Here’s a bit of a lighthearted (I hope!) read about Indonesia…
The Indonesian language is actually not the first language for Indonesian people. Their native tongue will be Balinese, or Javanese etc, all quite different languages. Indonesian is more a dialect of Malaysian, and was used for trade throughout the Indonesian archipelago for centuries. It was only adopted as the national language in 1945, but each island has retained its own language. So for most locals, English is their third language (for Madé it’s actually his 4th language, after Sasak, Balinese and Indonesian). I take my hat off to anyone who is multilingual. But it is funny sometimes to see their mess-ups with spelling, and like many people from different countries they find it difficult to pronounce certain sounds, which can lead to frustrating, infuriating or just funny communications. Anyone who’s travelled in Asia will have had experiences with this 
🙂.
Here you can go snorkelling on the Les Go boat, or give your clothes to the londry lady who proudly advertises that she uses a mecine. Examples abound.
Before we built our kitchen our guests used to take their breakfast at a small restaurant with the grand name of Zoraya Vafillion.
Vafillion is an example of the F & P mess ups. Indonesians who do speak a bit of English often have trouble pronouncing the F and V, and will exchange them with a P instead. You know how Chinese people usually say L instead of R (as in flied lice)? Here, the Indonesians usually use a P instead of the F/V sound, but ironically they also do the reverse, using Fs instead of Ps. For example telephones are ‘telpons’. “Pinished?” is commonly asked of you when you’ve finished your meal at restaurants. And yet Madé will often say to me “Don’t worry, just have fashions,” when he really means “patience.” Go figure!
I’m quite used to it now and mostly can interpret incorrect words which used to confuse and confound communications, but it still gives me a good giggle at times.
A popular Balinese dish which the Hindu people of Lombok also enjoy, is roast fig. We have many chats with guests and the conversation of food always goes to the yummyness and ceremonial significance of Babi Guling – pig on a roast spit – which Madé refers to as fig.
Another favourite dish here which the tourists enjoy is ‘beep and vegetable nasi goreng’ (you know, the fried rice made with pieces of cooked male cows 😉).
When at a restaurant, you may get a surprise when you’re served a plate of 3 “pieces” of chicken when you thought you’d ordered “Three Fishes”.
And of course the local staple that everyone needs to kickstart their day is Lombok kopi or Bali kopi (they usually use a K instead of our C). By the way, as a little aside, despite most western countries – not England – having become nations of ‘coffee snobs’, every foreign guest we’ve had here has absolutely loved our Lombok grown powdered instant kopi.
Another common chat we have with guests is about sharks.
“Are there sharks here??” guests often ask before they head off on their day’s “Frogramme” of swimming and snorkelling. I kid you not, it is advertised on signs this way!
“Only Reep Sharks,” Madé says. “No froblem, they prendly.”
Tourists are always ‘very heavy’ to hear that 😉.
Indonesians also have a habit of dropping the endings or last letters off words. Because of the language barriers between Madé and me, I generally listen carefully and always think and pause during our conversations if I don’t understand something. That’s an important communication practice in any relationship, but I guess particularly so in ours.
One day Madé and I were walking along and he was trying to explain to me how quiet our frins were on the dusty track. ‘Frins’?? Hmmm. ‘Prins’ didn’t make sense in this case. Or was he referring to snorkelling ‘fins’? Was it so quiet you could hear a ‘pin’ drop?
“Noooo,” he said adamantly. “Frins. Whachu call, poo frin… Don’t you know…? Poo frin!”
This was a hard one. I honestly had not a clue what he was talking about. Neither of us seem naturally talented in the skills needed for Charades and it took quite a few minutes for me to work out that what he was referring to was our “foot prints!”.
When I was back in Australia earlier this year, Madé brought a young guy (a relative of some sort) over from Lomobk to help with the work at our bungalows. He felt it would be a good experience and education for the guy.
When he was chatting with me at the time, Madé would often start talking about the pillow. He didn’t feel the pillow was pulling his weight. He regretted having the pillow there. The young pillow was lazy. I giggled a lot and felt it a shame that this young pillow – aka fellow! – wasn’t making the most of the opportunity.
(Oh dear… I can hear you groaning… Hmmm, I guess you had to be there!)
At the moment I am following the amazing efforts of an Australian lady who is walking around the whole of Lombok. She walks about 30km a day on bitumen roads in searing heat and will finish the walk by climbing the 3700 metre high Mt Rinjani, a very difficult climb in the best of circumstance let alone after walking around the whole island. She is doing this to raise awareness and funds for an amazing organisation, Lombok’s Forgotten Children.
Fiona has a small support crew (I wonder if they call her “Piona”?!) driving behind her, yet she is carrying a school-bag sized backpack. I posted the question on the FB photo today asking why Fiona is carrying it. The response I got was “Because she has water in there to drink when she wants, and some plastic because she uses the bag as a fillow when she rests”.
Hmmm, thank goodness she’s not carrying a young fellow ;).