Language Matter
I experienced a funny experience this evening. It happened when I was on my way back from the office. I was looking for a motorcycle service station along the way, when I spotted one on Pramuka street about a hundred meters before the railroad.
Since I was running very low on oil, I pulled my motorcycle aside and stopped just in front of the service station. I was just getting of my bike and was walking up to the counter when this lady approached me. At first I thought she was the owner of the place, that is until she spoke to me.
“Do you speak English?” She said. “Yes, I do speak English” I replied. To make long story short, she and her husband and son came from Saudi Arabia. She said that she is a newcomer in Indonesia and for some reason; she wanted to buy some spare parts for a motorcycle.
The problem is that it seemed that she and the station owner and station worker can’t communicate well enough to understand each other. Apparently she can’t speak Indonesian, although she can speak English. The station owner and his worker apparently didn’t speak English well enough, or so I thought. So she asked me to act as an interpreter of sort.
It gets worse from there because I found out that the lady doesn’t speak English very well too! She kept telling me that she wanted to buy some oil, lamp and shock absorber for a Yamaha motorcycle. I asked her what type of Yamaha motorcycle does she has, because I want her to get the right parts for the motorcycle.
To make matter worse, she just kept shaking her head saying no, no; even though I tried my best to explain that she need to know what type of Yamaha motorcycle that she wanted to buy those parts for. To my disappointment she just kept saying no, as if she doesn’t really understand what I said.
In the end they all leave without buying anything after failing to help each other better. I wish I could do better, but perhaps it is better this way. Although I found it strange that they are looking for a motorcycle spare part at night, not to mention that they didn’t even bring any vehicle with them whatsoever.
Anyway, it is getting late, so lets see you all later!
