Adam
Help with Indonesian story.

I understand most of the following story, except for the highlighted part:


Berkenalan: Pada salah satu pelabuhan laut di Tanah Papua, sedang berbincang tiga orang pria yang sedang menunggu datangnya kapal penumpang, untuk menjemput sanak familinya. Ketiga pria tersebut berasal dari daerah yang berbeda, antara lain dari Ambon, Batak dan Manado.

Sebelum perbincangan dimulai, ketiganya memperkenalkan diri masing-masing,maklum baru saja kenal, sambil bersalaman. Pria yang dari Ambon memperkenalkan dirinya kepada pria yang asal Batak : "Bakarbessy," sambil jabat tangan. Pria Batak menjawab sambil jabat tangan pula dengan menyebut dirinya : "Batubara.".

Pria yang asal Manado ini sambil kebingungan melihat kiri dan kanan, setelah mendengar kedua rekannya tadi masing-masing menyebut barang panas. Tanpa berpikir banyak pria Manado tadi sambil jabat tangan mengucapkan "Air Mandidi."



I am also a bit confused by the joke.  I know "bakarbessy" and "batubara" involve fire and coal, but why did the third man respond "air mandidi"?

Oct 7, 2016 9:16 PM
Comments · 4
1

The "joke" is about typical people names among different ethnic groups in Indonesia. So "bakarbessy" sounded like typical Ambonese name but bakar = burned and bessy= sounded like "besi" = iron. "Batubara" is one of Bataknese tribe family name, but it also means "coal". The Manadonese guy not to be left out with the "hot" theme names, decided to introduce himself as "air mandidi" which sounded like a manadonese name but air = water and mandidi = sounded like "mendidih" = boiled.

Pretty lame joke.


October 8, 2016
1

The "joke" in the story is kinda lame, even for a native like me.

maklum baru saja kenal : 

maklum  : originally means "to be informed" but in this sentence I think the closest meaning is "understandably"

So the sentence may be translated to : "understandably because they've just known each other"




October 8, 2016

There are 2 possibilities:

<ol class="ol1"> <li class="li1">The Manado guy didn’t know that "Bakarbessy" and “Batubara" are real last names of those people. Manado guy just caught that they are saying something “hot” related stuff, so he joined the conversation by saying something that is also hot. </li> <li class="li1">(more likely this one) The Manado guy knew that "Bakarbessy" and “Batubara" are real last name of those people, but it is very common that (which the joke tries to point out) Indonesian people do not want to lose against other people (“ngga mau kalah”); so Manado guy say something that is also hot. </li> </ol>


There are a lot of dialects (not to mention totally different languages) in Indonesia. Mandidi is mendidih (boiled). 

"Bakarbessy" and “Batubara" are real last names.

Air Mandidi is not a last name.

October 13, 2016

maklum , its sound naturally in english "as same as you know"

maklum baru saja kenal,

as same as you know, when people meet others who first met


Batubara, and bakarbessy its sound like name of family.

example : Rose Mc Gowan

Mc Gowan name of family

Indonesian people call it, Name of family with "Marga".


and 3rd person, he doesnt know if 2 of both, say it "Marga" of them.

And he think, they introduce their nickname.

And then, he introduce his name with "air mandidi", which is, actually not a Marga.


October 8, 2016