Bahasa Indonesia has some personal pronouns unlike English(on the other hand, my mother tongue Japanese has MANY!!)
I found many Indonesians(especially from Jakarta) are using gue/lo instead of aku/kamu. I know they are slang words in Jakarta which originates from Chinese ones.
So, I'm wondering how Indonesian feel when they are told the words.
How do you feel? and what are hidden nuances of them?
Please comment your impression of the difference between gue/lo and aku/kamu
I grew up in Jakarta. When I was in primary 5-6, my friends started using "gue/lu" to sound cool. My parents prohibited me to, as those words sound rude. As a result, I was teased a lot in middle school for using "aku/kamu" when I talked to boys, because youngsters only use "aku/kamu" when they talk to their boyfriend/girlfriend.
For Jakarta people (at least in my environment), we use "aku/kamu" in these situations:
- Girls talking to each others.
- Girls/boys talking to people who are older or younger than them (maybe around 1-4 year differences).
- Girls/boys talking to their boyfriends/girlfriends.
- Girls/boys talking to strangers.
And we use "gue/lu" in these situations:
- Friends talking to each other.
- Girls/boys talking to people who they're comfortable with, no matter how old/how young they are.
Note: Boys from Jakarta don't really use "aku/kamu" when they talk to their friends because it sounds a bit girlish.
Growing up, I met a lot of people from Surabaya, Medan, and also other cities. It turns out that they use "aku/kamu" more than Jakarta people do, and it's a normal thing for them.
日本人の言語交換のパトナーを探しているので、もしよかったら、友達になりませんか？インドネシア語を教えることができます！ :)
Hi, mochida.
Even as Indonesian, I can't clearly differentiate between those two. I mean, some people I know, if they grown up in a well mannered environment, they still use aku kamu to their friends. So I guess it just depends on where do you come from.
And as you may be already know, Indonesia has their own local language for almost each region. So for someone who already get used to speak with their native language, when they move to Jakarta where all people from every region gathered there, they tend to still influenced by their local language and hardly speak with the language that Jakarta's residents use to speak. So for them, as aku kamu is the common pronoun they found in school when they learn bahasa Indonesia, they still even converse with aku kamu instead gue/elo.
Best regards,
Wirawan
