Monday 9 June 2008

Greek Coffee

I went to Dhita's room today. She's a classmate who's also staying in Rusun, one floor beneath me. We were holed up for hours in her room together with another member of our group, Lita, to finish our assignment; making a flipchart on coronary heart disease.

I knew that Dhita is very well off and she travels a lot. But it never really sank in until today.

I was working with Lita at her laptop while Dhita was at her own computer, hooking up to the internet to search for materials. At one time, she started reading out loud from a site she’s visiting. A Hi5 profile page I think. I looked at the screen where she was pointing, indicating the thing she was reading. My mind went blank for a second. Are those even words? Then I realized I was looking at sigmas, lambdas and omegas. Whoa, Greek!

Turned out, she was in Greece a few months back, and she can read and speak Greek fluently. I was very impressed. She already knew Greek well before the trip, but didn’t they say that Greek is one of the most difficult languages to learn?

She became very animated then, telling stories of Greece and showing pictures of the local attractions.

Cantik sekali! Pokoknya, kamu harus ke sana satu kali sebelum mati, lho,” she gushed.

To complete the Greek experience, she served me a cup of Greek coffee and some sort of Greek baguette or hard bread. It was quite nice actually (and quite strong. I’ve become an owl, so I’m writing this until I get sleepy).

Oh, how wonderful it is to be able to travel all around the world and immerse yourself in new cultures and surroundings.

Hek eleh… nak travel jauh-jauh belajar culture orang konon. Mau belajar budaya Indonesia aja belum bisa! the devil inside me whispered.

So far, the furthest I’ve been away from home is here in Makassar, and I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t exactly embraced or made an effort to get to know the local culture better. The only Bahasa Makassar that I know is Lekba mako ngandre? and I’m supposed to mingle with the locals throughout my clinical years.

That few hours with Dhita today sudah bikin aku semangat lagi! I should work on my Indonesian tongue, and brush up the other languages that I’ve learnt while I’m at it.

Before returning to my own room after finishing the assignment, I requested the Greeks songs Dhita played for us earlier.

Hahaha! Sudah ku bilang pada mu, Juliet! I will turn everybody Greek! said Dhita gleefully to Lita .




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Lekba mako ngandre" I dont even understand what this means.. hehe.. lg teruk.. i dont know she went all over the world lah~~ tp, rather than greek, I prefer makkah. hehe.. rindu, teringin nak jejak kaki kat sana.. dan teringin nak fasih arabic jgk~~ huhuhu

Unknown said...

salam perjuangan...

> tuan rumah: “Lekba mako ngandre?” apa maknanya???

> halaa: aik??? senior ku juga ngak tau kah?

Hazwani said...

Kalau tak silap, makne die something like "nak gi makan tak?" or "dah makan lum?" cengitu laa.

Ngandre tu makan. Mako tu awak kot... lekba tu dah tak ingat.

Nanti nak blaja lagi dengan ibu kat ramsis :D

Anonymous said...

hehe... seniormu yg seorang ini mmg lemah sket bahasa2 indon nih.. insyaAllah nanti KKN nak bljr lebih seket. hehe... (cemana nak masuk koas nih. haih~~)

Nurul Iman Abdul Rahim said...

Actly "lekba Mako ngandre" tu bahasa Bugis. kalau bahasa Makassar tu mcm ji, mi, toh... so kire dah oklah. Tinggal touch up intonasi n imbuhan kat hujung ayat... jgn risau, kkn akan jadi media pembelajaran bahasa Makassar yg paling berkesan...jgn sia2 kan naa...

Hazwani said...

oo ye ke? Mas Firman yg drivekan kitorang ke Bira ari tu yg ajar. Die kata tu bhs Mksr. Die orang Jeneponto dari suku Makassar. Drive laju gile cam pelesit. Terlambung2 kitorang.

Kitorang pun baru tau dari die, rupanya Makassar tu bukan cuma nama bandar, tapi nama suatu suku. Org2 die mostly di 4 kabupaten termasuk Jeneponto dan Makassar.

 

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