Do You Speak Bahasa?

Well.. If you ask me that very question, I almost certainly will answer you with…

Excuse me sir? Of course I can speak language. What do you think I speak with? Rainbow?

Entah siapa yang memulai, pertanyaan di atas semakin marak muncul dimana-mana, entah sekedar literatur, video atau film, dan akhir-akhir ini pada beberapa situs yang menyediakan pengaturan lokalisasi. Di daftar bahasa tersedia, kita bisa dengan mudah menemukan bahasa-bahasa umum seperti English atau Dutch atau Japanese (日本語). Akan tetapi, bahasa Indonesia belum tentu. Kadang ditulis ‘Indonesia’ (normal and preferable), kadang ditulis ‘bahasa Indonesia’ (okay, not bad), kadang tidak ada sama sekali (what a joke! Even Malaysian is there, why not Indonesian?), dan yang paling parah – sehingga jadi bahasan tulisan ini – kadang ditulis ‘bahasa’. Apa-apaan! Memangnya yang lain bukan bahasa?

Yeah, because in Indonesian, “bahasa” means language sir!

Okay then, it’s likely that that phrase also apply in Malaysian. Having some quick googling, I found out the question is widely used in Malaysia. However, I must insist that the phrase is plain wrong, whether you are foreigner, Indonesian, or Malaysian.

Instead of ‘bahasa’, please use the word ‘Indonesian’, ‘Malaysian’, or ‘Melayu’ instead.

Hence.

Do you speak Indonesian?

It is so much better.

Jika Anda orang Indonesia yang kebetulan tinggal di luar negeri, tolong jangan memerkosa kata-kata sendiri. Anda yang tahu kebenaran, gunakanlah yang benar. And if you are not native Indonesian, please understand that ‘speaking bahasa’ is abusive to our vocabulary.