Di Antara

The language spoken in Indonesia is called "Bahasa Indonesia," which translates literally as "Indonesian language."  English is "Bahasa Inggris," Spanish is "Bahasa Spanyol," German is "Bahasa Jerman."  You get the point. 

Indonesian is about as different from Malay as Castilian Spanish is from Mexican Spanish, at least in my guesstimation.  There are about 240 million in Indonesia, and another 25 million people in Malaysia, and add a few more who speak a Malay-like language in Southern Thailand, and 4 million who at least according to their consitution should speak it in Singapore (whose national anthem, Majulah Singapura is still in Malay), and you might observe that this is a language family that easily includes close to 300 million people.  Hardly obscure when you consider that the number of people who speak German as their primary language is less than 100 million, and that the number of people who speak Japanese at home is about 130 million, and these languages have quite a bit of hegemony in international affairs.  300 million is no small peanuts.  Or, you might say "Tiga ratus juta bukan kacang kecil."

At least I think you might.  I’m studying Indonesian language, and wish I had more time to devote to it.  I meet with a single classmate and a single instructor two days a week for two hours at a time, and we work our way through textbooks, chat about random things that occur to us, and try to do the Indonesian language thing as much as possible.  I try to listen to BBC’s Indonesian language broadcast while building my own dictionary and studying.  I try and I try.

One of the things I’ve learned is that "Di Antara" means "in between," and this is the name of my blog.  So, for instance, if I wanted to say that Columbia University’s Low Library is in between Butler Library and Uris Hall, I’d say "Perpustakaan Low di antara perpustakaan Butler dan gedung Uris." 

The great Indonesian language dictionary online at Northern Illinois University (of all places) explains that the word antara can also refer to "about (of time) and "in the meanwhile."

Antara comes up in a few places in Indonesia.  The state-run news agency is named Antara.
There is also an occasional reference to "Nusantara" which translates as "archipelago" and has occasionally been bandied about as an alternative name of the country for Indonesia. 

I picked it because I am in between finishing up a semester of
school and heading to Indonesia, and once I get to Indonesia,
I’ll be in the middle of my summer between my first and second years of
grad school.

(With apologies to Mr. Darnielle)

So, this is going to be my blog about going to, and eventually being in Indonesia. It’s been a few days since I was offered an internship in a small office affiliated with the World Bank in Indonesia.

I’ll talk more about all of this, but I will detail my adventures in getting ready to go to Indonesia, and what happens once I get there on this position.

For the blog…