The activity during SEA
Games had been run fluently. This International event was held on November 11,
2011until November, 22, 2011 but I started to be a liaison officer from
November 8, 2011 until November, 22, 2011. I was PHRI (Persatuan Hotel dan
Restauran Indonesia) liaison officer in Grand Zury Hotel.
The main job
description of PHRI liaison officer were making notes for guest (athletes and officials)
activity and also checking hotel room, Out of order (OO) or not. First, making
notes guest activity, it means that the liaison officer was making notes guest daily activity during SEA Games, it was
like when they were check out, check in, where they wanted to go, and also
didn’t forget to notes the times. It aimed for the liaison officer could know
and give information about who stayed in that hotel.
Second, checking hotel room, the liaison officer helped
the hotel to sell the room hotel, if there was empty room; liaison officer
would give information to administrative PHRI staff. It aimed for athletes or
officials who didn’t get room at the hotel yet so PHRI could help them to find another
hotel. However, I was not only just do the main job description like that but
also gave information about Palembang, become a translator, and help the
official or athlete such as calling taxi, telling hotel facilities, giving
competition schedule and places of venue, etc.
As a liaison officer, I got so many kinds of experiences;
it was because I met many people from another country with various background,
languages and culture. I met not only participants from 11 country, Brunei,
Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand,
Timor-Leste, and Vietnam but also from America and Japan. I found so many kinds
of differences in every country such as the pronunciation, ascent, vocabulary
and cultures, code mixing, etc.
The way how they spoke English were different and little
strange to be heard. It was happened with Thailand people. I heard some of the native Thailand said the
word “Palembang” with unusual pronunciation. They said, “I in Palem-bang
now !”. There was a space between the word “Palem” and “bang”. It was sound
little funny. I also met another tourist from Thailand. I got difficult to
understand what the man was talking about. It was because the man spoke fast
and said the word not clearly. He asked, “the price is diffelent ?”. The word “different” and he said “diffelent”. Another
example about the pronunciation is when I made conversation with pers from
Thailand, and I asked, “After this, where do you want to go, sir?” and he
answered, “I go to Jakabaling”. The
pronunciation is “Jakabaring” not “Jakabaling”. The way how they speak English
is influenced by ascent of their native language. Actually, not only Thailand
people got problem with the alphabet /r/, Myanmar and Chinese people also got
problem with the same word “Jakabaling”. They got difficult to say the alphabet
/r/ and it brought the sound effect of English pronunciation. This term refers
to phonological variation or variation in pronunciation. Besides, the spelling
of pronunciation has the correlation with ethnicity.
I also had another story with a Chinese. He spoke with
his language, I was confused and he asked, “You speak Chinese”. The writer said,
“No sir, we can speak English”. He was just smile and go away without saying
anything. I thought that the man should realize not all the people in the world
could speak his mother tongue. And the important thing is his language not
becomes an international language yet. So he should try to use English as a
lingua franca for the communication with another people in the strange country
or if he wanted to ask but can not speak English, he could speak with body
language like the tourists from Thailand here, he said, “…hotel to Jakabaring,
how long..?”. And I said, “…for two km, sir…”. He could not speak English but they
used body language to ask about the distance from hotel to Jakabaring. Body
language is one of the ways to communicate with someone if we can not speak
another language besides our native language.
Another case is culture. I met some pers from Thailand.
They said, “Could you translate this (show the newspaper with me)?” And I said,
“Yes sir, absolutely”. They asked me for helping them to translate opening SEA
Games news from Indonesia to English. After I finished doing translation, one
of them said thank you and put his hand in front of his chest. Because it was
the end of our conversation, spontaneously, I gave a hand to shake a hand with him
because I thought, it commonly done in Indonesia. We confused each other for a
minute before we laughed together and realized with our different culture. From
the experience, there was a difference culture between Indonesia and Thailand.
In Indonesia, the people are commonly a shake a hand in expressing thank you,
making a new friend and saying good bye like western, but in Thailand, it was
enough just put your hand in front of the chest. I don’t know the reason why
exactly, but it was their culture. But their public speaking is better than
another Thailand people that I ever met. Their question had a
good grammatical structure. As we know that, some social factors are attributes
of the speaker for example, age, gender, socio-economic class, ethnicity and
educational level. This people come from pers so they would be educated people.
These findings match the everyday experience; most people are well aware that
men and women use the language differently, that poor people often speak
differently from rich people, and that educated people use language differently
from uneducated people.
Another example, I met two Malaysian from media. One of
them asked me, “Asalamualaikum, Bise tak bantu, untuk siapkan transport ke media center? And I said,
“Yes sir, I will try to help you, please wait for a moment”. From the short
conversation between Malaysian and me, I can know that when they asked about
something, they always say “Asalamualaikum” before. It can be influenced by
their religion as also their culture. Although most of Indonesian’s religion
are Muslim but it is very seldom to find the people that said like that. Most
of us just say excuse me or etc. And then from the conversation, I also found
Malaysian used two languages in his question, melayu and English “transport”. It means that he used a code mixing
in daily conversation.
The next example, I met a woman from firework team
America. She often wore hot pants when she wanted to go out from the hotel. It
contrasts with Indonesia society. For most of our society especially who keep
tradition culture if there is a woman who wears hot pants, it will be impolite
and negative image. But for American, it is not a big problem. I also met
another firework team from America. There was a doorman wanted to help him to
take his briefcase but he said, “No, I got it !”. He more chose to bring his
briefcase himself and rejected the doorman who wanted to help him to bring it. It
was very different with the guest that I ever met at hotel especially from
Indonesia. Most of them never rejected the doorman to bring their bag or else.
It means that the culture of western which doesn’t need help if he can do it by
himself.
I also met observer from Myanmar. He asked, “Why most of
the ladies here use something in their teeth?”. “Something” means “kawat gigi”.
And I said, “…. Most of people use it just for fashion or to repair their
teeth”. And then he also asked me, why my friend and I looked different. My
friend used veil but I was not. He was very curious about it. It is because in
Myanmar there is nobody used veil. But he didn’t force us to answer his
question. He knew that it was about concept of life and he appreciated it. This
person, Myanmar official is one of the people that have a good public speaking
beside Thailand people that I ever met. Every his question had
a good grammatical structure. Like I said before, some social factors are
attributes of the speaker for example, age, gender, socio-economic class,
ethnicity and educational level. He is one of a Geology professor at one of
Myanmar University so he is educated person.
And the last, I looked at the conversation between two
men from Malaysian. Although they were from Malaysian but they looked
different. The first man like India and second man like western. First man
asked to the second man, “… After this, kite ke sport center?”. He used two
languages in his question, Melayu and English “After this”. It means that he
use a code mixing between Melayu and English. They also spoke Malay language
but different ascent. The first man used India ascent but the second man was
not use Malay ascent. The way of they speak is probably influenced by the
ascent of their tribe.
I also
found another differences about the meaning of vocabulary between Indonesia and
Malaysia. Both of the country actually has the same basic language. It is a Melayu
but it has different meaning. For example, I met tourists from Malaysia. She
asked “Ade match program tak?” and I just said “ Oh..Iya” and after I gave it,
she asked me once again, she said, “Pacuma ?”. I confused and she repeated
again with gesture. Finally, I understood that “Pacuma” means “untuk saya” in
bahasa. Actually, the word “Pacuma” has a little same pronunciation with
“Percuma” in Bahasa but it has different meaning. Body language or gesture in
here very helps me to understand the meaning of the word. She also used code
mixing because there were two languages in her question, English “match
program” and Malayu.
Another
example, the observer from Malaysian told to my friend. And he said, “…Ayu ni
comel…”. My friend just laughed to hear that. Actually she didn’t know about
the meaning “comel” exactly. “Comel” in bahasa means talk active while in
Malaysia “comel” means beautiful. So it means that it has different meaning, in
Malaysia the word comel has a
positive meaning while in Indonesia, it has negative meaning so the meaning of
vocabulary itself depend on the country.
