Last updated on January 1, 2019
Contributed and posted by ‘The Indonesian Way’, a textbook for the Indonesian language by George Quinn and Uli Kozok.
Many Indonesians are sensitive about references to their bodies. It is not exactly impolite to talk about another person’s body, but you need to be cautious because the body is not usually a common, casual topic of conversation.
In fact, you can swear at someone in Indonesian simply by mentioning a part of his/her body.Of course we can also do this in English by using various “coarse” terms for certain parts of the body (“You arsehole!”) but you wouldn’t insult anyone if you said “Your eyes!”.
In Indonesian, on the other hand, Ah, matamu! is a seriously insulting thing to say to someone. In fact, you can insult someone by saying “Your knee!” “Your baldpatch!” and even “Your bellybutton!” For your own safety, be cautious about “trying out” such phrases in Indonesia.