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 ...