10 bloody hell years too freaking late chaps!
I'll start at 16 years ago. It was 1995, translation service is a business back then. English was hip, United States has just won the cold war and is experiencing its great times. We studied English like science, it is stiff, numb, orthodox, archaic, textbook, and the tutor itself communicate in heavy accented English, yet near-perfect grammar.
Mid 1990s also saw the dawn of internet services, well not quite, but computer is the next big thing! I was given this brand new Compaq Presario 4780 with Intel Pentium MMX (233 MHz clock speed). That processor was hip at that time. SDRAM had been released recently, my PC has 32MB of it. Hard disk is 3.2 GB, quite big, took years to fill it up with datas and files. It has CD player, and stereo audio capability out of its Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 sound card.
All was okay, but for a 9 years old child, whose first language is not English, learning to use them is quite a challenge. Most people would chose to interact with then very popular, console game machines like Sony PlayStation or Nintendo 64, which although use English as interface language, are more intuitive.
So, after 16 years, or 12 years for most other Indonesians, dealing with all English-based computer interfaces and internet sites, we are more than getting used to it.
Therefore I was like:
WTF is "tautan"? What is "gambar latar"? "beranda"?
Google is the worst offender. I downloaded Google Chrome browser, and they without any confirmation, gave me Indonesian interface! To be able to change it to English, I need to download the language pack. Holy crow!
News update! Even expedia.com now have its Indonesian website: http://www.expedia.co.id/
Although most of the terms used there are sensible, however I must point out another shitty thing about being specifically spoon-fed with your own cultural stereotypes and attempt to segregate internet users: REGIONAL CONTENT LOCKOUTS.
The hell? When I said Google is the worst offender, just try to remember when you are looking for an awesome Youtube video, then when you clicked on it, a message saying that the video is unavailable in your country shows up. Bam! Because you are not opening a computer in a specific geographic location, you cannot view it! Sometimes the content owner wanted to release it a later date, and they don't want people to leak it all over before their grand launch. But sometimes, you will never be able to view it at all unless you traveled to another country and connect to the internet from there.
Look at that expedia.co.id, the Indonesian expedia, they only had AirAsia group flights there. While the expedia.com have everything but Low Cost Airlines. Here is a clue for visitors: why not open AirAsia.com instead? Surely, they will have more promotional fares and other discount offers, while travel agents have to stick with their agent rates.
What we really need:
Surprisingly our government is correct this time. They require consumer goods and "brick & mortar" service providers to use Indonesian language in their products, labels, instruction manuals, agreements, etc. That's what we badly need, Malaysian language, although has been used long before in many international product distributions, are not fully understood by many Indonesians, with the exception of those living in Southern Sumatra area.
Meanwhile, for our younger generations, who seemingly are being fed with broken English by their foreign language-traumatized parents, please keep the English version as default in computer interfaces and websites. The Indonesian language as an option is perfectly fine, it will be even better, if they are not using superficial terms when translating.
My browser's spell checker will keep correcting my British English spellings to the American one, however I couldn't care any less, since the most important thing is that the audience could understand the content. By providing Indonesian language contents, it doesn't instantly mean your company can reach more audience. Another clue: most Indonesians that surf the internet intentionally expose themselves to English as one of ways to study the language.
We are not Europeans, we are proud of our language, it is spoken from Sabang to Merauke. It might sound cheesy nationalist propaganda. But when I visited Timika, 5 hours flight away from the capital and still be able to communicate with the locals, it will surely gives you a special feeling about this language.
While Europeans, having their own tiny country, desperately trying so hard to preserve their own not-so-unique language and culture from each other, only making life difficult for businesses everywhere. Why do I need an extra pages for Magyar, Sami, Suomi (tolerable for Nokia products), Latviešu, Eesti Keel, Makedonski, or whatever it is, for a camera that is being sold in Indonesia? That is a waste of natural resource and waste of cost. Heck, even their total population are not up to the number of Jakarta's everyday commuters.
There is Google in Javanese, as a Javanese, I found that pretty funny. I still spoke Javanese at home and in my family., but the roman version of Javanese is a bit off. If anyone ever wanted to print additional manual in Javanese, please see my European argument.
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