Hi everyone!

I’m back with some stories that I would like to share with you all. It is very important to you to understand, so you would not be surprised or even offended by it. It’s all about expressions in English that Indonesians may use without knowing that it’s actually impolite to say in the English culture.

First example is the usage of Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms.

I learned from my teacher at the school I attended while I was at Australia how to use these titles. But apparently, only a few Indonesians know how to use them. A friend of my mother from German complained about this certain problem while she was visiting Indonesia. She was walking back to her hotel when some Indonesian ‘becak’ drivers called her Mr! That clearly made her angry, but she did nothing and instead told my mother about it.

My mother clearly understanding her problem tried to explain to her. ‘They do not know how to use the titles. They obviously watch TV and found in the movie that foreign people are addressed with Mr, Mrs, or Miss. But they don’t know that only men can be addressed Mr!’ This made my mother’s friend laugh. Now she understands it :)

It goes the same with the confusion of how to use the titles Mrs and Miss for women. I learned that Mrs can only be used by married women. And Miss is used for unmarried women. But if you know that person is already married, then you should call her Mrs. If you’re not sure then use Ms or mam. At least that what’s I knew. My friends doesn’t know and has been using both Mrs and Miss as though it was an equal title in English class. That just shows my educated friends does not know how to use the titles properly, let alone ‘becak’ drivers or other uneducated people.

Second is ‘do not get offended when an Indonesian calls you bule’

Do you know what ‘bule’ is? It’s a term in Indonesian. A slang word actually referring to a foreigner. But it’s used generally for English speaking foreigners. I don’t know how the slang originated. But Indonesians tend to use it often :)

Third is the use of first name.

For example, my name is Ananda Astrini Muhammad. In English speaking countries, people would refer me as Miss Muhammad. But Indonesians refer to me as Miss Ananda. Weird, huh? Well, that’s how it is here. But if you feel offended, you could always ask the person that refer you in your first name to call you with your surname!

That’s all the examples that I find which I think you would all find interesting. I hope you could understand it. And when you do come across it in the future, you won’t be surprised anymore!