The content of this artifact is a conversation between Arnanto and I. This task was chosen with the goal to develop formal communication skills. It is meant to achieve the goal through understanding how one must address seniors, demonstrating diplomacy by carefully choosing neutral words and probing the complex world of office culture. These skills are not only valuable survival skills but are also specifically relevant to me. This is because the majority of my knowledge about Bhasa Indonesia comes from casual interactions in informal settings. Therefore, by learning formal communication I can best compensate for my lack of formal language training.
I provide a transcript in english of this fictionalized conversation. Upon reading it, one learns that this task is a conversation between myself and my boss. The setting is an office in Jakarta, the political and economic capital of Indonesia. My boss has called me to his/her office because he/she wants to send me to the Singapore office. However, I respectfully decline because I have just settled into Jakarta. Upon learning this my boss offers me a promotion and I say: “Your offer sounds good sir, but for now I still must refuse your offer because my wife is pregnant. Maybe in the future I will accept your offer.”
I evaluate this task to be very successful at accomplishing its objective in two different ways. Firstly, in the process of creating it I learned new words and phrases such as dengan segala hormat (with all due respect), anda (you in formal context) and pak (sir) that are the staple of formal conversation when addressing seniors. Secondly, in the reply quoted above, which was necessary after my boss became pushy about the offer, I demonstrate diplomacy by complimenting my refusal with a reason, crediting his/her offer and adding showing interest in it under different circumstances. However, this task also allowed me to learn about things that I was not expecting. Arnanto and I had conversations about the grammar rules surrounding the use of words kita (we) and kami (our), the prefixes men- and ber-, the suffix nya and the word bapak. Artifact1.mp3Transcript.doc
Comments