by: Fida Amalia Fathimah<\/p>\n
Many of Indonesian international students already know and take pride of these statistics: of how many islands we have, how many ethnic groups we have, not to mention all the ethnic languages (which will surprise anyone who asks, \u201cSo what language should I learn if I want to go\/live in remote parts of Indonesia?\u201d. \u201cWell, it depends on where you want to go! We have 500 ethnic languages! I don\u2019t even know what they are!\u201d).<\/p>\n
Outside of those important facts, we actually have so many things that we\u2019ve taken for granted that will surprise your friends from other countries, such as (disclaimer: not all of the facts in this list are useless facts, I just use it to make a fun title):<\/p>\n
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Bahasa Indonesia, our beloved language (yes, I know how ironic it is that I write this in English), has things that set it apart from all other languages. Bahasa Indonesia doesn\u2019t have tenses, which you can joke about as the reason why as a nation we have a \u201cculture\u201d of being late all the time. We also use repetition for plural form, which makes some words very funny (go tell your friends what the plural form of \u201cbutterfly\u201d is in Bahasa Indonesia). But one of the weird characteristics of Indonesian language that can also be seen as socially progressive is how we don\u2019t have gendered pronouns. Some Swedes, for example, have been trying to include gender-neutral pronoun<\/a> in their official vocabularies, but so far it hasn\u2019t really catch on to general use.<\/p>\n With how late the sun rises and how soon it sets on winter months, everyone gets a bit less lively and what another way to bring them down even further than to say, well, where I come from, we get 13, T-H-I-R-T-E-E-N hours of sun each day! And it doesn\u2019t matter what time of the year, we still get that much sun! Because it\u2019s always summer in Indonesia!<\/p>\n Though maybe some of us would prefer not that much sun, because too much of a good thing, you know?<\/p>\n The downside of living in a\u00a0tropical climate is the humidity\u00a0that usually reaches 70-90% of humidity on average which makes the temperature of 27\u02daC feels like 36\u02daC. Maybe it\u2019s an exaggeration, but still, how can anyone live and work outside with what makes your shirts cling to your back after 15 minutes of physical activity and you\u2019ll need to take a shower immediately? It is worse when you live in a coastal area, where the air is so stuffy. I lived in Indonesia my whole life before I came to Sweden and I never understand it either.<\/p>\n Somehow, this fact always blows everyone\u2019s mind. Yes, some Indonesian ethnic groups and families do use family names, but the majority don\u2019t. Some questions that usually pop up, and some suggestions on how to answer:<\/p>\n Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 : \u201cBut then how do you know that you\u2019re related?\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 : \u201cI don\u2019t know, we\u2019ve managed so far.\u201d<\/p>\n Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 : \u201cBut you could have dated your cousin!\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 : \u201cI avoid that problem with not dating at all, ha-ha.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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