Englishized Indonesian

For English non-native speakers, there were times when we didn't know what the English translation of a certain word. We tend to search for its proper translation in our mind before saying it. I guess this doesn't apply to bilingual kids. Even though some of the words are simple where they know their translation already, sometimes they don't bother to do so. You know kids say what they want to say, never mind if the sentence is all English or not, which I found hilarious sometimes.

I'm not generalising this to all bilingual kids out there. At least, this case applies to my friend's kids. They are Indonesian, but have been living in Ireland for years. So, they speak English in daily basis, even though they understand Indonesian because their parents speak Indonesian at home.

I teach them twice a week. Since the youngest doesn't know as many Indonesian words as the eldest does, I teach them in English. Here are some examples of what they said. I call them as Englishized Indonesian. :D (I put their English translation at the end of this article)

"Bunda hasn't come home from kerja yet."

"I already mandi-ed this morning."

"Kakak is still mandi-ing."

"I'm not finished yet. I'm still ngaji-ing."

Unlike English, there's no such thing as past, present, and future tense in Indonesian. A verb doesn't change regardless of when it happens. So, when the kids put -ed to indicate past tense and -ing for present tense on Indonesian words, I found it very interesting. :)

Dictionary:

• bunda: mother
• kerja: work
• mandi: take a shower
• kakak: older sister
• ngaji: learn Arabic, recite the Qur'an

source of the picture: http://static3cdn.echalk.net/www/gadsden/images/%7B636EE5EC-A0E0-4485-8A36-0D8F29C7D2E3%7D/Bilingual.jpg. 

Posted in: at a glance,stories from Dublin