My impressions of a country I've never been to - (30 days of Indonesian - Day 2)

I asked too many questions in my first post. Now the comments are so long! I'm thrilled to get such great comments, and amazing engagement from a lot of new friends but I can't ask so many questions every day.

So some days I will write more English to share my experience, some days more Indonesian to practice, and some days 50/50.

Today will be more English and I'll talk about my experience so far.

First I will try a self introduction though!

Sengan Bertemu dengan anda!

Nama Saya Zack. Umur Saya tiga pulah empat tahun. Saya dari Amerika, Kini Saya tinggal di Jepang. Saya bisa berbicara bahasa Jepang dan bahasa Cina. Selanjutnya, saya mau belajar bahasa Spanyol dan bahasa Jerman!
Saya suka bermain gitar. Saya juga suka menulis cerita. Saya punya teman di banyak negara. saya senang!

These are my impressions so far

Please let me know what you think, as someone from Indonesia or as someone who has traveled there before.

I'm still learning basic things about Indonesian culture. I didn't know anything 2 years ago, and most of what I learned, I learned from my friend @macchiata and from a friend in Tokyo. I didn't know Indonesia has the 4th largest population.

So yesterday I spent some time to learn about how Indonesia became Muslim majority. I also learned about the different areas and watched some simple vlogs to see the lifestyle. It makes me want to go there more.

I watched a documentary about Indonesia too but I don't know if I should talk about it...it seems like it might be a really sensitive topic, but it was fascinating. I wonder how people feel about it but I think I should ask them directly, not on the blockchain. I am trying to see different sides and different kinds of people and how they think. There is always a difference between city and country, different age groups, men and women etc. and then variety among each demographic.

One thing I have to remember is that other people might experience culture shock much easier than me. I have spent 12 years overseas in 2 very very different cultures from my own, and I was always strange in my home country so I do not feel shocked or disturbed by cultural difference, but some people have not had these experiences, obviously.

Despite getting a similar feeling from listening to people in the country side, I can't really compare Indonesian people to people in China because the access to information is different. I feel younger people are much more connected to the world via the internet in Indonesia but that is just judging from my limited perspective.

I listened to some bands that a new friend on Tandem recommended. He said he likes indie, so I was excited....his indie is very different from my indie though! I really liked Banda Neira though, Payung Teduh had a few cool songs, and Mawang is kind of a mess but really cool energy.

The thing that made me happiest was seeing the comment section. So much Indonesian hahahaha Sangat Sulit! tapi I'll do my best! I really like the posts of the people who I've met so far. I hope I can make enough time to read more of their posts!

I'm really happy I decided to do this. After I started, I started using Tandem more, and I realize that Tandem + Hive is a language learners dream come true. I also realized we can bring more users to Hive through language exchange.

I wrote a whole long article about it here: A gold mine of potential new users that no one is talking about!

I also started a community that I realized will come in handy for any bilingual poster who wants to practice a language: Language Exchange!

I'm really excited to continue!

I+Everything

not my pic! pexels