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precise meaning and use of "kurang pinter" I remember when I first visited my relatives in Indonesia as a child with a very very minimal knowledge of the language (because everybody in my family usually speaks German), my aunt's maid made a small remark on my Indonesian skills, saying "Kamu kurang pinter Bahasa, kan?" At that time, I thought she said "You are less smart in speaking Indonesia, right?" and felt quite offended because the maid and I had never introduced ourselves to each other and that was her way of greeting me -___-. I guess looking back, she did not mean anything harmful, but as a 5-year old, I seem to have taken the phrase too literally. Does "kurang pinter" just mean something like "not so well" or "not fluently" if in the context of languages? I would like to know: - in which contexts this phrase can be used - the do's and dont's of using the phrase, i.e. who should or should NOT say this (I have until now always avoided using it because I was afraid of offending anybodyOoooh I just realized I misspelled "pintAr" .... that proves I only learnt Indonesian from hearing, I never saw it written ...
Mar 1, 2015 4:29 PM
Answers · 3
2
Hallo.. Well I think you can use "kurang pintar" anytime but make sure that it's followed by specific object. In this case "kurang pintar" means "not really good at something", and it doesn't seem to offend anybody. For example you can say dia kurang pintar matematika, dia kurang pandai bergaul, dia kurang pintar bermain basket. If there is someone offended by this phrase, maybe he/she is just too sensitive or you are better than him/her in that case, so he/she is offended because you are the one who say that. And I suggest you not to say the phrase without any object.
March 1, 2015
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