Lepen

            Originally, Javanese people do not speak Indonesia in their daily activities. Otherwise, they have their own cultural language, that is, bahasa krama. There are three levels for bahasa krama. They are ngoko, krama alus and krama inggil. The most polite is krama inggil in which used to speak with the elderly. In addition, I experienced an addition moment in terms of using krama language.

            The last holiday, my best friend asked me to accompany her to visit her childhood village. She said that it was a beautiful village. It had a good view of mountain, fresh air, and big river. It has been 13 years since she moved from that village. Even we have got the home address, I totally had no idea where it was. So, I counted on her memories. Then, we went there together by motorcycle.

           Initially, everything ran smoothly. Both of us enjoyed the trip. But when we have arrived around the address, my friend was confused. “Oh my God, everything is changing! The buildings are everywhere. The only thing I can find the same is only the river.” She said. After that, we saw some old trishaw’s drivers in the edge of the road. We tried to ask about the address politely using krama inggil. As the result, he answered the question in the same way of speaking. He said, “Oh, sampean lurus kemawon, alamat niki ten ngajengipun lepen.” Getting the clue, we continued to look for a building whose name was lepen in which we thought it stands for lembaga pendidikan.

            Time passed by, we still could not find any building named lepen. We rode the motorcycle quite slowly, so that it took an hour. We just went around and around. Yet, we got no clue. Then, we realized that we got lost. Both of us were so tired. Moreover, the sun was shining so hot.

            Finally, we decided to go back to the man who gave us direction. We asked him again. At this time, we did ask him clearly. His direction about the address and lepen really made us look so silly. The thing was, lepen had nothing to do with lembaga pendidikan or other buildings. Lepen is the krama inggil of river! And we have passed the river like a hundred. I personally felt so annoyed, embarrassed, yet funny at the same time.

            In conclusion, I realize the importance of knowing my mother language as well. Perhaps, I am too busy learning foreign language, so that I forget to acquire my own culture.