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Dear Foreigners, Bahasa just means language

Whoaa... it's been a while since I visited this blog, and now we're already in 2025. Geez, time flies. How are you guys? I hope you're doing great.

Anyhoo...something triggered me yesterday. I saw a thumbnail for a YouTube video and there's a list of the available captions, you know, the list of languages. Among the list, there's the word "Bahasa" stuck in the middle, and somehow that irked me. As an Indonesian, seeing the word "Bahasa" as the replacement for the Indonesian language is stinging me a little bit. The reason why is because IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!

The word "Bahasa" means language in Indonesian. So whenever you use it to replace the word "Indonesian" (language), it looks weird - even stupid - because it only means language. Yes, "Bahasa" itself is already in Indonesian but still not the right way to use it.

Quick Indonesian lesson here:

In Indonesian, the way you want to say a certain language is by using the word "Bahasa" and then adding the country where the language is coming from behind it. So for example, if you wanna say English, it's going to be Bahasa + Inggris that makes Bahasa Inggris. A language that comes from England. If you want to say French, it's Bahasa + Perancis = Bahasa Perancis. A language that comes from France. If it's Japanese, it's Bahasa + Jepang = Bahasa Jepang. A language that comes from Japan. You get the idea. So if you want to say Indonesian, it's Bahasa + Indonesia = Bahasa Indonesia. A language that comes from Indonesia.

This is the reason why you need to be more specific. You NEED to add the country or a place name behind it so we can understand which target language you are talking about.

I'm guessing there are a few reasons why now "Bahasa" is globally known as a replacement for saying Indonesian language:

  1. The word itself is already in Indonesian so foreigners think they don't need to add more behind it since regular people already understand what they mean.
  2. Most Indonesians won't correct foreigners when they're using the wrong term. I guess it has a connection to reason number 1. Most regular local Indonesians don't speak English well, so when a foreigner asks them "Do you speak Bahasa?" they immediately hear something already familiar to them which is the word Bahasa itself, so there's no need to elaborate more.
  3. Using "Bahasa" is way shorter than using the full right term "Bahasa Indonesia". Less effort, less energy, and less space to spend.
But just because it's already globally known, that doesn't mean it's the right term to use. As someone interested in learning a new language or wanting to communicate with local people, isn't way better for us to actually learn the correct way? Why would we learn the wrong way that doesn't even make any sense?

BTW, out of topic a little bit, sometimes I don't understand when people get really mad just because they got corrected to the right way of saying something then accuse the other as a grammar police. Yes, when it comes to language, as long as the people who are talking understand each other, they're good, no matter how complicated, messy, or wrong the process is. But isn't it always better when we all learn the right way? 

I'm not talking about the way of the "grammar police" correcting people. Of course, we still need to be courteous when we correct other people, but the action of correcting itself is not something that people should be mad about. We all need to learn the right way of anything so it benefits us. And again, why would we learn something the wrong way?

Okay, back to the topic. This "problem" might be seen as something so trivial but as someone who understands English and Indonesian well, it is kinda sad seeing the wrong term being used to represent my mother language. If you can use the right word for other languages, why don't you use the right one for Indonesian too? If you can say/use the words English, French, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Melayu, Portuguese, Deutsch, Spanish, Arabic, and the rest of the languages in the world the right way, why can't you use Bahasa Indonesia or Indonesian the right way too? 😭

So my dear foreigners, if you want to say or use the term for the Indonesian language, just simply use "Indonesian". Or if you want to use Indonesian words for it, please use the full term "Bahasa Indonesia". Yes, it will need more effort to say. Yes, it will use more space when you write or type it, but that's the right way to do it. Also, a little reminder for you: BAHASA JUST MEANS LANGUAGE in Indonesian.

For Indonesians, please also make an effort to correct the foreigners when they're using the wrong term. We need to make sure they learn the correct way. Don't get them lost in the wrong one. Mari kita kembalikan para bule ke jalan yang benar 😝

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