Who cares about Indonesian slang?

Why care about Indonesian slang? Isn’t this the silly stuff of teenagers? Shouldn’t foreigners adhere to the elegant, dignified formal Indonesian language?

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Slang Indonesian is actually the real Indonesian. Following the track of the Javanese language with its four levels based on social class, the Indonesian language has done the same. Just that Indonesian language schools have not adjusted to this reality. They’re preparing their students for the sultan’s palace, not for boardrooms, dinner conversations, or even the national political media.

I went out for coffee in Jakarta with an Indonesian friend from the Indonesian Presidential Palace. And I could barely understand him. I asked which language he was speaking in. And he said Indonesian! This is after having studied Indonesian language for eight months in Washington. And he was at the very tip of the Indonesian political pyramid — the type of people that us stuffy diplomats were supposed to understand using formal Indonesian language tools. At that moment, it was clear visitors to Indonesian desperately needed a slang guide.