Yogyakarta
Thursday morning my mom woke me up and said that Dad needs me to go to Yogyakarta/ Yogya(another city in Indonesia, an hour away from Jakarta by plane) in a few hours to guide his business partners from China during their travel to Yogya. They can't speak any English or Indonesian, so they really need someone to help them. The only problem with this is my Mandarin. It SUCKS. But since Yogya is in my list of places to go during my stay in Indo, I didn't mind too much. My brother is also going to accompany me.
As soon as we arrive at the airport, I was pretty disappointed. Why? Because I realized that my Mandarin is suck-er than I thought. I couldn't really understand what were they asking me. I felt like an idiot.
After we arrived in Yogya, they kept asking me questions forcing me to remember all the words I've learned but then forgotten. After a long while, I started to remember a few words.
It was raining so we didn't get to go out and see the city that day. Went to Borobudur Temple the next day. For those of you who don't know what Borobudur is, it is the one of the best preserved ancient monument in Indonesia and it's huge. It's one of the things that we as Indonesians really proud to have.
After a few hours heat bathing in Bodobudur, we went to Sultan Palace/ Keraton Yogya. I wasn't too impressed with this place. Maybe becos it's not really my kind of architecture. Then we continue to 2 smaller temples: Mendut Temple and Prambanan Temple. Prambanan Temple is surrounded by a few smaller temples. Prambanan Temple got hit by the 5.9 Richter scale earthquake about a year ago. The earthquake damaged some of the smaller temples. We used to be able to get inside the temple, but due to the damage we could only look from outside.
So after 2 days being forced to speak Mandarin, I think I'm staring to remember some tho it's still very bad. They were very nice to me. They said that my Mandarin is not so bad considering I only spent a year in China. Glad they feel that way even tho I don't agree.
They only had 2 days in Yogya, so by the end of the night, we took them to the airport and said "zai jian".
As soon as we arrive at the airport, I was pretty disappointed. Why? Because I realized that my Mandarin is suck-er than I thought. I couldn't really understand what were they asking me. I felt like an idiot.
After we arrived in Yogya, they kept asking me questions forcing me to remember all the words I've learned but then forgotten. After a long while, I started to remember a few words.
It was raining so we didn't get to go out and see the city that day. Went to Borobudur Temple the next day. For those of you who don't know what Borobudur is, it is the one of the best preserved ancient monument in Indonesia and it's huge. It's one of the things that we as Indonesians really proud to have.
After a few hours heat bathing in Bodobudur, we went to Sultan Palace/ Keraton Yogya. I wasn't too impressed with this place. Maybe becos it's not really my kind of architecture. Then we continue to 2 smaller temples: Mendut Temple and Prambanan Temple. Prambanan Temple is surrounded by a few smaller temples. Prambanan Temple got hit by the 5.9 Richter scale earthquake about a year ago. The earthquake damaged some of the smaller temples. We used to be able to get inside the temple, but due to the damage we could only look from outside.
So after 2 days being forced to speak Mandarin, I think I'm staring to remember some tho it's still very bad. They were very nice to me. They said that my Mandarin is not so bad considering I only spent a year in China. Glad they feel that way even tho I don't agree.
They only had 2 days in Yogya, so by the end of the night, we took them to the airport and said "zai jian".
1 Comments:
It's so hard to remember a language you haven't been practicing. Did you learn your mandarin in Hangzhou?
My parents sent me to Singapore when I was 9, and even thought I've been speaking the language for a good decade, I've totally forgotten the simplest conversational chinese now that I'm studying in Seattle. Shucks. I don't think it's going to get any better.
By the way, had fun in Yogya?
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