This is a cautionary tale for those bilingual households…
I vaguely remembered the first time I arrived in Indonesia. At the time, I was 5 years old, and could only understand English. It took me years until I could communicate properly with kids in my school. Although I eventually was able to understand and speak Indonesian, something was amiss. And I never realized it until my late twenties, after I spent some years in the States. It wasn’t until I listened to a recording of myself speaking English and Indonesian that it hit me: I can’t speak either language well enough.

My listening skills were adequate; I could understand most of the subtleties in each language, I could read magazines and newspapers of both languages with ease.. but when it came to speaking them, it was hit and miss. Sometimes I could just talk and talk and talk.. but most of the time, I had to gather enough energy to organize my thoughts and figure out what I want to say. Furthermore, when my tongue has been talking Indonesian for a day, and then you attempt to speak English right afterwards, you end up twisting it and mumbling words, making it very difficult for other people to understand.

Then there was the cultural disconnect from my mind to the other person’s mind. As I said before, I could understand what either an American or Indonesian means based on their intonation, gestures etc. But turns out the reverse isn’t true — when I speak, not even my family could tell whether I’m serious, angry or joking. It’s hilarious!

Well, the first part of the solving a problem is recognizing the problem.. all I need to do now is design a solution; especially since I’m about to go through a bunch of job interviews in the near future.

Tau