Talking the talk

This may sound like a stupid question, but I thought I would ask anyways.

Is there any places in Indonesian that find it offensive to speak in Bahasa Indonesia?? I am learning the basics of the language before I go and was wondering if the Balinese, or Floresians found it offensive. It's just that in my travels elsewhere, I have come across (and more so heard about) minority groups who don't like being spoken to in the national language as they find themselves distinct from the rest of the country.

Thanks,
Tom

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<hr>Is there any places in Indonesian that find it offensive to speak in Bahasa Indonesia??<hr></blockquote>No.
Even the Acehnese or the Papuans don't mind it.

The concept of a single national language has been much more accepted in Indonesia than in say, the Philippines.

I might add that of course speaking the local language (as opposed to Indonesian) of any area you visit would be enormously appreciated by the people there.
But this obviously takes much more effort than most foreigners, even those staying long in Indonesia, make.
If keen, you could always try and learn a few key words/phrases though.

And while no one finds Indonesian offensive, a few old village people just can't speak it well, even in Bali.
But they are becoming something of a rarity.

I don't think it's a stupid question. I've had the very same problem, not in Indonesia though.

I do second Laszlo's posts. People in Indonesia appreciate a lot when you approach them in bahasa Indonesia, but no one expects you to know the local language.

Great that you are learning some basic bahasa. I guess in Bali it's not a major problem getting around without (but then I've never been there), but in less touristic areas you can for sure not rely on finding somebody around who knows a bit of English...

Enjoy!!

Thanks a lot for that,

Yeah I was hoping that was the case. Although a slightly different situation, when I was in Portugal I found that speaking Spanish was of offense to one or two people and even though it was much better than they're English they would rather speak in English. Similarly in Utila on Honduras I was told that people take it to offensive being spoken to in Spanish as their language is English.

I was just hoping I wasn't learning some in vain as I wouldn't be using it anyway :)

No one will object to you speaking Bahasa Indonesia, unless you speak it very badly and thus they prefer to speak to you in English.

Be aware that in some parts of Indonesia, some of the local people cannot speak Bahasa Indonesia at all. When I spoke to a census collector in Bulakumba in Southern Suluwesi, he told me that 30% of the people there were illiterate ie had never even been to Primary School and thus never learnt Bahasa Indonesia. His comments explained the looks of incomprehension when I tried to speak to the older people in the countryside.

Sometimes, it is wiser not to speak Bahasa Indonesia. When a policeman at the gates told me in Bahasa Indonesia that I could not enter the passenger dock at Tanjung Priok without a ticket, I feigned that I did not speak Bahasa Indonesia. He gave up and I went up to the ship and tried to book a passage. They directed back outside the gates to the ticket office.

They'll appreciate you for trying, as opposed to the rebuke I got in Iloilo, Panay, RP when I aired my tiny amount of Tagalog, and got back, "Speak English. We don't use that pig language." Too bad for the Filipinos, who could certainly benefit from a little national reconciliation and unity.

Karlo, I actually like the regional patriotism of Filipinos! ;-)
But then I come from multilingual Europe.

And despite their preference to keep using their own regional tongues instead of Tagalog, I found there was more national unity in the Philippines than in Indonesia - I was there when the Cordillera voted against regional autonomy offered to them by the central government. Only the Muslims of Mindanao pose anything like threat to national unity, and then not on lingustic grounds either.

You simply tried to use your Tagalog in the wrong area - but English used in Quebec might get a similar reaction, no?
Next time arm yourself with a Hiligaynon/Ilonggo book for Panay - or stick to English indeed.

hmm generally yes but some people look down on Bahasa Indonesia (certain Jakartan women, some tionghoa businessmesn, those impatient with bules) spoken by foreigners and others dont like if you pick up some more of the Jakarta slang. Its an ongoing process, dont be like many of my colleagues and just pick up several words and then use them to sound hip rather than spending the time to learn the lanuage.

#7 that may happen in Jakarta but not in Flores, they certain;ly appreciate you trying to speak Bahasa Indonesia or the local language. As #5 says, if they speak English and you are sruggling to het any words together in Indonesian, they might prefer to spesak to you in ENglish. On a slightly fdifferent note. I was in East Timor in 2003, despite the bad memories of the Idnoensian occupation, the East Timorese were hapy to communicate to you in Idonesian, more so thanortuguese.

In case you are interested here some phrasesI learnt in some of teh local langauges of FLores

Nazan dzao... = my name is... in Ngadha (bajawa)
Ngere EMba? = how are you? in Lio (Kelimutu)
Mbana emba? = where are you going? in the same language
Najan aku... = My name is in... Lio

Whoops, forgot to check my typos, so resending the message.

#7 that may happen in Jakarta but not in Flores, they certainly appreciate you trying to speak Bahasa Indonesia or the local language. As #5 says, if they speak English and you are struggling to get any words together in Indonesian, they might prefer to speak to you in English. On a slightly different note, I was in East Timor in 2003, despite the bad memories of the Indonesian occupation, the East Timorese were happy to communicate to you in Indonesian, more so than Portuguese.

In case you are interested here some phrases I learnt in some of the local languages of Flores

Nazan dzao... = my name is... in Ngadha (bajawa)
Ngere EMba? = how are you? in Lio (Kelimutu)
Mbana emba? = where are you going? in the same language
Najan aku... = My name is ... in Lio

I have never had a problem although have encountered Indoensians who are not entirely fluent with bahasa Indoensia (actually great for me as they are more likely to speak the kind of basic Indonesian I can understand best).

I have also used my Indonesian to travel in Malaysia and have encountered more people there who can't (or won't) speak in Malaysian. the funniest thing was when i addressed an Iban woman in Sarawak in Malay and she exclaimed to me in surprise "Oh! You speak Iban!". Obviously her knowledge of Malay so limited that she didn't know that a lot of what she thought were Iban words were actually Malay loan words. Anyway, that is off track. Your post just reminded me of it.

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<hr>i addressed an Iban woman in Sarawak in Malay and she exclaimed to me in surprise "Oh! You speak Iban!". Obviously her knowledge of Malay so limited <hr></blockquote>Or just because Iban and Malay are pretty similar anyway, so when spoken by someone whose Malay is broken, the distinction might get blurred.

I conducted interviews in Indonesian around the country, and found it only to be a problem on Lombok, where many people speak only Sasak and will learn english before they learn Indonesian, they weren't offended, they just didn't know Indonesian well. Everywhere else was just fine.....

#13, not wishing to doubt you, but your assertion that Sasak speakers in Lombok would learn English before Indonesian strikes me as a little odd. I have spent A LOT of time in Lombok, way off the beaten track, and have also interviewed people there. I have encountered a number of people with limited or non-existant Indonesian there, but never someone who could - or was trying to - speak English but not Indonesian. I've visited villages here and there, especially in Nusa Tenggara where many people can't speak Indonesian, but there is always someone who can. Even here in Java there are a surprising number of people with limited Indonesian. But just about anywhere in the archipelago you would be extremely unlikely to find anywhere where there were NO Indonesian speakers at hand. It's also very very nice when you are less than fluent to speak Indonesian with people for whom it is not a first or joint-first language - it levels the playing field a bit.

I've never been to Timor Leste but I've heard that people are quite happy to speak Indonesian with a foreigner in lieu of another shared language, though I would be inclined to try English first there, and perhaps simply mention that I could speak Indonesian rather than address them in it straight off the mark.

#14. Very Odd