Indonesians vs. Jakarta Expats
Jul 14th, 2008, in Society, by Guest Writer
Hans takes a pictorial look at differences between Indonesians in Jakarta and their western guests.
East vs. West, Orang Indonesia vs. Orang Bule
Yang Liu is a Beijing-born artist residing in Germany. One of her works, Ost trifft West, depicts cultural differences between the Chinese and Germans through amusing infographics, which also hold true remarkably well for differences between the East and the West in general. Including our beloved country Indonesia? Yes, but not entirely either.
According to Geert Hofstede, an international authority on cultural differences, the Indonesian culture can be characterized by high levels of power inequality, low tolerance for uncertainty, and collectivism, while most Western cultures generally exhibit the opposite.
Inspired by Liu’s artwork, I’ve discovered the following, humorous differences between Indonesians and ‘foreigners’ (orang bule).
Skincare
Where to go in Jakarta?
Yes or no, atau tidak?
Daily newspaper
Favourite fruit
Can you think of any other differences between Indonesians and foreigners? Share them in the comments!
104 Comments on “Indonesians vs. Jakarta Expats”
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Odinius says:
“Cousin Feb” is currently dating a bule who keeps trying to replace her durian with limburger 😉
Yes i’m joking. Just thought that name was very funny…made up names make me laugh the world over, from D’Brickashaw Ferguson to Batman bin Suparman!
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Teng says:
mm.. the link wont work.. i’ll try it again. Stuff Indonesians Like Blog.
That was simply awesome Rima… that blog made me laugh really hard. So much truth in it.
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@Teng: you are most welcome!
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Here is some more:
Indonesians: cover themselves with towel in the gym locker room
Bule: walk around naked in the gym locker room -
Lairedion says:
rima, thanks for the link. I bookmarked the page. That article is so true. Oh and btw I happen to be an Indo (Dutch mother, Indonesian (Jawa/Manado) father). 🙂
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lairedion: me too. dad arabic/acehnese mom sundanese/dutch.. lol
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Philips says:
I can see Aluang Anak Bayang as dangerous kind of non tolerant human. Aluang, your comments are not helpful in building peaceful society. This forum should be used to promote understanding instead of attacking one another, there is no end to this kind of smearing. This applies to both Eastern/Western. Note: each race has its own flaw. If we can not admit that than we are just as bad as those who point finger, if not worse.
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Patrick says:
Here’s a great visual and I hope not offensive to anyone:
Orang bules do their business on a seat
Orang Indonesians do their business squatting from their feet
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Another image of the same thing would be:
Orang bule roll of paper
Orang Indonesia bucket of waterAgain so sorry if anyone is offended!
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timdog says:
@ Patrick – that’s actually the first one that is genuinely funny – and which comes close to being genuinely true… how would you do the picture though?
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@ Timdog – Thanks for the compliment and I am happy that you thought it was funny! You don’t think a roll of toilet paper in 1 frame and a bucket in the next frame will do it huh? Ok how about a polar bear sitting on a toilet reading the Jakarta post for the 1st frame and how about a Sun bear (found in Indonesia) squatting and reading Compass for the 2nd frame? No good? Oh well, I was always a better word-smith than artist! :>)
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rima said:
lairedion: me too. dad arabic/acehnese mom sundanese/dutch.. lol
To me you are the true Queen of Brussels, regardless what will happen with Belgium in the future. 😎
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dewaratugedeanom says:
@ rima & Lairedion
Both of you may become part of the reunited ‘Vereenigde Nederlanden’? What’s your opinion?
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@ dewa
Well I’m from Holland too so I might give an answer. That will not likely happen. I think almost 50% of the Dutch would like it, but a huge majority of the Belgians do NOT want to be reunited with the Netherlands hehe. They think we are arrogant (there could be some truth in that as some Dutch tend to look down a bit on Belgians)
The reunification is only support (politically wise that is) by far right parties (both Belgium as Holland) Our good friend Geert Wilders is very pro-reunification 😉
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Achmad Sudarsono says:
Teng,
I notice your silence on the brutal colonization of Indonesia by the Dutch for 300 years. In all your posts, you’ve skirted around the issues. The most important one, of course, is the payment of reparations for colonization. My suggestion is that any Dutch citizen who wants to talk about human rights should start by making payments to Indonesia through Paypal.
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Let me guess, you are volunteering for managing that PayPal account 😉
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No. The money should go to the budget, to clean up the mess the Dutch left behind. Once again, your silence is deafening.
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I have wrote this about it in the topic actually concerning it:
However all this does not hide the fact the Dutch government should indeed apologize. For the colonisation in general, and the atrocities that happened during the 1st and 2nd war in particular. It is a deep black page in Dutch history.
Compensation will probably be impossible, because of the ramifications it would have like you said.
I don’t see why it’s nescessairy for me to comment on Dutch compensation in a topic (which was meant to be funny) about Indonesians, vs Jakarta Expats just because I am Dutch.
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Ok. We can continue another time. Until then, I leave you to those black bicycles, boiled cabbage, and high-THC cannibis.
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I assume Indonesia’s PayPal account is set to automatically deduct 75% of reparations income to Timor Leste’s?
Re-gifting boiled cabbage might not be acceptable though 😉
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Odinius,
As a pendekar, or pencak silat master, and poet, I must uphold the purity of language appeal to everyone to leave inventing new words to George W. Bush.
“Gifting,” is as bad as using impact as an adjective, “how this impacts you,” when it is a bloody noun, i.e., “what is the impact on you.”
There’s already a perfectly good word in English for the act of bestowing something on someone else — giving.
Yes, compadre ?
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Dear Master of Pencak Silat,
Language evolves naturally. In oral cultures, it evolves rapidly. The written word slows the process, yet it continues to evolve. How else to describe such wonders of linguistic evolution as “alphanumeric,” “email” and “high fructose corn syrup?”
Note: Timor Leste will accept payment in high fructose corn syrup.
Regards,
Odinius, Latinized King of Asgard
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Dear Odinius,
All sorts of things evolve, including bacteria and single-celled organisms. And yes, it’s always a tricky, subjective issue when it comes to changes in language.
But I invoke my aesthetic credibility as a poet and pencak silat master to assert: we just have no need for “gifted,” when we have “given.”
It’s like those annoying people in the office who say, “action that,” or “I’ll action that.” It’s like those pejabat who hoick their trousers up to just underneath their rib cages. There’s no law against it. It’s just wrong.
Yes, language evolves. But we have to set standards, however arbitrary, or else everyone will be saying things like “misunderestimate” like Dubya.
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Achmad said
The most important one, of course, is the payment of reparations for colonization. My suggestion is that any Dutch citizen who wants to talk about human rights should start by making payments to Indonesia through Paypal.
It seems Belgium has also been colonized by the Dutch in the past, therefore the Belgians should also demand payment of reparations. That will teach them a lesson. They can start with free supplies of Edammer cheese and tulips.
Back to topic now.
Someone makes a mistake on the road and almost causes a traffic accident. What happens next is:
Orang Bule 🙁
Orang Indonesia 🙂 -
Dear Achmad,
Yes, of course “newspeak” can be annoying. I particularly hate “grow your business,” but mostly because I think the metaphor of business-as-a-bacterial-culture is strange. However, in this case, “gift” is quite properly a transitive verb, and has been since 1550:
Main Entry:
2gift
Function:
transitive verb
Date:
circa 1550
1 : to endow with some power, quality, or attribute
2 : present
— gift·ee \?gif-?t?\ nounRegards,
Odinius
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Odin,
Yes, gift.
He was given a gift.
He was gifted a gift just sounds bad.
As first mentioned, language evolves, and it’s a bit fascist to proclaim hard-and-fast rules. All grammar is really just convention, deep down.
But some know better than others, my friend, and as a ukuele-playing, teh-poci-drinking-poet that is me !
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The example above is as a transitive verb form.
But maybe it’s time to make this relevant:
orang indonesia gives gifts
orang bule gifts😉
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No. Gives much more common than gifted. Giftedwas used in the film version of Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien would never have cheapened the language by using it.
Comment on “Indonesians vs. Jakarta Expats”.
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Hans,
btw I know these books well.
My conclusion is that behind the “differences” you can see the similarities. 🙂
What about sense of humour? I thinks there is/are also exciting and funny diffenernce(s).