Reply to Aida Greenbury

In your article under "Sounding Off" in The Jakarta Post (Sunday, May 30), you said you were "sick of so-called nationalists relaying biased criticism about Indonesian people who prefer English to Bahasa Indonesia in their daily communication" and you maintained that "Bahasa Indonesia is limited, not very flexible, its initial vocabulary is very basic and to catch up with more modern language development, it has derived words from foreign languages, mainly English".

Then you challenged us to translate "The lingering flavor of Caesar Salad Soup in my mouth gave a sensational zest of velvety yet crunchy coz leaves and anchovy" into Bahasa Indonesia and all you could come up with was the "lame" word enak.

Poor you, the "Caesar Salad Soup" (whatever that is, even in English) must have made you tongue-tied in Bahasa Indonesia. (I have had Caesar Salad and soup but never a combination of both). Throw in a bit of "velvet" and "anchovy" (which is stinking dead fish in a tin) in your soup, and you were lost for words (and anybody would, under that kind of culinary torture).

Add "crunchy coz leaves" to the bowl, and you went straight to your computer to complain to the Post (which is a newspaper, not a restaurant or a language commission). And "the so-called nationalists" you lambasted aren't talking about taste buds but attitude.

But I will take up the challenge. I believe the whole sentence can actually be translated nicely into Bahasa Indonesia as enak (or, enak banget, or just enaaak with the smack of the tongue). One word for us (plus a facial gesture) and 22 (twenty-two) words for your Queen's language.

You see, Ms. Greenbury, language is part of culture and is "functional" to that culture only (in other words, what is not needed, there isn't any need for a word for it): so you don't have the word hara-kiri in your language and you can still live happily ever after, because you don't kill yourself that way; terasi is "shrimp paste" to you because you think it is made of shrimp (only) and "paste of one-million dead fish" to the Papua New Guineans (because they don't eat it and don't like the smell of it). In some languages, to express more complicated meanings, they also choose accents, emphases, gestures, facial expressions and other "body languages", unlike your Queen, who always adds another word (and maintains a "stiff upper lip").

ZIAD SALIM Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara Note: "Sounding Off" is intended to provide space for people to express their views -- and complaints -- about a variety of subjects, and thereby stimulate dialog among the Post's community of readers. We thank you for your input.

--Editor