Okay so before we even start, I want you guys to know that yes I use the word "learnt" instead of "learned" and both are grammatically correct so don't you dare point that out as a typing mistake haha. The next thing that I want to address is that yes I only lived in Australia for 6 years since I was around 1-7 y/o and some of you might think that's enough to be qualified as "growing up" in a certain country but I'm sure some of you think otherwise. I don't really care but for me, I would definitely say that I did grew up there because it contributed a lot to my ways of thinking and perceiving, etc.
First off, after I was born in Indonesia and I had only lived for about 1 year, my parents decided to go to Australia to study. We flew to Perth via Bali (because there was no straight flight from Yogyakarta to Perth (up until now I think)). We stayed in a small apartment in a place called Carlisle or somethin. And I pretty much spent like my early childhood there.
In 2004 or 05 or somethin, my mom finished her education but my dad hadn't because he took two degrees at that time. In 2007 we decided to go home anyway and my dad would go back to Perth a few months later to continue his studies. It took me a while to settle in and everythin. I went to a non-government primary school and the concept of the school is pretty much like this western school so it didn't really bother me and I fitted in quite nicely. But when I graduated and decided to go to a government junior high school, I started posing a lot of questions. Here's the list I've got.
First off, after I was born in Indonesia and I had only lived for about 1 year, my parents decided to go to Australia to study. We flew to Perth via Bali (because there was no straight flight from Yogyakarta to Perth (up until now I think)). We stayed in a small apartment in a place called Carlisle or somethin. And I pretty much spent like my early childhood there.
In 2004 or 05 or somethin, my mom finished her education but my dad hadn't because he took two degrees at that time. In 2007 we decided to go home anyway and my dad would go back to Perth a few months later to continue his studies. It took me a while to settle in and everythin. I went to a non-government primary school and the concept of the school is pretty much like this western school so it didn't really bother me and I fitted in quite nicely. But when I graduated and decided to go to a government junior high school, I started posing a lot of questions. Here's the list I've got.
- Why do older people in Indonesia demand so much respect but they don't actually give it back to the younger? Okay, first of all, I don't want to generalise here because some of them do and some of them don't. But for those who do, I give you my uttermost confused face expression. In Bahasa Indonesia, there are two different ways of saying "me": "aku" and "saya". "aku" is used for a more daily basis with the people about your age. "saya" is used for official, formal stuff. Sometimes I say "aku" to address myself instead of "saya" in front of certain teachers and they get mad at me for that. The thing is that even though "saya" shows respect to the other guy, it also shows the superiority and seniority gap that both people have. In an education field, I think that it's good to use "saya" but it's not wrong to use "aku" because if somebody uses "aku" then subconsciously, they feel sort of comfy with the people they're talking to. And that's a good thing not to mention.
- Why do Indonesian people worship discipline so badly? I love discipline. It helps you maintain order. But when it gets to the level where you have to be so discipline, you have to follow each and every rule until you don't have room to be yourself, then that's shit. For example, in my current school (and probably every other government school in Indonesia) boys are only allowed to have short hair and they're not really allowed to apply certain modest, trending styles on them. My school said that the reason is because school is a place to study, not to show off. What I'm thinking was, maybe there are some people out there who cares about their appearance only so that they could show off and impress others. But me, I had a hard time socialising at this school and I eventually found out that one of the easiest, most effective ways to blend is to look good or at least better. So then hairstyle comes in to play. You would then look better and people will go easier on you (which school didn't manage to think of (how surprising)). Oh, and not only that. This concept also applies to shoes. You are only allowed to have black shoes for almost the same reason. The thing is, even though almost everyone uses black shoes but some of them use ones from expensive brands and it made this whole rule a complete and utter fail (yet school didn't seem to notice the flaw (surprising, again)).
Those are two of the most annoying things I found about my country and I could only have realised it if I had lived in Perth. Again, I'm not generalising the things above to all Indonesians because I do believe that some are more open minded. I still love Indonesia and by writing this post I never intended to offend anyone. If some of you don't agree with this then it's fine. You could even counter this post with one of your own and send a link to me so that I could read it and we could discuss it together. Anyway, have a nice day to y'all...
Comments
Post a Comment