Speaking Bahasa Indonesia

"Baik-baik saja", said Charlotte excitedly, bouncing up and down. Wayan, our housekeeper, had just asked her "Apa kabar?", which means 'How are you?'. Charlotte was trying out a brand new phrase. Previously she had learned to answer "baik", which means 'fine', but this time Charlotte gleefully answered with her newly learned, fuller phrase meaning "I am fine."

Charlotte is now our Indonesian language expert.  She knows all the greetings, how to count to ten, and the days of the week.  She has been repeatedly singing a song that lists all the days of the week, but I can't decipher where one word starts and another word ends.  She then quizzes me on matching the Indonesian days of the week to their English counterparts, marking the ones I get wrong.

She is very motivated to learn Indonesian, and loves repeating the Indonesian words she has learned, which I find somewhat surprising, but in general she is taking to her new environment without hesitation.

In the short time we are here, I assume that we won't learn enough Indonesian to hold any but the most basic conversation in Indonesian.  Nearly everyone we come in contact with speaks more English than we could hope to learn of Indonesian.

Fortunately, it seems that a small effort goes a long way.  It feels more comfortable as a foreign visitor not to start every conversation with the presumption that the Balinese native I am conversing with must speak English.  Instead we often offer the appropriate greeting in Indonesian, and then later when appropriate throw out the Indonesian for "Thank you".  These minimal gestures appear to be appreciated and make for better interactions even though the conversation quickly switches to English.

Another benefit is that is allows us to open a conversation with someone who may not speak any English.  The gardener hired by the landlord to take care of the property is a constant presence during the day, but days had passed without our exchanging a word.  Emboldened by finally learning how to say the proper greeting, I tested it out on him with good success as he was eager to hold a conversation in his rudimentary English. 

It also allowed us to greet the mysterious woman who drifted through our property placing offerings.  As mentioned earlier, she did not acknowledge our presence so we did not know if she disapproved of us, or merely had no interest in us.  A simple greeting brought a smile to her face, and a greeting in reply, so now she has turned into a friendly presence, though she has not uttered a word of English so our conversations with her are necessarily brief.

We intend to continue learning more basic Indonesian.  Perhaps we'll surprise ourselves with how much we learn after we are here a few months.  The girls will continue to show the way, as they have daily, brief, Indonesian classes at school.