Indonesian
Idioms and
Expressions
Indonesian
Idioms and
Expressions
Colloquial Indonesian at Work
Christopher Torchia
TUTTLE PUBLISHING
Tokyo • Rutland, Vermont • Singapore
Published in 2007 by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of
Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at
364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759 USA and
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Copyright © 2007 by Christopher Torchia
Front cover’s photo © Jill Gocher
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Contents
13. Insults and the Underground
Introduction
Diam seribu bahasa. Quiet in a thousand languages.
A rough translation might be: The silence is deafening. It evokes barely repressed anger, or the haughty indifference of a beauty with many suitors.
Nongkrong. This is a casual phrase, a reference to the Indonesian custom of hanging out, sometimes by squatting on the roadside.
Mengadu nasib. Tempt fate. Countless Indonesians do this, converging on Jakarta in hopes of finding something better in life. Some succeed, many don’t.
These and other idioms offer one
