Lost in Translation

One of the many joys of learning another language is the regularity for which you can make a fool of yourself. A famous mistake made by an Australian preacher in Sulawesi was in calling Jesus the kelapa gereja. What he intended to say was that Jesus is the head of the Church. What came out unfortunately was his proclamation: "Jesus is the coconut of the Church"! The word for head kepala is very similar to kelapa meaning coconut.

Not too long ago I entered the Hall of Fame for getting lost in translation and making a royal fool of myself. It occurred in the tight living room of a family I have come to love near the rubbish dump. We were celebrating Lia's 12th birthday.* Meldi was already making a funny comment about something that happened at the Education Centre preciously to which I replied: "O pe loco!" What I intended to say was an emphatic response saying "Oh that's so funny!" Instead, in mixing my Indonesian with my relatively poor Manadonese I managed to mispronounce a key word. Thus, in front of around 10 young children, several adults and a few elders I announced: "I'm touching myself!" You can imagine the response. There was a mixture of rapturous laughter and surprised offense. Fortunately I was quick to correct myself and at the same time learn another Manadonese word that I hope never to use again.

To finish this short blog I will cite a final linguistic blunder. This occurred in Bali. A tourist, in a clothing shop wanted to practice their Indonesian. In wanting to buy some underwear they asked: "Boleh saya beli dalam celana?" His request was met with indignance. He had asked: "Could I buy what is in your pants?!" Celana dalams means underwear; dalam celana means inside your pants!

Friends, I hope you're all well. I'm happy to write that I seem to be in the final stage of recovery from a malicious type of recurrent typhoid and am finally motivated to write another blog. For the past week I have grappled over what to write, and instead of indulging in excessive introspection I opted for a lighter tone. The darkness can wait for another blog :)

* Lia is one of the nine students joining our informal education classes. She is by far the most intelligent and motivated student of the lot who hopes to pass her Primary School exam in June and return to school in July after 3 years out of school. She is pictured in both photos wearing a red headband.