The Indonesian Way
Module 5 – An Interview for a Job
George Quinn & Uli Kozok
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Module 5
An Interview for a Job
The main aim of Module 5 is to provide you with the vocabulary, sentence shells and cultural skills that will enable you to talk about education and work, ask and answer questions about these topics, and express a variety of opinions about them. The module will also help you consol-idate the skill studied in Module 4 of engaging in debate. By reading a short story and a number of shorter reading passages you will make a start on the development of reading skills.
There is special emphasis in the module on gaining a command of verbs that begin with the me- prefx. You will learn the names of occupations and subjects of study. You will also get more practice in expressing opinions and preferences. The module provides some basic information about Indonesia’s education system. It will show you how to use an Indonesian dictionary and how to format a business letter. You will also learn how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet and you will get to know a number of very commonly used abbreviations.
In the culminating role play you will practise taking part in an interview for a job.
Tentang Kata Kerja
Aims
• To provide some basic information on the verb system of Indonesian, focusing on transitive verbs and giving practice in the analysis and formation of transitive verbs.
Vocabulary Review
Here are some of the frequent words used in this lesson that have appeared in previous les-sons. Make sure that you remember their meanings.
memakai to use, wear menunggu to wait membantu to help, assist merusak to damage memelihara to take care of menolong to help mengajar to teach ujian examination menjadi to be, to become
Rambu di Jalan Raya Bahasa
An Overview of Indonesian Verbs
Probably no feature of Indonesian is more difcult for foreign learners than verbs, so at this point we are going to pause to take stock of what has already been presented on verbs, and we will add more information about them.
The discussion that follows is a little technical in places, but don’t worry if you don’t take it all in at frst reading. It is given here more for the sake of completeness than because it is absolutely essential for mastering the language. After all, there are well over 200 million Indonesians who speak their lan-guage perfectly, mostly without any self-aware knowledge of its grammar, and in theory you can too. Nevertheless, many students of Indonesian do fnd that an understanding of the grammatical system can sometimes help improve fuency, correctness and expressiveness. But knowledge of the grammatical system of a language can only complement and never substitute for accurate im-itation of models and memorable repetition as tools for the attainment of practical correctness and fuency.
You have already noticed that words in Indonesian are either single, indivisible forms (single morphemes or free morphemes) that stand on their own and don’t change their form, or they are “divisible” and can be broken up into a base word and one or more afxes (multiple morphemes).
Some examples of the former category — the “nude” words of Indonesian — are:
mau, makan, rumah, kuning, pandai, telepon, mobil, pensil, komputer
Examples of the latter category — the “clothed” words of Indonesian — are:
berjalan, makanan, buah-buahan, membaca, perpustakaan, menarik
The words above belong to various parts of speech: nouns, verbs and adjectives. In this lesson we are looking for the moment at verbs only.
So far you have met three kinds of verb:
1.
Helper verbs or auxiliary verbs
These are verbs that sometimes occur on their own, but more usually occur immediately in front of another verb. They function to give an extra dimension of meaning to the second verb, es-pecially by showing some aspect of how the doer of the action does the action or relates to the action expressed in the second verb. Examples of helper verbs are:
dapat, suka, boleh, bisa, mau, mulai, ingin, harus, ikut, pandai
Helper verbs have only one form, and they never change form. So they are “nude” words, or single indivisible morphemes.
Study these examples. The helper verbs are in italics. Kami suka makan di Rumah Makan Kartika.
We like eating at the Kartika Restaurant.
Apakah Ibu Prawoto ikut makan nanti malam?
Is Mrs Prawoto going to join us for dinner tonight?
Maaf, saya kurang pandai menulis dalam bahasa Cina.
Sorry, I’m not really very good at writing in Chinese.
Mereka tidak dapat datang.
They can’t come.
Biasanya mahasiswa tidak mau masuk kuliah pada malam hari.
Students don’t usually want to follow lectures at night.
Saya sudah mulai belajar Ilmu Kimia.
I have begun to study Chemistry.
2. Intransitive verbs.
I suppose you could say that an intransitive verb is one that “looks back” in the sense that it relates back to the doer of the action and not to anyone or anything else. In other words it signi-fes an action that is done by someone or something, but it is not done to anyone or anything. An example of an intransitive verb in English is the verb “to die”. You can say:
“She died.”
But you cannot say:
*“She died her husband.”
Intransitive verbs take several forms in Indonesian. Some are single morphemes, others have prefxes. Some examples of single-morpheme intransitive verbs are:
Other intransitive verbs consist of a base word plus an afx. The most common afx on in-transitive verbs is the prefx ber-, in fact most (but not all) words that have a ber- prefx on them are intransitive verbs.
berjalan, berhenti, beristirahat, berubah, berlibur, bermain, berbicara
A complicating factor here is that sometimes the ber- prefx is dropped, especially if you are speaking rapidly or informally. Compare these pairs of sentences. Each pair has basically the same meaning and both sentences are 100% correct, but the frst is formal than the second in-formal.
Saya ingin berjalan kaki saja.
Aku kepengin jalan kaki aja.
I’d prefer to just walk.
Sesudah beristirahat dia mandi
Sesudah istirahat dia mandi.
After taking a rest she had a bath.
Pada hari Sabtu pagi biasanya saya bermain golf.
Sabtu pagi biasanya aku main golf.
I usually play golf on Saturday mornings.
There are also some intransitive verbs that have a me- prefx. You have already met one or two of them.
Apakah Anda pandai menyanyi? Di mana Anda mengajar?
Are you any good at singing? Where do you teach?
Mohon Perhatian!!
Another category of intransitive verb is the compound intransitive verb. A
com-pound intransitive verb takes the form of a phrase that usually consists of two words. Grammatically the phrase is a single unit that functions exactly like an ordinary in-transitive verb. Some examples of these that we have already met are:
gosok gigi (more formal: menggosok gigi) terima telepon (menerima telepon)
main tenis (bermain tenis)
At frst glance it might seem as if gigi, telepon and tenis are objects, and that gosok, terima and main must be transitive verbs. But in fact the me- prefx that marks subject focus transitive verbs only rarely appears attached to the front of these phrases, and in every respect the phrases behave as if they were intransitive verbs.
Other such compound intransitive verbs are: berganti pakaian
to get changed (of clothes)
mengisi bensin
to fll up (the tank of a motor vehicle with petrol/gasoline)
Compounds involving merasa and menjadi probably also belong to this category. For ex-ample, in the sentence Saya merasa sakit (I feel ill), rasa sakit is a compound base form, and the whole phrase merasa sakit behaves exactly like an intransitive verb. Similarly in the sentence Dia
menjadi guru (She is a teacher) jadi guru seems to be a compound base form governed by the meN- prefx, and the whole phrase menjadi guru behaves exactly like an intransitive verb.
Katanya mereka akan menikah.
I’ve heard they’re going to get married.
Gunung Merapi meletus kemarin.
Mount Merapi erupted yesterday.
3. Transitive verbs
If an intransitive verb is one that “looks back”, a transitive verb is one that “looks forward” in the sense that it signifes an action that is done to someone or something.
You have seen that the English verb “to die” is intransitive. An example of a transitive verb in English is “to fell”. In English you can say:
“She felled the tree.”
But unlike “She died” we cannot say:
*“She felled.”
Actually, verbs like “to fell” are a bit of a rarity in English. As you can see, it cannot be intransit-ive. But most verbs in English can be either transitive or intransitive, and what’s more they look the same whether they are transitive or intransitive. Take, for example, the verb “to stop”. You can say:
“The bus stopped.”
Here the verb “to stop” is intransitive because it is simply signifying an action and it is “looking back” at the doer of the action, the bus. But “to stop” can also be used transitively.
“He thought he could get away with it, but I stopped him.”
In the latter sentence the verb “to stop” is looking forward, indicating that something was done to “him”. So far so good. Now let’s turn to transitive verbs in Indonesian.
In this module we are concerned with transitive verbs that have a me- prefx on the front of them.
If a verb has a me- prefx this indicates two things. First, the verb is most likely transitive (the number of intransitive me- verbs is relatively small). So it has a receiver (often called the goal). The receiver is on the receiving end of the action expressed in the verb. Second, there is an emphasis, or focus, in the sentence on the doer of the action, often called by grammarians the actor. What this means is, in a subtle way, the doer of the action is in clear focus in the mind of the speaker, whereas the receiver of the action is a bit vague. Take this example.
Pak Sukamtono memukul anjing.
Mr Sukamtono hit the dog.
In this sentence it is clear who the doer of the action is. In the context of the “text” from which this sentence has been lifted, we can assume that there has been previous mention of Pak Sukamtono. The speaker knows who he is. He is in sharp, unambiguous focus. But the receiver of the action (anjing) is not so clear. Yes, we know it is a dog, but one dog? ... or dogs in general? ... or any old dog? ... or a particular dog? It is not so clear.
So this sentence has a focus on the hitter of the dog, the doer of the action. The grammar of Indonesian requires this “actor focus” to be expressed by attaching a me- prefx to the front of the base form of the transitive verb.
The transitive verb here is -pukul (to hit). In its actor focus form this verb assumes the form
the /p/ of -pukul and turning it into a nasal sound, an /m/. This nasal sound takes a variety of forms, but grammarians usually represent it generically with a capital “N” (standing for “nasalised assimilation”). So in grammatical descriptions the me- prefx, when it is written on its own, is usu-ally written meN-, where /N/ could be any one of four nasalised consonant sounds, /m/, /n/, /ny/ and /ng/, depending on the frst sound in the base form of the verb.
You have already met and used some actor focus transitive verbs. Study these examples. The transitive verb is in italics.
Saya suka menonton televisi.
I like watching television
Dia akan mengambil uang di bank.
She’s going to get some money at the bank.
Saya selalu membeli surat kabar.
I always buy a newspaper.
Kami tidak melihat Anda di pasar.
We didn’t see you at the market.
Katanya, Pak Hasan sudah menulis buku.
I’ve heard that Mr Hasan has written a book.
Anda harus dapat memakai kata kerja dengan baik.
You’ve got to be able to use verbs properly.
Sebaiknya mencuci pakaian sebelum siang hari.
It’s best to wash clothes before the middle of the day.
The verbs in these sentences consist of a prefx and a base word. The prefx fuses, or “assimil-ates”, to the base word in some way. So the verbs can be analysed as follows.
menonton consists of meN- + -tonton
mengambil consists of meN- + -ambil
membeli consists of meN- + -beli
melihat consists of meN- + -lihat
menulis consists of meN- + -tulis
memakai consists of meN- + -pakai
mencuci consists of meN- + cuci
Some base words that begin with “m” often (or in some cases always) drop the initial meN-prefx when they function as a transitive verb. The most common of these are minta, minum,
makan, mohon, mulai, and masak:
Biasanya mereka makan nasi goreng pada pagi hari. (not memakan)
They usually have fried rice for breakfast.
Boleh saya minta teh? (usually minta but sometimes meminta)
Could you give me some tea? (Literally: “May I request tea?”)
Apakah Anda mau minum kopi? (not meminum)
Would you like to drink cofee?
Dia mulai perjalanannya di Padang. (also fairly commonly memulai)
She began her journey in Padang.
Mereka tidak mau mohon maaf. (usually mohon but sometimes memohon)
They didn’t want to apologise. (Literally: “to ask for forgiveness”)
Dia masak ayam dan sayur-sayuran. (sometimes memasak)
Mohon Perhatian!!
As mentioned above, a number of verbs with a meN- prefx (or verbs that have “dropped” their meN- prefx) can be transitive or intransitive, and they look the same regardless of which role they are playing (like the English verb “to stop”). Some ex-amples are:
makan: when intransitive: “to have a meal” when transitive: “to eat (an item of food)”
minum: when intransitive: “to have a drink”when transitive: “to drink (a glass/cup/bottle of a beverage)” membaca: when intransitive: “to practise the skill of reading”when transitive: “to read (a particular item of reading matter)” menulis: when intransitive: “to practise the skill of writing”when transitive: “to write (something with a pen/computer etc.)”
Of course, when any of these verbs is transitive, it can have a variety of prefxes besides
meN- (especially the prefx di- which you will be studying in Module 6), whereas the intransitive
form doesn’t change.
The meN- prefx is attached or assimilated to the base word in a variety of ways depending on the initial sound in the base word. Let’s review this briefy. Here are the main rules.
1. If the base word begins with a vowel, the meN- prefx is fused on to the base word with a /ng/ sound. For example
-ambil ð mengambil -ajar ð mengajar
2. If the base word begins with the consonant /b/ the meN- prefx is fused on to it with the sound /m/. For example
-buka ð membuka -baca ð membaca -bawa ð membawa -buat ð membuat -beli ð membeli -bantu ð membantu
3. If the base word begins with the consonant /p/ the meN- prefx is fused on with the sound /m/. In addition, the /p/ in the base word merges with the prefx and disappears. For ex-ample -pakai ð memakai -pilih ð memilih -panggil ð memanggil -pelihara ð memelihara -pimpin ð memimpin
BUT NOTE this common exception: -punyai ð mempunyai
4. If the base word begins with the consonants /d/, /j/ or /c/ the meN- prefx is fused on to it with the sound /n/. For example:
-dapat ð mendapat -dengar ð mendengar -cari ð mencari -coba ð mencoba -cuci ð mencuci -jual ð menjual -jadi ð menjadi
5. If the base word begins with the consonant /t/ the meN- prefx is fused on to it with the sound /n/. In addition the initial /t/ of the base word merges with the prefx and disappears. For example -tarik ð menarik -tutup ð menutup -terima ð menerima -tulis ð menulis -tolong ð menolong -tunggu ð menunggu
6. If the base word begins with the consonants /g/ or /h/ the meN- prefx fuses on to it with the sound /ng/. For example
-goreng ð menggoreng -hitung ð menghitung
7. If the base word begins with the consonant /k/ the meN- prefx fuses on to it with the sound /ng/. In addition the initial /k/ of the base word merges with the prefx and disappears. For example:
-kirim ð mengirim -katakan ð mengatakan
8. If the base word begins with the consonant /s/ the meN- prefx is fused on to it with a /ny/ sound. In addition the /s/ sound in the base word merges with the prefx and disappears. For ex-ample:
-simpan ð menyimpan
-senangkan ð menyenangkan
9. If the base word begins with the consonants /l/, /m/, /n/, /w/ and /y/ the meN- prefx at-taches straight on the front end of the base word without any assimilation or “glue”. For example:
-lihat ð melihat -rasa ð merasa -rusak ð merusak
Mohon Perhatian!!
The prefx ber-, which is usually (but by no means always) a marker of an intransitive verb, attaches directly on the front of a base word (usually) without any assimilation or fusion. Here are some examples:
-ubah ð berubah -asal ð berasal -temu ð bertemu -dansa ð berdansa -belanja ð berbelanja -henti ð berhenti -cakap-cakap ð bercakap-cakap
But in a few special cases some assimilation takes places. The /r/ in ber- may change to /l/ or disappear altogether. For example:
-ajar ð belajar -kerja ð bekerja -renang ð berenang
Mohon Perhatian!!
A quick point about base words. In many instances the base word to which you attach the me- prefx can itself already have an afx on it, usually a sufx. Here are some examples of base words that have a -kan sufx on them:
-lakukan
-adakan -berikan-ucapkan -bersihkan-nyanyikan -dengarkan
Sometimes a base word may even have yet another afx on it. One example that has appeared already in the course is the verb memperbaiki (to “make good” i.e. to repair). This is built up from the adjective baik (good) that produces the base word –perbaiki to which the me- prefx can be at-tached.
Indonesian is an agglutinative language in which complex afxation plays an important role, not only in the verb system, but in other parts of speech too. Informal and slangy speech often radic-ally simplifes – even eliminates altogether – this afxation, but for a sophisticated command of the formal language you need to get used to manipulating afxes easily and automatically.
Latihan 1—Kosa Kata Lalu
Jodohkan kata-kata di sebelah kiri dengan terjemahannya di sebelah kanan.
1. memakai a. to help someone, to assist
2. membantu b. to keep (as a pet, domestic animal) 3. memelihara c. to use or wear something
4. menjadi d. examination (in school/academic sense) 5. menunggu e. to wait for (something/someone)
6. merusak f. to become, to be 7. tolong g. please (help me)
Latihan 2—Menyimak
Listen to Sound File 060-01. The sentences below are out of order. Order them in accord
with the order in the sound fle.
Is Mrs Prawoto going to join us for dinner tonight? They can’t come.
1
We like eating at the Kartika Restaurant.Students don’t usually want to follow lectures at night. Sorry, I’m not really very good at writing in Chinese. Are you any good at singing?
I have begun to study Chemistry. He enjoys cooking.
I’ve heard they’re going to get married. They didn’t want to apologize
These children can’t read or write yet. She cooked chicken and vegetables. She began her journey in Padang.
They usually have fried rice for breakfast.
Latihan 3—Base Words
For each word, write the base word. For example, the base word for memukul is pukul.
menerima membuka mengantar membaca mengatur membawa menggoreng membuat menghitung membeli mengirim membantu mengisi memakai menutup memilih menyimpan memanggil mengambil memelihara mengajar memimpin
Latihan 4—The me(N) Prefx
For each base word, write the word with the meN- prefx. For pukul, write memukul.
ambil cari ajar senangkan jual tolong coba panggil dengar terima lihat tutup simpan pimpin baca pilih buat pelihara dapat cuci rasa rusak goreng tarik bantu tulis beli tunggu bawa hitung kirim jadi katakan pakai
Latihan 5—Rangkai Kata
Urutkan kata-kata di bawah ini menjadi kalimat yang baik sesuai dengan arti:
1. “Students don’t usually want to follow lectures at night.”
Biasanya—kuliah—mau—ikut—pada—malam—tidak—mahasiswa—hari. 2. “We like eating at the Kartika Restaurant.”
Kami—di—Restoran—makan—suka—Kartika. 3. “She’s going to get some money at the bank.”
Dia—mengambil—di—uang—akan—bank.
4. “It’s best to wash clothes before the middle of the day.” Sebaiknya—mencuci—pakaian—siang—sebelum—hari. 5. “They usually have fried rice for breakfast.”
Latihan 6—Me(N)- Prefx I
In the space in each sentence write a verb with a properly attached meN- prefx. The base form of the verb is given in brackets at the end of the sentence. For example, if the base word is beli, write membeli in the blanks.
1. Sebelum pergi ke pesta, dia ___________ pakaian baru. [beli]
2. Dia tidak ___________ komputer. Dia ___________ pena atau pensil. [pakai] 3. Mengapa teman saya tidak ___________ surat? [tulis]
4. Ia ___________ bahwa ibunya sedang sakit. [katakan]
5. Tadi ia pergi ke kantor pos untuk ___________ surat kepada ibunya. [kirim] 6. Maaf, saya belum ___________ kursi di kamar duduk. [atur]
7. Tolong, Pak! Apakah Bapak bisa ___________ uang ini? [hitung] 8. Dia ___________ sedih sesudah pulang dari ujian. [rasa]
9. Sukartini sudah ___________ uang itu di bank. [simpan]
10. Pak Bintoro sudah tidak lagi ___________ matematika sekarang. [ajar] 11. Mereka ___________ saya ke perpustakaan. [antar]
12. Apakah Anda sudah ___________ uang dari kantor? [terima] 13. Yulie tidak mau ___________ polisi. Dia mau menjadi guru. [jadi] 14. Mau makan? Baik! Saya akan ___________ telur untuk Anda. [goreng] 15. Mereka pergi ke sana, tetapi mereka tidak ___________ apa-apa. [lihat] 16. Sudah jam sembilan! Mengapa Anda belum ___________ piring? [cuci] 17. Kita tidak boleh ___________ hutan dan sungai. [rusak]
18. Saya akan ___________ pintu depan. Dingin!. [tutup] 19. Apakah Anda dapat ___________ saya? [tolong]
Latihan 7—Me(N)- Prefx II
Fill the blanks in each group of sentences with one of the me- verbs listed below so that you produce sentences that make good sense. There are ten verbs listed, one for each group of sentences. To complete the exercise correctly make sure you have a good understanding of each sentence so that you choose the right me- verb to complete it: mengatakan—memakai
—memukul—mengantar—menutup—menyimpan—menerima—mengirim—menggoreng— memanggil
1. Dalam suratnya ia ___________ bahwa uangnya sudah habis. Tetapi ia tidak _____ bahwa ia ingin pulang.
2. Dia tidak suka alat-alat modern. Dia masih ___________ pena dan pensil. Dia tidak mau ___________ komputer atau HP!
3. Mengapa, hah? Mengapa Anda ___________ anak itu? Saya tidak setuju. Anda tidak boleh ___________ anak kecil!
4. Pagi hari saya ___________ mereka ke Borobudur. Siang hari saya mengantar mereka ke Prambanan. Tetapi tidak ada waktu untuk ___________ mereka ke Parangtritis.
5. Andi ___________ pintu depan dan pintu belakang tetapi dia tidak ___________ jendela. Nah... penjahat itu masuk lewat jendela.
6. Saya selalu hati-hati. Saya ___________ uang di bank. Saya tidak pernah ___________ uang di bawah tempat tidur.
7. Ibu Danoyo sedang sedih. Dia ___________ hadiah dari kakaknya, adiknya, anaknya dan te-mannya. Tetapi ia tidak ___________ hadiah dari suaminya.
8. Aduh! Orang-tua saya ___________ surat panjang dengan banyak berita, tetapi mereka tidak mengirim___________ uang.
9. Anda boleh saja ___________ daging ayam itu, tetapi jangan ___________ sayur-sayuran! 10. Saya masih muda. Mengapa Anda ___________ saya ‘Ibu’? Lebih baik Anda ___________
Latihan 8—Auxiliary (Helper) Verbs
These are verbs that sometimes occur on their own, but more usually occur immediately in front of another verb. They function to give an extra dimension of meaning to the second verb, es-pecially by showing some aspect of how the doer of the action does the action or relates to the action expressed in the second verb. Match each Indonesian word to the English defnition.
ingin to like mau to be good at
suka can, able to dapat to come along, follow
bisa to begin ikut to want
harus to wish/want pandai may mulai must, have to boleh can
Latihan 9—Kata Kerja Intransitif
Intransitive verbs take several forms in Indonesian. Some are single morphemes, others have prefxes. Other intransitive verbs consist of a base word plus an afx. The most common afx on intransitive verbs is the prefx ber-, in fact most (but not all) words that have a ber- prefx on them are intransitive verbs. Match each Indonesian word to the English defnition.
setuju to take a bath duduk to sit, to sit down mandi to sleep kawin to get/be married tidur to wake up berjalan to stop
bangun to go (away) berhenti to play
pergi to come beristirahat to walk, travel, to go datang to agree bermain to speak
terbang to fy berbicara to rest, to take a break masuk to enter
Latihan 10—Kosa Kata
Match Indonesian word or phrase with English defnition.
1. berganti a. to hit something/someone 2. berubah b. to change, to evolve
3. kata kerja c. to receive or accept something 4. memukul d. a verb
6. mengantar f. to send something 7. mengatur g. to fry something 8. menggoreng h. to count something 9. menghitung i. to fll something 10. mengirim j. to arrange something 11. mengisi k. to get married
12. menikah l. to ask someone for s.th. (respectfully) 13. menutup m. to take/accompany someone somewhere 14. menyimpan n. to feel (an emotion)
15. merasa o. to shut or close something 16. mohon p. sad, to feel sadness 17. pena q. to store something away 18. pensil r. feeling, sense
19. rasa s. pen 20. sedih t. pencil
Latihan 11—Grammar Quiz
1. Ber- verbs are always intransitive and hence cannot take an object A. True
B. False
2. MeN- verbs are usually transitive, but there are also a few intransitive meN- verbs. A. True
B. False
3. “Berhenti” means “to stop”. Hence “I stop the bus” is “Saya berhenti bus”. A. True
B. False
4. In the phrase “Saya bermain tenis” the word “tenis” is the grammatical object of the sen-tence.
A. True B. False
5. The correct translation of “Bus berhenti” is “The bus stops”. A. True
Latihan 12—Teka Teki Silang (TTS)
Mendatar: 2. to shut or close sth 5. to hit sth or someone 7. to arrange something 8. to fll something 9. to send something 11. to ask someone forsomething (respectfully) 13. to receive sth 15. to use or wear sth 17. to take/accompany someone somewhere 18. a feeling, a sense 19. to change or evolve 21. sad, to feel sadness 22. to count something Menurun:
1. to store sth away 3. pencil
4. to have one thing replaced with another, substitute 6. to get married
7. to fry something 10. to keep as a pet 12. to become, to be
14. to help or assist someone 16. examination (in school/academic sense)
17. to feel (an emotion) 20. pen
Memakai Kamus Bahasa Indonesia
Aims
• To give more practice getting used to using verbs with the me- prefix. • To describe how most Indonesian
dictionaries are organised and give practice using a dictionary.
Vocabulary Review
Here are some of the frequent words used in this lesson that have appeared in previous lessons. Make sure that you remember their meanings.
jagung corn, maize memelihara to take care of memakai to use, wear menjadi to be, to become membantu to help, assist menunggu to wait
membawa to bring, carry
Rambu di Jalan Raya Bahasa
More on Me- Verbs
Me- verbs have a goal, that is, the person, thing or idea that is impacted on by the action expressed in the verb. Usually the goal is rather ill-defined or generalised. It is something that probably hasn’t been mentioned or re-ferred to in the preceding part of the narrative or conversation. It is a per-son, thing or idea that – if we were speaking English – might be marked by the indefinite articles “a” or “some” rather than the more specific “the” or “that”. Savour the difference between these English sentences.
I’m going to plant some corn.
He harvested rice. I’m going to plant the corn.He harvested that rice.
In Indonesian you can express the ideas in the sentences on the left like this.
Saya akan menanam jagung. Dia memotong padi.
Bagian Kamus di sebuah Toko Buku. This work by JP Esperança is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License
The slight vagueness of jagung and padi (we don’t know precisely where, which, how much etc.) is expressed by making it the goal of a transitive me- verb.
But what about the sentences in the right hand column above? How do we express the greater precision of the corn and the rice, i.e. corn and rice that has already been mentioned, and which is therefore already relatively clear in our minds? Well, one way is to add a definite article like itu that makes it clear we are talking about a certain (say) sack of corn seed, or (say) field of rice that has probably already been mentioned. So we could say:
Saya akan menanam jagung itu. Dia memotong padi itu.
But more usually, definiteness in the goal of an action is expressed through the passive form of a transitive verb, that is di- verbs and me- verbs. We practise these forms of the verb in Modules 6 and 7.
For the moment, it is enough to be aware that, where English tends to distinguish between definiteness and indefiniteness with articles like the, some and a, Indonesian is more complex, tending to express the same distinction through forms of the verb and by positioning nouns at the beginning or end of a clause/sentence, as well as by using markers of definiteness like itu.
As you have seen, English and Indonesian are dramatically different in many ways. But they are also different in subtle ways. The link between forms of the transitive verb (me-, di- and verbs) and the expression of definiteness and indefiniteness is just one of these subtleties.
Forming Transitive meN- Verbs and Recognising their Base Words
p*
pakai memakai “to use”t*
tulis menulis “to write”b
beli membeli “to buy”d
dengar mendengar “to hear”m
minta meminta “to request”n
nama menamakan “to name”f
fitnah memfitnah “to slender”c
cuci mencuci “to wash”v
veto memveto “to veto”j
jual menjual “to sell”k*
kirim mengirim “to send”s*
sapu menyapu “to sweep”g
ganggu mengganggu “to disturb”ny
nyanyi menyanyi “to sing”ng
nganga menganga “to yawn”a e i
o u
ambil, ingat mengambilmengingat “to take”“to remember”r
rangkai merangkai “to join”h
hafal menghafal “to memorise”l
lihat melihat “to see”y
yakin meyakinkan “to convince”w
wakil mewakili “to represent”Using an Indonesian Dictionary
We have referred to the notion of “nude” words and “clothed” words. These are just pop terms for, respectively, base forms and derived forms.
Essentially, base forms are words that have affixes attached to them. Affixes are like pilot fish, they can’t swim about independently in the great ocean of language, but have to fasten themselves to the shark-like hulks of passing base forms. Some affixes work at the nose end (like ber- and meN-) and some only at the tail (like -an). Others always operate as a team – two inseparable affixes, one swimming at the nose and the other riding shotgun at the rear, like the
per- -an team in the word perpustakaan. There are even a few mysterious affixes that genera-tions ago wormed their way into the gut of certain base words and now, like parasites, have a permanent home there. If you cut into these base words you can locate the affixes, like -el- in
telunjuk (index finger) and -in- in kinerja (performance, track record).
Derived forms are those that consist of a base word plus one or more affixes. As we have seen in the case of memperbaiki, some base words may themselves have affixes in them. For example, the derived form berhasil (successful, to succeed) consists of the base word hasil and the prefix ber-. But berhasil can itself be a base word. With the affixes ke- and -an attached to it, it produces the word keberhasilan (success). You should also bear in mind that in certain cir-cumstances most base words can also stand alone without affixes. For example, in certain contexts hasil can stand alone (it means “result”, “outcome”).
It is important to be aware of the distinction between base forms and derived forms, be-cause most Indonesian dictionaries organise their head words, or main entries, according to the alphabetical order of the first letter in base forms, not derived forms. So in most dictionar-ies you won’t find the word berjalan by looking for it under “b”. You will have to identify the first letter of its base form and look for it under that letter. With a word like berjalan there’s no great problem. With words like melihat, merusak, and even membaca, mencuci, menggoreng and many more, there’s also no huge problem. The base word is clear. You simply go to the base word entry in the dictionary, and under that entry you will find all the various derivatives that can be formed by attaching affixes to the base word concerned.
But suppose you want to look up a word in which the prefix has assimilated or “fused” with the base form causing a change in the initial sound of the base form so that it is no longer in -stantly recognisable? In such cases we have to use the rules given earlier in this lesson to do a bit of quick detective work. Even then we may be left with two or more possible base words, so we would have to check out each possibility until we find the right base word.
For example, supposing we want to know the meaning of the word memukul. Looking at the rules given in Lesson 60 we can deduce that the base word is either mukul (see rule 9) or pukul (see rule 3). So we check under “m” to see if there is a base word mukul. There isn’t. So we check under “p” for pukul. Aha! There it is.
In some instances we might have to check up to three possible base words. Take for example the word mengarang. Referring to our rules for the formation of derivatives we can work out that there are three possible base words that
mengarang might be formed from: ngarang, arang and karang. We would have to check each of these in the dictionary. In this case we would find that ngarang doesn’t exist. We would find that arang does exist but it doesn’t have a derivative mengarang. So we would be left with
ka-rang. Under the head word karang we would find a number of derivatives listed, like karangan,
pengarang and mengarang.
Let’s look at some examples of dictionaries. Here is part of the entry for membawa in A
Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary by Alan Stevens and Ed Schmidgall- Tellings (2004).
Compare this with the entry for membawa in An Indonesian-English Dictionary by John Echols and Hassan Shadily (3rd revised edition, 1989).
An exception to this “normal” way of organ-ising the entries in dictionaries is George Quinn’s
The Learner’s Dictionary of Today’s Indonesian
(2001). Quinn’s dictionary organises all main entries according to the first letter of each word, irrespective of whether that word is a base word or a word beginning with a prefix.
Each of the three dictionaries has a unique approach to description of the Indonesian lex-icon. Smith and Schmidgall-Tellings’ has a finely discriminated list of definitions – i.e. possible English translations – for membawa. It illustrates these with a few short sentences and phrases that show how membawa is used in context. It also has information on colloquial variations of membawa, plus many idiomatic expressions containing membawa. Echols and Shadily is dense with information, providing several related idiomatic phrases under each main definition of membawa. Quinn’s dictionary has fewer defini-tions and no idiomatic phrases at all, but it has longer illustratory sentences as well as some information on pronunciation and grammar.
All three dictionaries are bilingual, but Smith and Schmidgall-Tellings’ goes in one direction only: Indone-sian-to-English. Echols and Shadily and Quinn have Eng-lish-to- Indonesian sides to their dictionaries (Echols and Shadily’s is in a separate volume). Smith and Schmidgall-Tellings, and Echols and Shadily attempt to be compre-hensive, covering as much of the Indonesian lexicon as they can, whereas Quinn’s is a “special purpose” diction-ary concentrating on a quite limited corpus of highly fre-quent Indonesian and English words. Quinn’s has a sec-tion in which the dicsec-tionary’s main entries are sorted into topic groups, and notes on aspects of Indonesian culture are scattered through the dictionary. All three dictionaries have interesting introductions. Quinn offers a short history of the evolution of the Indonesian language and an over-view of its functions in modern Indonesia. Echols and Shadily have a detailed description of the sound system (phonology) of Indonesian, and Smith and Schmidgall-Tellings focus on how to find the base word (they call it the “root”) of derivatives.
Finally, let’s look at the entry for membawa in the Kamus
Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI): http://kbbi.web.id/bawa. This is the online version of
Indone-Echols-Shadily (1989)
sia’s semi-official dictionary published by the nation’s Pusat Bahasa (Language Centre), an or-gan of the Departemen Pendidikan Nasional (Department of National Education). The fourth edition, published in 2008, has 90,000 entries.
Even if you don’t understand everything in the Kamus Besar you will quickly see that the three Indonesian-English dictionaries we have looked at are indebted in some degree to the
Kamus Besar. As foreign learners of Indonesian you probably have little choice but to start out with an Indonesian-English dictionary (and an English-Indonesian dictionary too, of course). But languages are self-referential, their words construct meaning only by reference to other words in the same language. So as soon as you can, you should let go of bi-lingual dictionar-ies and graduate to a good Indonesian-Indonesian dictionary.
Latihan 1—Kosa Kata Lalu
Jodohkan kata-kata di sebelah kiri dengan terjemahannya di sebelah kanan.
jagung to keep (as a pet) memelihara to wait, to wait for memakai corn, maize menjadi to help, assist membantu to take or bring menunggu to become, to be membawa to use, wear
Latihan 2—Prenasalisation with
meN-Add prefix meN- to the roots below. Note that meN- may be rendered me-, meng-, men-, mem-, or meny- depending on the first sound of the base word. Note also that initial p, t, and k are dropped. ambil bantu sewa cari obral tolong hafal pukul kirim ralat intip ingat larang dengar datang angkat bayar cegah hajar jadi kenal pasang raba tata titip nyanyi kompas ganti
Latihan 3—meN- Verbs starting with
meng-The prefix meN- is rendered meng- if the base begins with a vowel or with the sounds k, g, and h. Note that initial k is dropped. Some of the words are not included in the wordlist of The
Indonesian Way. ambil katakan hafal oles kirim elak uji hukum gantung gebu
Latihan 4—Identifying the Base Word (1)
Bearing in mind that words in most Indonesian dictionaries are arranged in alphabetical or-der of the first letter of their base words, go to a comprehensive dictionary and identify the base forms of these verbs. For each verb, write the base form. For example, the base form of
mengulang is the word ulang.
menganga menilai mengena menyala memuji mengelak menyimpang menampung mengolah mengantuk menyatakan mengganggu
Latihan 5—Identifying the Base Word (2)
Find the base words for the MeN- verbs below. For example, the base word of mengikat is the word ikat.
mengikat mengisi mengikuti mengizinkan mengimpor mengobati menginap mengobral mengingat mengobrol mengingatkan mengontrak menginginkan mengoperasi mengira menguasai mengirim mengubah
Latihan 6—Forming Transitive MeN- Verbs (1)
Add the prefix meN- to the following base words. Don’t forget that in many cases you also have to add a nasal to ‘glue’ the nasal to the base word.
-bersihkan -terima -panggil -atur -lihat -cuci -pakai -rusak -nyanyikan -dengarkan -bantu -ambil -lakukan -antar -tolong -bawa -isi -buka -adakan -goreng -bayar -hitung -berikan -pukul -buat -baca -jual -pelihara -potong -dengar -bunuh -beli -tunggu -cari -pilih -tutup -katakan -kirim -pimpin -tonton -perbaiki -tulis -curi -ucapkan -tanam -simpan -cium -coba
Latihan 7—Forming Transitive MeN- Verbs (2)
It is important to get used to generating me- verbs and recognising their base words. For the following exercise, type the base word for each me- verb. For example, for the verb
meli-hat, you would type the base word lihat.
menyanyikan mengisi
memakai memilih menanam menulis membaca mengadakan memperbaiki menonton mengatakan memotong menyimpan mendengar memimpin mengucapkan membantu membunuh mengirim mencium membawa menerima membeli mengantar membersihkan mengatur menjual memberikan memanggil menolong menggoreng mengambil membuka menutup membuat memukul membayar menunggu mencari memelihara merusak
Latihan 8—Teka Teki Silang (TTS)
Mendatar: 1. to cut something 4. to read 6. to buy something 7. to wait 8. dictionary 9. to see, to look at 10. to become, to be 11. to sell something
14. to help or assist someone 15. to keep (as a pet)
16. to use or wear something Menurun:
2. to give (something to someone) 3. rice plant
5. to pay
10. to do something 12. to plant something 13. to take, to bring, to carry
Jenis-Jenis Pekerjaan
Aims
• To practise talking about a number of common income-earning occupations.
Vocabulary Review
Here are some of the frequent words used in this lesson that have appeared in previous lessons. Make sure that you remember their mean-ings.
agen agent pegawai staff
binatang animal pekerjaan profession biro wisata tourism bureau petani farmer
dokter doctor polisi police
dosen lecturer senang to be happy dulu used to be sepak bola football, soccer menjadi to become, be tempat place
karyawan employee terkenal famous
kaya rich terlalu too
lebih suka prefer ulama Islamic scholar
Apa Pekerjaan Anda?
Akuntan Petani Tukang Masak Juru Ketik
Shutterstock
Seniman Tukang listrik Pemain tenis Kasir
Insinyur Dosen Pegawai negeri Polisi
Montir Pengusaha Pelayan Pemandu wisata
Tukang kayu Ulama Wartawan Supir truk
Menjadi
In English we have a verb “to be” and a verb “to become”. A quick glance at an English dic-tionary will show that these are regarded as fairly distinct notions. The frst indicates some-thing that is more or less static, that is, it describes, or refers to, a “state” or somesome-thing that is not evolving. The second refers to something that is dynamic, that is, in the process of evolving or becoming something different.
The distinction doesn’t exist in Indonesian, at least not with the same clarity. We have already seen that Indonesian doesn’t have a verb “to be”. But sometimes the verb menjadi seems to function like the English “to be”. Look at these examples:
Ia menjadi marah sekarang.
He’s angry now.
Dulu saya menjadi guru, tetapi sekarang saya menjadi pengusaha.
I used to be a teacher, but now I’m a businessman.
Menjadi can also be used like the English “to become”. Tahun berapa Anda menjadi dosen?
In what year did you become a lecturer?
Tanti ingin sekali menjadi insinyur yang rajin dan efsien.
Tanti is really keen to become a hard working and efficient engineer.
As you can see, menjadi can be used to talk about work. Study this substitution table and practise generating sentences from it.
Pacar saya Saya Dia Kami Mereka Santi mau ingin sudah akan pernah menjadi
agen biro wisata pemain sepak bola sekretaris guru tukang kayu petani pegawai negeri dokter pengusaha tukang listrik wartawan dokter gigi sopir truk karyawan pabrik tentara sopir taksi dosen polisi karyawan toko pelayan akuntan ulama yang terkenal. baik. kaya. pandai. efsien. rajin.
Exercise 62-01
Generate 10 different sentences following these instructions. Each sentence should be in two parts contrasting past ambitions with those of the present. The frst part of the sentence should be generated from the substitution table below (you can add other occupations to the column on the right). The second part of the sentence should begin... tetapi sekarang... and you should complete it indicating what your ambitions for the future are.
Study this example first:
Sepuluh tahun yang lalu saya ingin menjadi guru, tetapi sekarang saya mau menjadi insinyur.
First part of the sentence ....
Dulu
Sepuluh tahun yang lalu,
Pada tahun 2008 saya
ingin ingin sekali mau pernah menjadi pemain tenis, wartawan, tukang listrik, petani, dosen, sopir bemo, pegawai negeri, karyawan toko, ibu rumah tangga, seniman,
pemain sepak bola, montir,
Dialogue: Failed Ambitions, New Ambitions
With a fellow student, or with your teacher/tutor, exchange stories about your work experi-ences and ambitions in former times (dulu) and your work experiexperi-ences and ambitions now (sekarang). Use your imagination to make a stark contrast between the bleak disappointments and failures of the past, and the bright reality of the present and future. You might begin by saying something like this (Sound File 062-01):
ulu saya ingin menjadi petani karena saya suka pada binatang. Saya juga suka
mena-nam jagung, padi dan buah-buahan, tetapi saya tidak suka tinggal di desa yang sepi
yang jauh dari kota. Saya lebih suka tempat yang ramai. Jadi, saya gagal menjadi petani.
Se-karang saya lebih senang menjadi karyawan toko. Saya bekerja di bagian sepatu di toko
pa-kaian Robinson. Saya menjual sepatu laki-laki, sepatu perempuan, dan sepatu anak-anak.
Tetapi sebetulnya saya lebih suka bekerja di bagian pakaian karena saya suka memakai
pa-kaian yang mahal dan cantik. … … … …
D
Notice the word sebetulnya in this narrative. It means something like “as a matter of fact” or “actually”. Tetapi sebetulnya has overtones of “but to be honest” so it is a useful phrase to use when you want to emphasise a contrast.
Now, here are some “kick-start” sentence shells to get you going with a narrative like the one above. Run these options through your head frst and consider how you can complete
them, or elaborate on them, in an imaginative and long-winded way using the Indonesian vocabulary you currently have.
Dulu saya ingin sekalimau
pernah menjadi [occupation] tetapi saya tidak
bisa suka pandai senang mau ...
Dulu saya gagal menjadi [occupation] karena lebih senang bekerja di …tidak suka bekerja sebagai … kurang pandai bekerja dengan …
Sekarang saya ingin sekali mau sudah bekerja sebagai menjadi belajar menjadi [occupation] karena …
As you talk, your partner should interrupt with questions. Try to make these questions as varied as possible. See how many of these (and other) question words you can use.
Mengapa Anda…? Berapa lama Anda…? Anda … … … naik apa? Tahun berapa Anda… ? Apakah Anda…?
Setiap hari, apa tugas Anda di…? Di mana Anda…?
Bagaimana (pekerjaan itu)?
Latihan 1—Vocabulary Review
1. Pemain sepak bola a. Entrepreneur 2. Ulama b. Physician 3. Petani c. Police offcer 4. Pemandu wisata d. Soldier
5. Pengusaha e. Soccer player 6. Sekretaris f. Journalist 7. Tukang kayu g. Factory worker 8. Dokter h. Islamic scholar 9. Akuntan i. Carpenter
10. Sopir taksi j. University teacher 11. Wartawan k. Dentist
12. Tentara l. Accountant 13. Karyawan pabrik m. Secretary
14. Polisi n. Farmer
15. Dosen o. Taxi Driver 16. Dokter gigi p. Servant 17. Pelayan q. Tourist Guide
Latihan 2—Failed Ambitions & New Ambitions
Lengkapi teks berikut dengan memilih kata yang tepat: bekerja—gagal—memakai— menanam—menjual—petani—sepatu—sepi—tempat
Dulu saya ingin menjadi ____________ karena saya suka pada binatang. Saya juga suka ____________ jagung, padi dan pohon buah, tetapi saya tidak suka tinggal di desa yang ____________ yang jauh dari kota. Saya lebih suka ____________ yang ra-mai. Jadi, saya ____________ menjadi petani. Sekarang saya lebih senang menjadi karyawan toko. Saya ____________ di bagian sepatu di toko pakaian Robinson. Saya ____________ sepatu laki-laki, ____________ perempuan, dan sepatu anak-anak. Tetapi sebetulnya saya lebih suka bekerja di bagian pakaian karena saya suka ____________ pakaian yang mahal dan cantik.
Latihan 3—Pekerjaan
Write the missing word in the blank space in each question so that the question fits with the answer beside it.
1. Apa __________ Anda? — Saya pegawai kantor.
2. Di mana Anda __________ ? — Saya bekerja di Gedung Lippo. 3. Apakah Anda __________ bekerja di Gedung Lippo? — Kurang suka.
4. Mengapa Anda tidak suka __________ di Gedung Lippo? — Karena Gedung Lippo ter-lalu jauh dari rumah.
5. Jam __________ Anda berangkat dari rumah? — Kira-kira jam delapan pagi. 6. Apakah Anda __________ menjadi kaya? — Ya, ingin sekali.
7. __________ berapa lama Anda bekerja di Gedung Lippo? — Sudah tiga tahun. 8. __________ Anda belajar dulu? — Di Akademi Akuntansi di Jakarta.
10. Apakah kantor Anda lebih besar __________ kantor Bank Danamon? — Tidak. Kantor kami lebih kecil daripada kantor Bank Danamon.
Latihan 4—Jenis-jenis Pekerjaan
From among the words and phrases in the right column choose one word or phrase to go with each of the occupations listed. Choose each word/phrase just once. Write the
word/phrase beside the occupation that is most closely associated with it.
1. petani ... 2. karyawan bank ... 3. karyawan toko ... 4. dokter ... 5. ibu rumah tangga ... 6. pelayan ... 7. sopir ... 8. guru ... 9. wartawan ... 10. pemain sepak bola ...
orang sakit surat kabar menjual rumah makan taksi lapangan olahraga sekolah sawah uang bekerja di rumah
Latihan 5—Merangkai Kata
Urutkan kata-kata berikut sehingga menjadi kalimat yang baik sesuai dengan arti:
1. “He’s angry now.”
Dia—menjadi—marah—sekarang.
2. “I used to be a teacher, but now I’m a businessman.”
Dulu—sekarang—tetapi—menjadi—saya—guru,—saya—pengusaha. 3. “In what year did you become a lecturer?”
Tahun—Anda—menjadi—berapa—dosen?
4. “Tanti is really keen to become a hard working and effcient engineer.” Tanti—yang—menjadi—dan—rajin—insinyur—ingin—sekali—efsien. 5. “At frst I wanted to become a doctor but I am not smart.”
Latihan 6—Terjemahan
Translate the following words.
accountant animal dentist
to fail, to not succeed housewife engineer a type, kind rich angry to type mechanic public servant waiter, waitress a player entrepreneur hard-working, diligent actually, to be honest secretary driver, chauffeur soldier, armed forces to answer the phone famous
duties, obligations carpenter
electrician
Bapak, Ibu dan Seorang
Aims
• To get more practice distinguishing between the negators tidak and bukan. • To introduce and practise the common second person pronouns Bapak and Ibu. • To practise using seorang: a very common word like the English “a” / “an”.
Vocabulary Review
Here are some of the frequent words used in this lesson that have appeared in previous les-sons. Make sure that you remember their meanings.
halaman yard (around house) pemain player
hati-hati careful pengusaha businessman
karcis ticket ramah friendly
hadiah a gift, a present sama sekali absolutely, completely ilmu kimia chemistry sopir driver, chaufeur majalah magazine, journal tidak boleh may not, can not masih still tukang listrik electrician
memberikan to give sth turun go down, descend
montir mechanic untuk for
More Practice with bukan
You will recall that back in Module 1 you learned that a noun is negated with bukan, not tidak.
Tidak is used to negate verbs, adjectives and prepositions. Review Lesson 11 to refresh your
memory.
In these sentences both bukan and tidak appear. Observe how they are used, especially the kind of word that follows bukan and tidak.
Dia bukan seniman. Dia sama sekali tidak pandai menulis atau melukis.
He is not an artist. He is absolutely hopeless at writing or painting.
Dia bukan montir. Dia tidak bekerja di bengkel.
He is not a mechanic. He doesn’t work in a repair shop.
Ini bukan rumah Ibu Ida. Rumah Ibu Ida besar. Rumah ini tidak besar.
This house is not Mrs Ida’s. Mrs Ida’s house is big. This house is not big.
Ibu Dibyo bukan tukang masak. Dia pegawai negeri. Dia tidak pandai memasak.
Mrs Dibyo is not a cook. She is a civil servant. She can’t cook.
Maaf, majalah ini tidak untuk Anda. Anda bukan mahasiswa.
Sorry, this journal is not for you. You’re not a student.
Kalau Anda bukan pemain, Anda tidak boleh turun ke lapangan.
If you’re not a player you can’t go to the sports ground.
Anda berkunjung ke pulau yang mana? Batam? Bukan! Batam tidak menarik.
Which island did you visit? Batam? No! Batam isn’t interesting.
Mohon Perhatian!!
A noun is a word that names a thing, person or place. Some examples of ordin-ary nouns in Indonesian are: penumpang (a passenger), perjalanan (travel, a trip),
orang Jawa (a Javanese), selat (a strait). There are other kinds of “less ordinary”
nouns, for example:
1. personal names and place names, e.g. Bapak Kamso, Surabaya, Batam.
2. pronouns, that is, words used in place of nouns, especially to refer to something or someone that has already been mentioned. Examples are saya, kamu, dia, mereka, kita and kami. 3. noun phrases, that is, a group of words that doesn’t necessarily have a noun in it but that
stands for a noun, for example yang murah (the cheap one)
Tidak never appears directly in front of any of these kinds of nouns.
They are negated with bukan.
Although tidak is the usual negator for verbs, adjectives and prepositions, in certain contexts
bukan can also be used to negate them. This happens most often when you want to emphasise a
contrast, or when a contrast is implied. Warnanya bukan merah tetapi hijau.
It’s not red, it’s green.
Hadiah ini bukan untuk kamu. Untuk Tanti!
This gift is not for you. It’s for Tanti!
Dia bukan mengambil uang. Sebetulnya dia memberikan uang.
She didn’t take money. In fact she gave money.
So it seems that bukan is a stronger, or more emphatic, negator than tidak, and for this reason can sometimes muscle its way into the negation of verbs, adjectives and prepositions, in addition to its normal function as a negator of nouns.
Bapak & Ibu
In English, basically we have just one second person pronoun: “you”. Except in a few excep-tional circumstances, “you” can be used to address practically anyone at all. In some European languages there are two words for “you”. French, for example, has tu and vous. You use tu when you are talking to someone with whom you are on familiar or intimate terms. It is also often used to address children, even if you are not on familiar terms with the child, or for “talking down” in an insulting or contemptuous way to adults. Vous, on the other hand, is more formal and respectful. It implies a distance between the speakers. It is the “safe” word to use.
Most Indonesians are ultra-sensitive to diferences in rank, age, gender and formality. When two people talk to each other, as a rule the words they use for “you” will refect their view of the relationship between them. Are they social equals? Are they the same sex? Are they roughly the same or very diferent in age? Do they know each other well or only distantly? All these factors can infuence their choice of a word for “you”. Indeed, sometimes even ethnic diferences, or vo-cational diferences, or kinship diferences can play a role in determining one’s choice of a word for “you”.
And there are plenty of second person pronouns (i.e. words that mean “you”) to choose from in Indonesian. If English has just one and French has two, Indonesian has around a dozen that are in common use, and probably more than ffty altogether. George Quinn’s Learner’s Dictionary of
Today’s Indonesian gives 24 words for “you”.
One of the interesting features of the Indonesian language (and of Indonesian society as a whole) is the impulse to relate to people as if they are members of one’s own family. It is almost as if you can only communicate with someone by making that person an “honorary” member of your family.
We have a few remote echoes of this practice in European culture. For example, in the Catholic Church priests are addressed as “Father” or “Brother” depending on their rank and functions, and female members of certain orders may be addressed as “Mother” or “Sister”. Presumably this practice is a manifestation of the idea that the Christian community is a big family.
Similarly, activists in certain causes may address one another as “Sister” (in some branches of the feminist movement) or “Brother” (among some activists for the welfare of African Americans). Again, behind this practice lies the idea that members of a family are close to one another, will support one another and won’t betray one another. At the same time, the use of kinship terms may function to indicate diferences in power and status within a community (as in the Catholic Church where a “Father” has higher status than a “Brother”) or that all members are equal (as in the use by egalitarian activists of terms referring to members of the same generation like “Broth-er” and “Sist“Broth-er”).
In Indonesian, the very widespread use of kinship terms as second person pronouns seems to function both to “incorporate” the addressee into an imagined community or “family”, and to make clear the diferences in status that are perceived to exist between addresser and addressee. Here are some of the most common words for “you” that are also kinship terms.
Bapak, Ibu
father mother
Adik Saudara
younger brother/sister brother/sister
Oom Tante
uncle aunt
and many more.
For the moment you are going to practise use of the second person pronouns Bapak and Ibu, both of which are of very high frequency in everyday Indonesian.
Cara Indonesia
So far in this course we have used just one word for “you”: Anda. There are many words for “you”: Anda is just one of them and is by no means the most commonly used. In fact Anda is a fairly recent invention, dating from the 1950s. It is slightly trendy, a bit formal, and is mostly used among Indonesia’s edu-cated, urbanised minority. It is also widely used in advertising and public an-nouncements. It is the closest Indonesian has to the all-purpose English “you”.
But unlike “you”, Anda cannot be used indiscriminately to all and sundry. That is why it is important to master the use of Bapak and Ibu (and, little by little, the many other words for “you” in Indonesian).
Who do you address as Bapak or Ibu? The fippant answer might be “prac-tically everyone”, but in matters of etiquette in Indonesia it’s best to be very careful rather than fippant. Basically Bapak and Ibu are polite, respectful terms but not excessively formal terms. They are widely used in everyday talk.
The main guidelines to bear in mind in deciding whether to use them are: you should address as Bapak or Ibu anyone who1) is reasonably “mature” in years, say past 30 years of age, or who 2) has some claim to status, whether it be by virtue of having a job/position, or being a parent, or
having an impressive bearing, and who 3) is not on really close or intimate terms with you.
There are many notes that one could add to these guidelines. Here are one or two.
• If you are still young (i.e. let’s say under 30 years of age) you wouldn’t normally address your peers of similar age as Bapak or Ibu (you might use Anda or Saudara, perhaps kamu), but if you are older than 30 in most instances you would address your age-peers as Bapak or Ibu (unless you are on very intimate terms with them).
• Very often, a formal atmosphere or situation can dictate that Bapak or Ibu must be used rather than the more intimate term of address you might use in a more private, casual context.
• In some instances you might address someone as Bapak or Ibu even if they are younger than you are. This is especially common where the younger person has a responsible job or is exercising some kind of authority over you, for example as your teacher or doctor. • The word Anda that we have used so far in these lessons is appropriate in most situations,
but not everyone uses it, and in any case it has egalitarian overtones clinging to it so it wouldn’t usually be appropriate to use Anda to address someone who is a lot older than you or a lot higher in status, and who expects that rank to be acknowledged by use of explicitly respectful terms of address. Substitute Bapak or Ibu for Anda and you can’t go wrong.
Mohon Perhatian!!
You should note that when the kinship terms bapak (a father) and ibu (a mother) are used as second person pronouns (i.e. meaning “you”) they are written with an initial capital letter, but when they are used in their ordinary, referential sense as kin-ship terms they are not capitalised (except at the beginning of a sentence, of course).
By the way, in Module 3 you learned that ibu means “a mother”, but the word given for “a fath-er” was ayah, not bapak. There are two points to remember about this. First, bapak is the
Java-nese word for “a father” and ayah is the more traditionally Malay word. So you are more likely to hear ayah used in Sumatra and among educated speakers or “purists” (which is why it is used in
The Indonesian Way – be grateful!). On the other hand, bapak has been enthusiastically adopted
into Indonesian and you will commonly hear it used to refer to “a father”, especially in Java and among less fastidious users of the language.
Second, ayah is used to mean “you” only when you are addressing your own real father. If you are not talking to your real father, but to a “pseudo-father” you should address him as Bapak.
Cara Indonesia
The use of second person pronouns is one of the most difcult areas of In-donesian. Even the few tentative steps we are starting to take at this point present fairly formidable, prickly, subtle difculties.
If it is any consolation, you might be interested to know that Indonesians themselves often put the choice of the right pronoun into the too hard basket. In fact, very often people will go through some fairly spectacular contortions (verbal contortions, that is) to avoid altogether using a word for “you”, especially if they are in doubt about whether to be casual or formal with the person they are talking to.
You have already met an instance of “you-avoidance” in the greeting Mau ke mana? Other sim-ilar phrases are Tinggal di mana? (Where do you live?), Mau makan apa? (What would you like to eat?), Turun di mana? (Where are you getting of?). A slightly bizarre variant of this, but also very common, is the substitution of the more neutral third-person pronoun -nya for the second person pronoun. Thus you will hear people say, for example, Rumahnya di mana? (Where is your house?) or Anaknya berapa? (How many children do you have), and even Namanya siapa? (What is your name?)
Seorang
In English you can say “The farmer has 30 head of cattle.” The word “head” in this sentence is a special word you use when counting cattle and certain other animals. There are not many such words (usually called “numeral classifers”) in English, but Indonesian has a number of them that are quite commonly used. For example, when counting animals in Indonesian you use not “head” but “tail” (ekor). So if you want to render the English sentence above into Indonesian you say
Petani itu mempunyai 30 ekor sapi.
To count human beings you use orang. Look at these examples: Ada empat orang guru di halaman sekolah.
There are four teachers in the schoolyard.
Mahasiswa sudah datang ... lebih dari 20 orang.
The students have arrived ... more than 20 of them.
Maaf, kami tidak dapat membantu Anda. Hanya ada tiga orang dokter di sini.
Sorry, we can’t help you. There are only three doctors here.
Ada berapa polisi di luar? Hanya seorang.
How many policemen are there outside? Just one.
If you are not actually counting, you usually don’t need to use a numeral classifer word.
Mereka mau menjadi guru.
They want to become teachers.
Sebaiknya Anda bertanya kepada polisi.
I’d advise you to ask the police.
However, there is an exception. Very often the word seorang functions like the English “a” when “a” is used to indicate all the members of a particular class of objects or people. So in Eng-lish you can say, for example, “A policeman has to be careful”. In this sentence the word “a” in-dicates that we are talking not about just one individual policeman, but about a kind of general image of policemen. Seorang is used in a similar way in Indonesian.
Seorang polisi harus hati-hati.
A policeman has to be careful.
Seorang dokter harus belajar ilmu kimia.
A doctor has to study chemistry.
Saya ingin menjadi seorang karyawan toko yang ramah.
I want to be a friendly shop assistant.
Dialogue: Asking Politely About An Older Person’s Job
With a fellow student, or with your teacher/tutor, act out a dialogue in which one person takes the role of an older man or woman, and the other a younger man or woman who wants to fnd out about the older person’s occupation. Sit facing each other rather formally. The younger person will politely address the older person as Ibu or Bapak. The older person will equally politely use
Anda when addressing the younger person. Begin the dialogue with a question that demands the
answer bukan, e.g. …
Apakah Ibu seorang pegawai negeri?
Bukan. Saya bekerja di Toko Laris.
After the older speaker has said “no” the dialogue can then proceed more freely, e.g. …
O begitu. Apakah Ibu seorang karyawan toko?
Bukan. Saya sekretaris di kantor toko.
Sudah berapa lama Ibu bekerja di kantor toko?
Sudah lima tahun.
More questions should follow, all asked using the formal pronoun Ibu or Bapak, e.g. Mengapa Ibu…? Tahun berapa Ibu… ? Di mana Ibu…?
Berapa lama Ibu…? Apakah Ibu…? Bagaimana pekerjaan itu, Ibu? Ibu … … … naik apa? Setiap hari, apa tugas Ibu di…?
