After a semester of (sort of) studying Indonesian in Bali as part of the Darmasiswa program, I’ve been asked by a lot of people how my Indonesian is progressing. To be honest, it’s not quite as good as I had hoped it would be. That’s partly because my classes aren’t exactly rigorous, and also because I’ve spent a good portion of my time doing other things – working on a website, traveling, showing visiting friends around. That being said, I have reached a decent conversational level, and I was even asked by my teachers to give a speech for our class at the closing ceremony.

This should serve as motivation for any language learners out there, regardless of the language you’re studying. If I can manage to give a speech in Indonesian after just a few months of very relaxed part-time study, then you can certainly achieve your language goals! Of course, I had to ask my teachers (and Google Translate) for a bit of help, but in the end I managed to do most of it on my own. As I tend to do, I included a bit of humor in the speech. Being able to make locals laugh in their language was probably the highlight of the semester for me, as I figure if I can crack jokes in Indonesian then I’m doing pretty good. Although it may seem like a lot, my speech is great for beginners – I’m still a beginner, after all – so here it is in Indonesian and English. I’ll post a video of the speech soon, but for now you can study the text:

Indonesian

Selamat pagi. Bapak-bapak dan ibu-ibu, guru dan teman-teman mahasiswa, terima kasih. Bahasa Indonesia saya tidak bagus, tapi saya bisa coba. Nama saya Sasha. Karena saya tinggal di Bali, sekarang nama saya Wayan Sasha. Saya berasal dari Amerika Serikat. Kampung halaman saya adalah Detroit. Apakah ada orang di sini sudah tahu kota itu? Di Amerika, kota itu disebut Kota Mobil, karena ada tiga perusahaan mobil. Apakah ada orang mau pergi ke kota itu? Sekarang sudah turun salju di sana… masih ada orang mau pergi ke sana? Jika orang Indonesia pergi ke kampung halaman saya, maka mereka akan membeku. Saya senang sekali tahun ini tidak ada musim dingin.

Sebelumnya, saya tinggal di Cina lima tahun. Saya bekerja sebagai guru Bahasa Inggris di sana, dan saya juga belajar Bahasa Cina. Apa ada orang di sini bisa berbicara bahasa itu? Ni hao… xie xie…

Karena saya guru dan siswa bahasa, saya sudah tahu belajar bahasa baru tidak mudah. Sebaliknya, kalau kita coba berbicara setiap hari, kita bisa mendapatkan yang lebih baik. Saya selalu mengatakan murid-murid saya, “Don’t be scared to open your mouth.” Jangan takut membuka mulut. Saya tidak memiliki masalah itu. Istri saya mengatakan saya tidak bisa menutup mulut saya.

Saya senang sekali tinggal di Bali belajar Bahasa Indonesia. Saya paling suka jalan-jalan, dan saya sudah pernah pergi ke banyak tempat, tapi Bali adalah tempat favorit saya. Tidak ada tempat lain di dunia anda bisa pagi berselancar, siang berjalan di sawah, sore lakukan yoga, dan malam menonton pertunjukan tari tradisional. Setelah itu, anda masih bisa pergi ke pesta! Bali benar-benar adalah tempat spesial.

Di Bali, saya tidak hanya belajar Bahasa Indonesia. Saya juga belajar budaya dan gaya hidup Indonesia. Contohnya…

Di negara saya, kami ada upacara mungkin sekali setahun. Tapi di Bali, setiap hari ada upacara.

Di negara saya, satu keluarga naik satu minivan… ini mobil besar. Tapi, di Indonesia satu keluarga naik satu motor. Satu kali, saya melihat lima orang di satu motor. Itu bagus sekali!

Di negara saya, kami makan nasi mungkin sekali seminggu. Tapi, di Indonesia orang makan nasi tiga kali sehari. Kalau saya di warung memesan makanan tanpa nasi, orang itu akan memberikan saya dengan tatapan aneh…

“Tidak mau nasi?!”

“Tidak mau, Bu. Saya bule gila.”

Di negara saya, lampu hijau berarti pergi, lampu kuning berarti pelan-pelan, dan lampu merah berarti berhenti. Tapi, di Bali lampu hijau berarti pergi, lampu kuning berarti cepat-cepat, dan lampu merah berarti berhenti, melihat tidak ada polisi, dan pergi!

Terima kasih semua orang telah mendengarkan saya. Selamat menyambut tahun baru 2016!

English

Good morning. Ladies and gentlemen, teachers and classmates, thank you. My Indonesian is not great, but I can try. My name is Sasha. Because I live in Bali, now my name is Wayan Sasha. I come from the USA. My hometown is Detroit. Is there anyone here who knows that city? In America, that city is called the Motor City, because there are three car companies. Does anyone want to go to that city? Now it’s already snowing there… is there still anyone who wants to go there? If an Indonesian goes to my hometown, then they will freeze. I’m very happy to not have winter this year.

Before, I lived in China for five years. I worked as an English teacher, and I also studied Chinese. Is there anyone here who can speak that language? Hello… thank you (in Chinese).

Because I’m a teacher and student of languages, I already know learning a new language is not easy. However, if we try to speak everyday, we can get better and better. I always tell my students, “Don’t be scared to open your mouth.” (Translated to Indonesian.) I don’t have this problem. My wife says I can’t close my mouth.

I’m very happy living in Bali studying Indonesian. I love traveling, and I’ve already been to many places, but Bali is my favorite. There isn’t another place in the world where you can go surfing in the morning, walk in the rice fields mid-day, do yoga in the afternoon, and see a traditional dance performance in the evening. After that, you can still go out and party! Bali is really a special place.

In Bali, I don’t only study Indonesian. I also study the language and lifestyle of Indonesia. For example…

In my country, we have a ceremony maybe once a year. But in Bali, there’s a ceremony every day.

In my country, one family rides a mini-van (a big car). But, in Indonesia one family rides one motorbike. One time, I saw five people on one motorbike. That’s really cool!

In my country, we eat rice maybe once a week. But in Indonesia people eat rice three times a day. If I order food in the warung without rice, that person will look at me strangely…

“You don’t want rice?!”

“No, Miss. I’m a crazy foreigner.”

In my country, a green light means go, a yellow light means slow down, and a red light means stop. But in Bali, a green light means go, a yellow light means speed up, and a red light means stop, look to see that there are no police, then go.

Thanks everyone for listening to me. Happy New Year 2016!