Every once in a while, there are things that are just so funny you just can’t help but to laugh. Perhaps because of their absurdity. Perhaps because of their simplicity. Recently, I have found something that I would like to share with all of you; something that I personally found to be quite hilarious.

It is what I like to call “Sundanese English.” As it turns out, there are a lot of words in Sundanese vocabulary, whether they are describing general things or specific stuff like the name of places, when translated directly into English resulted into some hilarious choices of words. If you read on, just think of it as a fun way to add some words into your Sundanese vocabulary.

Here are the names of various places in Bandung translated directly and literally to English.

Jalan Merdeka: Independence Street. Cibeureum: Red Water. Kebon Kelapa: Coconut Garden. Buah Batu: Stone Fruit. Cisarua: Same Water. Cimahi: Enough Water. Leuwipanjang: A long lake. Purnawarman: Warman is dead.
Padalarang: Everything is forbidden. Ciamis: Stink Water. Cirebon: Shrimp Water. Margahayu: Let’s go family!. Cikudapateuh: Broken Horse Water.

I can go on and on and on about many other interesting names, but let’s stop here

Aside from the names of places that are quite funny when translated directly into English, Sundanese (or perhaps, to be more accurate, Bandung people) like to use their own version of bastardized English when they want to speak about general things in English. In fact, some of the idioms generated from this habit are quite popular; for example: “Tararenkyu”, which is Bandung’s version of “Thank You.” (in Sundanese, it’s “Hatur Nuhun”)

Here are some idioms used by people that I know when they want to speak English decidedly influenced by Sundanese flavor–some of them are quite hilarious:

1. “Ow hot I don’t know!”, when in proper English it translates into “Ouch! It’s hot!”

2. “Have no money sa silver-silver not yet,” which basically translates to “I don’t have any money” in Indonesian.

3. “Funny Stupid Man,” which basically means “Crazy man.”

I think I should stop now, because the supply for crazy English in Sundanese is just limitless, and if I continue on this is going to be an extremely long post, hahaha.

Tags: Bandung Culture, English, Funny, Language, Sunda, Sundanese
Categories: Bandung Culture

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 AM and is filed under Bandung Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.