nami kulo...".. etc. etc.
Basa jawa is a really fun language. The a's are pronounced like o's.. so basa jawa should really be read like boso jowo. Sometimes, if I want to speak javanese, and I don't know the word.. I just take the indonesian word and replace the a's with o's...sometimes it works, other times it doesn't..but people laugh either way. The written language of basa jawa is also different. It doesn't use the roman alphabet like most languages do... it looks a little like thai, but different. 'Huruf Jawa' Javanese alphabet is from sanskrit, (an ancient Indian language). One of my goals in my last 3 weeks here is to memorize the alphabet completely.
I never thought i'd be learning a foreign language from a language that isn't my first language, its a really crazy feeling but it's really amazing.
Looking back on those first few weeks It's crazy to see how far i've come in 8 months, and for that I can say i'm very proud of myself.
sampai jumpaaaa
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