VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Voice of Indonesia presents Let’s Speak Indonesian, a program that introduces the Indonesian vocabulary and guides you to speak in the language. Mari Berbahasa Indonesia or Let’s Speak Indonesian is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is about “Kerja dari Rumah” which means“Work from Home”.

Here is the conversation entitled “Mengirim Surat Perjanjian” which means“Sending a Letter of Agreement”. This dialog happens when Kevin and his boss Ayu are working from home. Kevin calls Ayu that he has sent her a letter of agreement. Let’s read to the conversation.

After reading to the conversation, now I am going to introduce some vocabulary and expressions related to the topic of the day.

In the dialog, you hear a sentence Saya sudah mengirim fail surat perjanjian ke pos-el Ibu (2X) which means I have sent a letter of agreement to your email. The sentence is used to explain that you do something. In the sentence, there is the word mengirim (2X) which means to send.  It consists of a prefix meng- and kirim(2X) which means send.  The prefix meng- which is combined with a verb means doing activity.

Other examples:

Let’s read to the other examples of sentences showing that you do something.

- Pak, saya akan membaca surat perjanjian itu nanti (2X) which means Sir, I will read the letter of agreement later

- Baik, bu (2X) which means Yes, ma’am

- Kamu sedang apa? (2X) which means What are you doing?

- Aku sedang membuat surat perjanjian (2X) which means I’m making a letter of agreement

In the formal writing, the prefix meng- is often used, particularly in an active sentence. If you read an Indonesian text, you will easily find this prefix. To comprehend and master the use of affix in Indonesian, you should learn the use of prefix meng- and other affixes in a deeper way.

That was “Let’s Speak Indonesian” for today. Hopefully, this edition can be useful for those of you who want to know more about Indonesian language.

Sining dance is considered to have existed in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the life of the Gayo people in the past, the dance was held in two traditional processions: the procession when building a new house, and the procession for  bathing and acknowledging  the king (munikni reje). In the procession of building a house, the Sining dance is danced on wood (bere lintang) that crosses between two foundations with a height of 8 to 12 meters above the ground level. The day before, this dance is also performed on a tray or container carrying food in moving a closer position  to the ground.

Sining Dance is also played when inaugurating or crowning a king. The dance is held in the field or closely to a water source (lakeside). As part of the coronation procession, the Sining Dance is also held annually to the king as a symbol of self-ablution for any mistakes during his leadership. The Sining dance movement is very dynamic and heroic. It is not easy for people to do this dance on wood (bere latitude). Infrequently, the dancers do fasting one day before dancing so that magical-religious elements are also attached to this dance. The dancers of this dance are usually male. This dance is accompanied by mystical and powerful poetry. Sining dance can be described as a beautiful, dynamic, symbolic and an energetic dance which depicts and imitates the movements of the Ungau and Wo birds. The philosophy of this dance is as a symbol of strength, shade, peace and harmony between the occupants of the house and nature.

Sining dance is now rarely performed. It has never been staged in quite a long time. Therefore, in 2017 the Directorate General of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture through the Directorate of Arts revitalized this dance. One of the efforts is to reconstruct the dance based on continuous research and long discussions with the local cultural experts and academicians. In spite of being rarely performed, Sining dance is not considered almost extinct completely, because the elements of the Sining dance movement are still used in other traditional dances in Gayo, although it is not comprehensive.

The government of Indonesia officially opened the Indonesian Honorary Consulate in Constanta, Romania which coincided with the commemoration of the 76th Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesian Ambassador to Romania and the Republic of Moldova, Amhar Azeth submitted a Presidential Decree to the Indonesian Honorary Consul in Constanta, Emil Sirbu. It marked the official opening of the Honorary Consulate in the city on Tuesday (17/8). The Indonesian Embassy in Bucharest in its written statement  received in Jakarta on Wednesday (18/8) stated  that the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia in Constanta City also serves in a number of other regions in Romania, including Tulcea, Braila, Galati , Giurgiu, Vaslui, Vrancea, Ilfov, and Prahova. The presence of the Indonesian representative in Constanta is expected to contribute to the development of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Romania in the economic field, people-to-people contact and other fields that have the potential to be further explored.

Besides, the representative of Indonesia is also expected to facilitate the entry of products from Indonesia to the European market, particularly in the Eastern European region and vice versa. Constanta, as a port city in Romania, is located about 227 kilometers to the east of the Romanian capital, Bucharest. Moreover, Indonesia is also considered to be a bridge for Romania in order to foster relations with countries in the Southeast Asian region. The inauguration of the honorary consulate was also witnessed by high-ranking officials in Romania, including the State Secretary of the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, Mihai Lupu and Mayor of Constanta, Vergil Chitac. The inauguration ceremony was held face-to-face by applying health protocols. On the occasion, both countries presented typical culinary dishes of each country to be enjoyed by  the invitees. On the sidelines of the event, the invitees also enjoyed cultural performances by Romanian artists, including Balinese dance performances, Gamelan, and Poco-Poco dance and Maumere gymnastics.

Students of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Indonesia (FIB UI) created an innovation for learning literature in the form of board games and cards with the theme of Indonesian literature called the Indonesian Language and Literature Game Board (Paman Sandi). This innovation was initiated by Paman Sandi's Student Creativity Program Team for Entrepreneurship (PKM-K). The idea for this innovation stems from their discovery of data from the Indonesian Survey Institute in 2018 about the lack of interest in studying literature in Indonesia.

From the problem, the three UI students got an idea to form Paman Sandi as a non-book literary learning product. In addition to the literary elements, Paman Sandi's product raises the language element which is applied to the questions. This is also based on the inequality of the names of national writers who are better known than regional writers. The shape of this game is like the Uno game card with a shape like a rectangular net that can be disassembled into a board. This game is also packed with 40 literary cards which are the main points of the game.

On each literary card, there are two sides of information; on the front side there is brief information about face illustrations, place of birth date, works of Indonesian writers, as well as interesting facts about the writer. Meanwhile, on the back side of the card, there are three questions about language and related to the interesting facts of the writer, as well as a quote from the writer's literary work. This game relies on the cards that the players get and the system is to exchange cards and answer questions on the cards. Each player is asked to question what card he wants to have with other players, for example a red card from the Java Island. If the player can answer the question posed by the opposing player who holds the red Java Island card, he or she is entitled to the literary card.