By profession I am an Architect, and now a castaway working as an expat in the Middle East, which can be a little tedious and boring and not so exciting. But then I found a new hobby to get out of my boredoom, which is BLOGGING. The idea is to share my experiences and help Indonesian friends who are thinking about or going to be an expat. To try to help them so they will be less shocked and more prepared when they eventually arrive in a far off land.
As I mentioned in my blog (kelemahan tenaga kerja Indonesia) that one of the big weaknesses of Indonesian Expats is their lack of the English Language, so I wrote it in the Indonesian Language. My reasoning was they will understand it better, and more Indonesians will read the blog and be aware of our weakness. Other than that… well to gain more readers, as I don’t have to compete with the whole world, just with other indonesian bloggers….
Even though my English speaking friends were complaining of not being able to read my blog, I continued writing in Indonesian… untill suddenly I realised that as I was working abroad, my English should be getting better by now, but it was my written Indonesian that was getting better. Which means instead of thinking in English more, I was thinking more in Indonesian. So I decided to be a bit of a “snob” and start writing in English.
Like most Indonesian I only learned English in High School but when I became an expat I was forced to speak English 24-7. I am not that confident with my English but thanks to my British partner Keithey is willing to be my beta reader as well as my editor for this blog, not to mention that he will also be the first reader for each of my blogs and at least will understand how my little traditional indonesian brain works. I will however parallel with this blog and carry on writing my Indonesian blog, and that will be the exact translation of this blog only….
Like the title of this blog, this will be about “my travel journal”, as an expat with all it’s “side effects” of cultural shock, exploring, travel, and a lot more….
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I came to your blog by accident since my uncle Google sent me here when asking about City Center Bahrain.
My first impression when reading your blog that I thought you were not Indonesian because your writing in English so good.
Anyway, nice to read your blog,
Keep up the good work.
Donny
Thanks for the compliment Don… as I believe we are getting there…
Haha…kita kebalik…. awalnya saya menulis in english untuk memperlancar bahasa Inggris saya…. tapi….lama kelamaan ada kekuatiran bahwa bahasa Indonesia saya akan terkikis sedikit demi sedikit…. Ngeri membayangkan bahwa suatu saat saya akan lupa bahasa ibu ini…akhirnya saya putuskan ngeblog dalam bahasa Indonesia…. Sehari2x di kantor memakai bahasa norsk, dan dengan suami memakai bahasa inggris…maka blog adalah ajang curhat (baca: nyampah saya) dalam bahasa yang terasa natural