Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Do you speak a lot of Languages ?

Do you know what people call those of speak more 2 languages ? 3 languages ? 7 languages ?

If you speak 2 languages, you are bilingual
If you speak 3 languages, you are trilingual
If you speak many many languages, it's easy to say that you are Multilingual.
that makes you a Multilingual person or a Polyglot :)

btw.... Indonesia's first President Soekarno was a Polyglot, as so was Gus Dur
in fact, we have a lot of polyglots in Indonesia, a lot of us can speak many of the local dialects such as the Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Bataknese, etc plus English of course and a lot of us are learning another foreign language such as French or Dutch.
I think, in the near future, most of us would definitely be polyglots :D

If you wanna know more :)
1- Monolingual
2- Bilingual
3- Trilingual

after 3 languages, we usually just say Multilingual or refer to someone as a Polyglot.

4- Quadrilingual
5- Pentalingual
6- Hexalingual
7- Septalingual
8- Octolingual
9- Nonalingual
10- Decalingual

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Why Learn French Language ?

First of all....
I'm gonna be totally bias on this, I love learning languages and French was my first language of choice.... I completely love the language :)

But hey....
What's in it for you ?

1. If you love Design, Photography, Fashion, Arts, Architecture, Music, etc.
Then French is the language for you
2. If you love food and desserts and cheese and wine...
yup.... French is also the language for you :)
3. Oh and if you love travelling........ uhuh... still French :)
4. what's dat ? you love shopping ? .... helloowww....
There are so many reasons to learn French, really.

5. and if you love showing off in another language
(yes... deep down, we're all snobs :p)

and you love sticking out your lips while talking.... then.... you should learn french.... and it's so much fun learning to pronounce those french words.

Yes... you can survive in France without speaking a single word of French.
but hey.... trust me... everything will be so much easier if you speak the language :)

So, what do you do in France ?
You may want to visit Chopin while you're in Paris....
yes... in the cemetery
People still do visit and flowers are everywhere.
you can visit Edith Piah, Jim Morrison, Chopin etc :D
It's quite beautiful,
but I don't recommend visiting in the late afternoon towards closing hour....;p

And of course.... Paris Disneyland
You can take a train there... but be sure to pay for the train ticket
otherwise you may get fined.
I speak from experience *d'0h*
bye bye 25 Euros *sob*
I think during the summer / holidays, they're open till 11 pm and they have parades and fireworks at night.

or go visit Louvre - yes the Museum....
even if you don't like Museums.... just take a peek inside and get lost inside ;p
I love Musée d'Orsay because it has all the paintings that I love from Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Seurat, etc.

then just stroll around Avenue des Champs-Élysées,
sit in one of the cafe and chill
or go to Ladurée there and have the macarons
Seriously....... they're really really good.....
They're not like one of those macarons at the malls that are too sweet and tastes so artificial.
This is really good....
or try Pierre Hermé's macarons at rue Bonaparte
oh my........ *drooling*

Here are some of my "collections" that I got from Ladurée (the small ones) that I moved into a plastic container to put in the fridge... yes classy I know.
and the bigger ones at the back is from Pierre Hermé
mmmmm.......... :)

Ok.... so learn French :)
oh....but I think Italian coffee is still way much better than French coffee :)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Why you should learn Italian Language ?

First of all, in learning any language, you should like the language first,
and if you want to learn Italian language, you should also like how it sounds and how they use gestures ;)
then you should like the country or the food or the culture.
I mean who wouldn't, they even beat the unbelievable beaurocrazy ;p

Venezia Carnivale

Even in this modern age,
Italians in Italy don't speak much English.
Yes a lot of them do speaks english, but there also a lot who shy away, just like Indonesians.
They avoid speaking English, at least that's how I see it.

Here are some of the reasons why you should learn Italian :
1. You love travelling
Visiting Italy is a really wonderful experience.
Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Capri
(of course, in Italy, they're Milano, Venezia, Firenze, Roma, Capri.)
even the little towns such as Asisi, Perugia, Verona, etc
If you speak Italian, then you'd be able to run around the country with ease.
Just hop on the Eurostar train to get around.
You can ask people for directions, you can bargain when shopping, your life would basically be a lot easier.


2. You love the Opera
I've met some Koreans, Japanese, Americans, etc who come to Italy to learn to sing.
Yup... Opera singing.

3. You love Italian food
Culinary adventures are incredible.
You'll be able to identify what you're ordering, whether it'd be panzerotti, piadina, pizza di melanzana or frullato, etc.

Homemade Pizze

4. Just about everything happens in Italy.
well... also in New York, London, Paris, but Italy's one of them ;D
Just imagine the Food Festivals of the entire Europe in Milan
or Milano Fashion Week, or Milano Design Week.

5. You love Coffee
Believe me..... even if you don't drink coffee.... once you're in Italy... you'll become a coffeeaholic !! Learn this "un cafe, per favore" (one coffee, please) then you can ask for milk and sugar and you're good.

6. You love learning languages :)
Yes you can survive in Italy without speaking a single word of Italian, but if you did speak Italian, your life would be so much easier there.

You know, in fact, the pronounciation of Italian language is similar with Indonesian language.
My first days in Italy, people thought I've lived in Italy all my life, they all say I speak a really good Italian, but of course, they realize that I'm a newcomer once they start speaking to me really quickly and I just stare at them blankly. ;p hahahah

Yes the conjugation might be a bit scary....
Each verb must be conjugated to match the subject.
eg. I am hungry - Ho fame
She is hungry - Ha fame
(See what I mean, that doesn't look too hard, does it ?)
yuppp... the grammar is more complicated than English,
but all European Languages are slightly more complicated.
But in time, you'll definitely master it.

So.... Go ahead and give it a try.
But for me , Learning any new languages is always fun.
Even learning Sundanese with its accent ;)
*to sound more like "Project Pop*"*

* Project Pop is a popular comedian/singer group in Indonesia

A Good and Proper English !! yea rite

Have a look at this website...

There tons of postings about the super fun mis-usage of English language.
buttt funneeehhhh hohohoho....

Flesh food is Fresh food
Summer Bargein is Summer Bargain
Even at, Flip flops are apparently Frip frops....hohoho :)
there are pics of koz
If you wanna know more, hop on to

Image :

Monday, June 1, 2009

I speak Bahasa.............Indonesia

Have you ever heard people say " I speak Bahasa " ????
Yes you speak Bahasa .... what Bahasa ? what Language do you speak ?
Bahasa means Language, period.
So when you're saying " I speak Bahasa "
it actually means " I speak Language "

The funny thing is, so many people and advertisings use the phrase " Learn to speak Bahasa "
so that's probably why so many foreigners are using the word "Bahasa" in an incorrect way.

So here it is....
According to me, yes this is so subjective... but I don't care.....;p
The correct phrase is
I speak Bahasa Indonesia ( I speak Indonesian Language)
Learn Bahasa Indonesia (Learn Indonesian / Learn Indonesian Language)

Bahasa doesn't specifically mean Indonesian Language.
Bahasa means Language, period.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Learn Traditional Languages in Indonesia

I've always been interested in languages.
Any kinds of languages !!

And I find it totatlly difficult to find a simple pocket phrase book of the Languages in Indonesia.
For example,
I was born and raised in Jakarta and I love travelling.
So I wouldn't mind learning a little bit of Sundanese,
and when I go to Bandung and ask the guy who sells surabi " Sabaraha atuh mang ? ",
I'd actually understands his reply.

Or when I go to Jogja and can actually bargain with the Lady who sells Batik at Beringharjo market.
My only Javanese teacher is my housekeeper at home, she's the one teaching me
"siji loro telu papat....." (one two three four.....)
"wis mangan durung ? " ( have you eaten yet ? )

or When I go to Bali....... I wanna be able to say more than "Tiang mau beli Patung, ikut ikut ikut ;p"
(Tiang = I/me)

So... when I was in a Japanese bookstore in one of the malls in Jakarta.
I was so excited to see this book on the shelf.

Practical Balinese , a communication guide, by Periplus
on the back, it says US$3.95, but I paid around Rp. 50.000 because of the currency rate.
kinda pricey for such a tiny book.
and this book is actually targeted to English speaking consumers.
It has pronounciations and spellings and grammar infos in English language.
It's like one of those pocket phrase book, so handy, but I couldn't find one that's designated for
I want one in Indonesian !!!!
Yes, There are lots of self-help books available for Indonesians, but they're Foreign languages, English language for Indonesians, French language for Indonesians, German language for Indonesians etc etc.
Where do we go to find self help books on Javanese language ? Sundanese language ?
Honesly, it's kinda embarassing that a foreigner / bule is able to speak Javanese fluently and I can't.
In Jogja, there's a Javanese language course, but the course fee is in dollars huhuhuh :( and students who go there are usually foreigners.
I think we all should learn a little bit of different languages in Indonesia.
How about Padang language ? It's so fun to say it out loud with the Padang accent even.

Maybe the reason why these phrase books aren't readily available for Indonesians is because there are not a lot of demands ?
Hey, I'd want one, I'd buy Sundanese, Javanese, Padang Language (Padangese?), Bataknese, Banjarnese, Palembangese, etc etc.

What about you guys ?

Train and Metro

So, you know about
MRT in Singapore, (Mass Rapid Transit)
MTR in Hongkong, (Mass Transit Railway)
Subway in New York,
The Tube in London,
La Metropolitana in Milan (La Metro)
Le Metropolitain in Paris (Le Metro)
They're basically Trains, right ?
well, they're translated as trains (kereta) in Indonesian anyway....

When I was in Milan, Italy, I took the Metro to go to a friend's apartment.
and when I wanted to go home, my friend offered to walk me to the station.
But I confidently refused , thinking that I knew the way back to the station.
Wrong !!!
I got ,well, kinda lost...

So I asked someone on the street....
"Mi scusi, Sa Dov'e il treno ?"
"Excuse me, Do you know where the train is ?"
it's more kinda like "where the train station is."
treno = train

So... the guy said, "Non c'e il treno qua"
"There's no train here"
and he just left.
I was thinking, How Rude !!!

and then there was an old lady, so I thought I'd ask her.
"Mi scusi Signora, Sa Dov'e il treno ?"
"Excuse me Mam, Do you know where the train is ?"

"Non c'e il treno qua"
"There's no train here"

"Ma sono venuta col treno"
"But I came here by train"

"Signorina, non c'e il treno qua, ma c'e la metropolitana"
"Miss, there's no train here, but there's the metro"

And it just hit me........
I came by train, yes, but it's "la metro", not "il treno"
So she kindly gave me the direction to the metro station....

The Train / Il treno is used as a transport to go out of town,
while La metro is used as a transport inside the city.
There you go, they're both "trains" if translated to Indonesian,
but they're so different in terms of usage ;p
So pay attention ;)
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