I would like to buy an artery

September 1, 2010

(Kirk)

            The hardest thing about this for me is the complete linguistic infantilization this trip brings on. I have at least 20 situations a day that are like my visit to the bicycle store on Monday. I spent 15 minutes in rigorous preparation, memorizing words for things like “pump” and “repair kit” and “tube.” Of course there are many kinds of tubes, and I had to make sure that I was not asking for an “artery” or a “pipe for smoking” or a “tunnel” (all various words I got for translating “tube”), things that would make no sense to the person at the bike store; once I get that down, writing it out in a notebook, repeating it, trying to pronounce everything (I say all the vowels like I am speaking spanish, which doesn’t make me intelligible most of the time. I feel like Inspector Clouseau: “Do you have room?” “A what?” “A room.” “A what?” “For sleeping me.” [this last after frantic consultation of my electronic dictionary] “Oh a room!”). After I carefully prepared my one or two questions, I entered the store and asked “Good afternoon, I would like to buy a repair kit”, I think even semi-grammatically. 

       However, preparing for the question is no help in preparing for the answer, when I am lucky if I catch one word that I even recognize as an individual word, and even luckier if it’s one of the .00001% of Indonesian words that I can actually understand if spoken very slowly. The only phrase I know I’m saying right (after finally getting the “e” sound down for this word only) is “Ma’af, saya tidak mengerti” (the vowel way in the back of the mouth, hovering really at the top of the throat), “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” which is usually the first thing I say after someone answers my carefully prepared question.  Helpless, in other words. As a curious and gregarious person by nature, I find this the most exhausting aspect of this experience so far. I’m working extremely hard at learning – Laura and I have started language classes, and I’m spending a hour or more a day translating a “Lucky Luke” comic book from Indonesian (I can get through about ½ a page an hour…) and then memorizing all the words I’ve learned in class and from reading (I might be the only new speaker of Indonesian who knows the word for “hangman” and “gallows” – from the Lucky Luke book.) It's difficult to know, though, that no matter how much time I spend working at this, it will be such an incredibly slow process. Apparently it will help stave off Alzheimer's, so I'll take some comfort from that, at least.