After 2 weeks in Jakarta I haven't learnt very much Indonesian. Just enough to cover basic greetings and cab rides.
I'm in that awkward phase where the few words I have memorised feel the same. I can only rote their meaning, not feel it.
Like most countries, the words for "morning" (pagi) and "more" (lagi) are used very frequently (or in my case, interchangeably).
This morning as I went downstairs there was some guy pulling out weeds. He looked up as I walked past and greeted me with a "Good morning, sir!". I responded immediately by saying "more!". I don't know how it came out wrongly - he had just used the correct word a few seconds before. Maybe the "sir" bit at the end threw me.
By the time I'd walked past the security guards and entered the cab, my morning greetings were back on track and I was throwing "pagi" around with abandon. Gay abandon.
However, not long afterwards I was in the cab approaching work. My cabbie indicated to turn -- too early -- so I pointed ahead and confidently said "Continue Morning! Continue Morning!". The second "Morning" was less clear: I realised I was in trouble as it was leaving my mouth so I muffled the end.
He seemed confused but did as I had asked; or rather, as I had intended.
We arrived at work and I gave him a pretty decent tip. Potato penance.
I remember a similar thing happening when I was learning French. My skills were coming along pretty well but for some reason I kept confusing the word for "heating" with the word for "unemployment" (chauffage vs chomage ... they look different but sound similar).
One summer while I was in Paris there was a protest on the street. I asked someone whether this was about some recent social problems due to France's rise in heating.
On another occasion, this time in Winter, I was working at the youth hostel. I remember asking a group of French backpackers whether they would like me to turn up the unemployment.
Srsly.
Back to this morning.
At about 10:30am I popped downstairs to get a takeaway coffee. As I was being handed my change I looked the girl in the eye, smiled warmly, nodded appreciatively and said "sorry". How could I possibly fuck up thank you? How? Her smile moved very slightly around the corners of her mouth - from friendly to confused pity.
Oh ... what will become of me?
