VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Welcome back to “Mari Berbahasa Indonesia” or Let’s Speak Bahasa Indonesia, which introduces Indonesian vocabulary and guides you to speak in Indonesian language. Mari Berbahasa Indonesia or Let’s Speak Bahasa Indonesia is a collaboration between Voice of Indonesia and the Language Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research & Technology. Today’s topic is“Di Baubau” (2x) which means “In Baubau.”

Here is a conversation entitled “Why?”(2x) which means “Mengapa?”. Chris, a vlogger from Australia, was talking to a tenun (woven cloth) craftsman in Baubau. Chris asked why many women in Baubau are very skilled in making tenun or woven cloth.

Chris (P)   : Mengapa banyak perempuan di sini pandai menenun?

Perajin(W): Menenun menjadi tradisi bagi perempuan Buton. Kami

         percaya menenun akan membawa kebaikan bagi keluarga.

Here are some vocabulary and expressions related to today’s topic. “Why”(2x) which means “Mengapa?”

In this conversation, there is the expression “Mengapa banyak perempuan di sini pandai menenun?”(2x)which means “Why are many women here skilled inweaving?”. In the expression, there is the wordwhy(2x) which means “why”, is used to ask for the reason or explanation about something. The phrase “Bagaimana ceritanya?”is actually asking about the story behind something.

Other examples.

Here is another example of using mengapa (2x) which means “why”.

Mengapa masyarakat Buton gemar makan ikan?  which means Why do the people of Buton like to eat fish?

Mengapa harga kain tenun Kamohu mahal?  which means Why is Kamohu tenun cloth expensive?

Kamohu is woven cloth from Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi. Kamohu is an Intagible Cultural Heritage from Indonesia. On the other hand, there are many variations of woven cloth across Indonesia such as Terfo from Papua, Pandai Sikek from West Sumatera, Ulos from North Sumatra, and Endek from Bali.